Grapegrower & Winemaker - October 2016 by Provincial Press Group

OCTOBER 2016

Flotation for wine clarification: How does it work and why use it?

Grapevine nutrition and pre-flowering inputs Stand out like a purple cow

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contents features OCTOBER 2016

48 55 57 58 70 76 83 88 99

Pest & Disease Bird Control Fertilisers & Nutrition Environmental Focus Oak Yeast & Enzymes Tanks & Wine Storage Refrigeration Winery Design & Construction

Flotation for wine clarification: How does it work and why use it?

Grapevine nutrition and pre-flowering inputs

COVER Flotation for use in clarifying juice is not a new process, but is one that has recently gained renewed interest from the wine industry. Greg Howell explores the options from Page 80.

Stand out like a purple cow

news

grapegrowing

From the editor .........................................8

Grapevine nutrition and pre-flowering inputs ................................27

How many grapegrowers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Movers & Shakers...................................10 On the grapevine ................................... 12 My View: Grant Dickson .........................16

Some ryegrass and fescue cover-crops may damage grapevines ........................30 30

Celebrating 2011 and my part in its downfall

Men urged to ‘step up’ on gender equality ......................................18 18

Australian grapegrowers vote for change ......................................37 WGGA will become Australian Vignerons

Controlling vines to suit the weather ........38 You should stand out like a purple cow ....................................44

People & Places ......................................20 Winery Engineering Association 2016 national conference and exhibition

Vine diseases: A never-ending story ..............................48 Re-entry periods after vineyard spraying...................................54

regulars 6 What’s online 23 R&D at Work 54 Ask the AWRI Wine Australia for Australian Wine

Understanding costs should be as easy as ABC Adelaide-based business and engineering consultants 2XE have bought to light some valuable news for the Australian wine community’s bottom line. In a recent project, funded by Wine Australia, to undertake a life-cycle cost analysis of wine processing, it revealed the enormous potential of what is known as activity-based costing (ABC) as well as some large holes in just how much many wineries know about what their production costs actually are.

This then highlights where changes to processes could increase profits.

A tailored ABC model was prepared for each winery, showing mean costs per kilolitre (kL) of wine for activities such as bottling, barreling and maturation. The aim was to create an easy-to-use framework that could be customised to suit the needs of each and every wine business.

4 Grapegrower & Winemaker In fact, 2XE CEO Nick Palousis would go so far as to say it is ‘one of the biggest knowledge gaps we’ve seen in the sector’.

Wine Australia is now studying the project report to determine how best to progress the findings. Nick said ABC represented a different way of looking at costs and their implications. ‘Typically a winery would take its balance sheet and look at the things an accountant usually

96 Industry profile 102 Calendar 103 Marketplace classifieds

help wineries target their efficiency projects towards activities that have the greatest opportunity for increasing profit. ‘For example, the total cost per kL of wine pressed is significantly different when comparing different techniques such as basket press, bag-press and screw-press’, the report says. ‘Also, the way a press is used varies the cost of production per kL. For example, a winery with a bag press using automated pressing cycles may use less labour than one that requires continual monitoring and adjustment.

‘Likewise, a winery that can schedule and separate red and white batches on different days can minimise cleaning and increase labour efficiency

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October 2016 – Issue 633

October 2016: Issue 633 winemaking

sales & marketing

Winery sustainability: Huge water, chemical and waste water savings ..........60

Snapchat for your wine business .............94

Young Gun: Tasmania nights – the wine of Ricky ‘Bobby’ Evans ..............62 62

Reliable vintage staff ..............................95 Industry Profile: Fortified for the future .............................96 96

Online wine shopping behaviours of Chinese wine consumers .....................66

business & technology

Pinot, the Prince ......................................70

Connecting the wholesale beverage community ..............................98

Flotation for wine clarification – how does it work and why use it? ...........80

St Hugo cellar door opens in the Barossa ........................................99

PUBLISHER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE Hartley Higgins

PRODUCTION Simon Miles

GENERAL MANAGER Elizabeth Bouzoudis

CIRCULATION: Melissa Smithen subs@winetitles.com.au

EDITOR Nathan Gogoll editor@grapeandwine.com.au EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Denis Gastin, Dr Steve Goodman, Dr Terry Lee, Paul van der Lee, Bob Campbell MW, Prof Dennis Taylor, Mary Retallack and Corrina Wright EDITORIAL Daniel Whyntie journalist@winetitles.com.au ADVERTISING SALES Maria Stephenson sales@grapeandwine.com.au October 2016 – Issue 633

WINETITLES MEDIA ABN 85 085 551 980 630 Regency Road, Broadview, South Australia 5083 Phone: (08) 8369 9500 Fax: (08) 8369 9501 info@winetitles.com.au www.winetitles.com.au @Grape_and_Wine Printing by Lane Print Group, Adelaide © Contents copyright Winetitles Media 2014. All Rights Reserved. Print Post Approved PP535806/0019 Articles published in this issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker may also appear in full or as extracts on our website. Cover price $8.25 (inc. GST) www.winetitles.com.au

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

your say what’s ONLINE Enjoy Australia’s cool climate wines while they last Climate change threatens to cut down a thriving industry. The not-for-profit Climate Council predicts Australian-grown cool climate wine will be a rare luxury in the future as growing regions become warmer, reports The Huffington Post.

China’s Weilong to invest $120m in Australian vineyards China’s third-biggest wine maker has purchased three vineyards in Australia as part of its plan to invest $120 million across the country in land and processing facilities. Weilong Grape Wine Company told the Shanghai stock exchange on Wednesday it had completed the purchase of vineyards around Mildura and Swan Hill in Victoria and another location in NSW for $13.4million, reports The Financial Review.

Canberra winemakers welcome compromise on backpacker tax Canberra winemakers have welcomed plans to water down a $500 million tax on backpacker workers after claiming it would devastate the local industry. The Federal Government recently announced a proposed 32.5 per cent tax on earnings would be dropped, reports The Canberra Times.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT… the social media hashtag for next year’s vintage has already been spotted plenty of times. Despite the reports of Twitter being dead, we found the following mentions of #V17: Lucas Hoorn @SapaWines August 31

Nothing like setting up the sprayer to tell you that Spring has sprung #V16 #herewegoagain

Turkey Flat @TurkeyFlat September 2

Exciting time – the first use of #V17! (Oh & bud burst) After such a great winter it’s sure to be a stellar vintage.

DCB (Chris Bendle) @dcbwine September 5

Checking out budburst on some young Chardonnay vines. #V17

Vineyard Paul @VineyardPaul September 6

Boom! #V17 #tasvegasisthefuture

Mollydooker Wines @MollyDookerWine September 9

Well hello #V17 The very first signs of #budburst after a week of sunshine in #McLarenVale

See Saw Wine @SeeSawWine

Samantha Connew @StargazerWine September 13

And we’re off! #V16 #pinot #palisandervineyard #coalrivervalley #fromlittlethingsbigthingsgrow

Sam Kurtz @samkurtzwm September 13

Winter Brook Wines @WinterBrookWines “Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom.” - Margaret Elizabeth Sangster #V17 #discovertasmania

6 Grapegrower & Winemaker

#OldVine #Semillon is away @ DeBortoliWines #MurphysVyd #HunterWine #V17

First out of the blocks! #budburst #V17 #prosecco #coolclimatewines #visitorangensw

September 9

Daily Wine News is a snapshot of wine business, research and marketing content gleaned from international wine media sources, with a focus on Australian news and content. To subscribe visit www.winetitles.com.au/dwn.

September 9

September 13

New Zealand wine industry gets $6 million in Government research funding $6 million has been secured to fund the research and development of a new tool to assist New Zealand’s wine industry with better grape yield forecasting. The initiative will be funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) 2016 Endeavour Fund, reports Daily Wine News.

Liz Riley @vitibit

Steve Lindner @stevelindner September 9

It’s raining it’s pouring but this #oldvine is definitely not snoring! #vineyard #V17 #Barossa

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#Grenache #bushvines looking more like a rice paddy than a vineyard for #budburst. #V17 on its way.

P & G Lipscombe @SSHwine September 21

Time to spray this mofo #huonvalley #V17 #pinotnoir #chardonnay

HydeParkVineyard @hydeparkevines September 26

Hello #V17. Shiraz waking up. Looking fruitful again.

October 2016 – Issue 633

WET rebate season continues Like spring rain in some regions, WET rebate reform shows few signs of clearing up. Nathan Gogoll reports. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT recently held a series of meetings on the proposed tightened eligibility criteria for the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rebate. Groups of “invited industry participants” gathered throughout late September in Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. Anne Ruston, the Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, said consultation was required because “the wine industry has been the driver of changes”. And Ruston said the government was “committed to restoring the integrity of the WET rebate”. But there has also been plenty of discussion outside of these gatherings. If the process has been a bit like a long road trip, then there have been plenty of different opinions behind the wheel. “The government is aware that some industry participants have called for eligibility for the rebate to focus on

wine producers who own the grapes throughout the winemaking process and have investments in the industry such as ownership of a winery, vineyard or cellar door,” said Kelly O’Dwyer, the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services. However, one request of the government has gained traction recently – a call for the Department of Treasury to release modelling of how the proposed changes will impact the industry. Both the McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association and William Downie’s online petition have asked for modelling. Official correspondence from John Hill, the McLaren Vale association chair, outlined this position: “It is apparent that the data required to inform this position is not available to industry, and that what is available is unreliable and insufficient to provide meaningful modelling. However, the

N IO T C AU

data could be available to government, given its oversight of industry-wide and enterprise level taxation data. This would enable the government to make more accurate assumptions of what impact a taxation change may make. It is therefore incumbent upon government to commence collecting the relevant data to build a sufficient dataset to enable modelling of the various taxation regimes that could be applied to the wine sector. This modest step would enable government to demonstrate it is building the case for both appropriate long-term taxation reform and that these reforms will be evidence based in the best interests of the industry.” Downie’s petition asked for mostly the same thing: Modelling for impact using Department of Treasury data. You can find this petition at www. change.org by searching for ‘fix the rebate debate’.

Large scale Tasmanian winegrowing opportunity “Orielton Park”, Orielton, SE Tasmania - 300 acres

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

from the editor

Nathan Gogoll Editor

How many grapegrowers does it take to change a lightbulb? WE’VE GOT A NEW journalist here in the Grapegrower & Winemaker office and before long you’ll be reading plenty of Daniel Whyntie’s stuff here in the magazine. He’s a young bloke with an interest in international politics, so I figured I’d just thrown him into the deep end when it came to understanding industry representation and advocacy. One of the first times I dragged him out of the office was to attend the recent ‘special general meeting’ of the Wine Grape Growers Australia (WGGA). It was certainly an ‘eye opener’ for Daniel. Even I didn’t anticipate a few grapegrowing stalwarts would take the opportunity to air some old grievances and ask a few questions – those queries should really have been submitted and sorted before the meeting began; and the grievances would have been better saved for after the first round of beers at the meeting’s conclusion. But from what Daniel and I could see, even the most outspoken people at the meeting understood the proposed changes were necessary. I just don’t think some people necessarily wanted to accept it had to be this way. None of the questions asked were really about the new structure, which I’ll let you read all about later in the magazine (you can turn to Page 36 straight away if you need to), but for the rest of this page I’ll take you through a few of the more significant moments from the meeting… Leo Pech, a former Barossa grapegrower and honorary life member of the WGGA, was typically outspoken: “I believe the board is too removed from members,” Pech said. “The structure is better suited to a company than this type of organisation and I believe the power of the board is

8 Grapegrower & Winemaker

It seems what is proposed is a common sense way forward. extraordinary – I’ve never seen it before and there seems to be ever closer contact and a relationship with the Winemakers’ Federation, which I oppose.” For what it’s worth, I don’t agree with Leo. The WGGA needs to be run as professionally as it possibly can if the board is going to have issues of national importance on the agenda. The new structure sets out to both provide every member with an opportunity to contribute, yet aims to prevent parochial issues from influencing the board’s decision making process. Vic Patrick, the former WGGA chairperson, also picked up on similar theme to Pech. “I believe we need an independent grapegrower organisation, not one subservient to other organisations that represent the Australian grape and wine industry.” Andrew Weeks, the WGGA executive director, responded to the speculation of a merger with the WFA. He said it was a discussion point, not an agenda item. “We will never do it if we lose the ‘grower voice’,” Weeks said. “We will not forgo the opportunity to speak for growers.” However, Patrick also raised a very pertinent issue: “Why have 30 per cent of the members recently resigned?”

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Weeks responded: “Some regional organisations have chosen to leave. But the ongoing discussions, towards those regions considering coming back, are positive.” The regional organisations which are not currently members include the Murray Valley Winegrowers (Murray Darling and Swan Hill wine regions) and Riverina Wine Grapes Marketing Board. I hope the growers in these regions (as well as their boards and the senior staff members who work on their behalf) are now actively considering re-joining the national grower organisation. The final comment before a vote was taken at the meeting seemed to be the most important to me. “It seems what is proposed is a common sense way forward.” The vote in favour of the proposed changes to the constitution appeared to be unanimous. I had to explain to Daniel that most of the people in the meeting room knew each other (there were only a couple dozen) and meetings dealing with constitution reform usually wouldn’t allow for as many general comments from the floor. While the meeting had one or two tense moments, the overall mood felt positive. It feels like a good analogy for the overall organisation. There’s still a lot of work to be done but it’s in the industry’s best interest for the WGGA (now ‘Australian Vignerons’) to be financial and functional. So, how many grapegrowers does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer used to be… Change? What do you mean, change? But that’s a lame old joke that doesn’t apply any more. Enjoy the read.

October 2016 – Issue 633

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movers & shakers Neil Prentice back in the driver’s seat at Moondarra and Holly’s Garden Wines FOLLOWING RECENT business dealings with liquidators involving Gippsland’s Moondarra Wines and their associated brands, founder, owner and winemaker Neil Prentice, is pleased to back in control of the company he founded in 1991. And the really good news is that throughout the process all suppliers to the business have been paid. Long-time grape grower and supplier to the Holly’s Garden range, Rachel Croucher from Whitlands in Victoria’s north east, is full of praise for her collaborator and partner-in-wine, Neil Prentice. “Neil and I have worked together for over twenty years and over that time, he has shown enormous faith in me. He has supported me through natural disasters and challenging times, and our financial relationship has always been based on honour and stability,” Croucher said. “For me, nothing has changed as even during his own financial challenges, has continued to meet our regular payments. I have nothing but respect for him.”

Clearly challenges like those that Prentice and his partners have recently faced, do not come without loads of love and support. “I am delighted to be back in control of the company and brands that I have been passionately making and marketing for over 20 years,” Prentice said. “I couldn’t have got through this without the support of people like Rachel, my family and friends, and the good people at the Bendigo Bank. They have been amazing. Oh, and gin, yes, gin certainly gave great counsel and sustenance. I couldn’t have got through without it,” Neil said. Neil Prentice will continue to grow, make and sell his labour of love and is glad the whole episode is behind him, remarking. “I can now get on with the far more interesting business of growing, making and drinking great wine. This challenging chapter is now closed, we’re open for business and it definitely has been a conspiracy of lurve.”

International Wine & Spirits Research partners With Women of the Vine Alliance THE TRADE ALLIANCE has forged a research partnership with a leading analyst of the alcohol beverage industry. The Women of the Vine Alliance announced its partnership with leading data and analysis company, the International Wine & Spirits Research to complement its mission to advance women’s

careers and foster gender diversity and talent development across the alcohol beverage industry. “Women of the Vine and the IWSR share a mission to educate, which is paramount to the growth and empowerment of women in the alcohol beverage industry,” said Brandy Rand, Vice President of US Marketing and Business Development for the IWSR. “The IWSR’s focus on research and trends will provide Women of the Vine members with knowledge and tools to drive success within their organisations.” The move to team up with a research organisation was a strategic one said Deborah Brenner, Women of the Vine Alliance Founder & President. “Information is power in today’s competitive global market. The IWSR provides critical, concrete data and insight into industry trends and innovations. Partnering with the IWSR and working with Brandy Rand on the Advisory Board is a valuable resource and provides a great benefit to our mission and our membership,” Brenner said.

Results from AWRI Board election THE RECENT ELECTION for positions on the AWRI Board in the small levy payer category received five candidate nominations. The AWRI was pleased to announce that Toby Bekkers from Bekkers Wine had been elected to the vacant position. Toby Bekkers is a viticulturist, consultant and wine business manager with over 20 years’ experience. He and his wife, Emmanuelle, own and operate Bekkers Wine and vineyards in McLaren Vale, South Australia. Toby has been awarded a 2017 Nuffield Scholarship, supported by Wine Australia, to explore world best practice in the marketing of fine wines directly to consumers. Toby is a current Director of the AWRI and was initially elected to the AWRI Board in 2014. Only one nomination was received in both the medium and large levy payer categories, so an election was not required. Louisa Rose of The Yalumba Wine Company and Ben Bryant of Pernod Ricard Winemakers are the successful candidates in those categories respectively.

10 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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October 2016 – Issue 633

Louisa Rose is the Chief Winemaker of The Yalumba Wine Company and the current Chair of the AWRI. She was initially elected to the AWRI Board in 2011 and has been Chair since 2014. Her role as Chief Winemaker sees her involved in viticulture and winemaking in Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, covering cool and warm climates. Louisa is actively involved in a number of industry organisations and committees, and travels around Australia and overseas helping to promote Australian wines. Ben Bryant is Director and Chief Winemaker for Australia for Pernod Ricard Winemakers. Ben joined Orlando Wyndham in January 2000 based in Mudgee. From there Ben has progressed to

various positions within Pernod Ricard Winemakers including winemaking, viticulture and global marketing. In July 2013, Ben was appointed International Brand Development Director – Asia based in Hong Kong. In 2014 Ben returned to Australia and held the position of Winemaking and Supply Manager, and then in September 2015 was appointed Director and Chief Winemaker for Australia. All three Directors will commence their elected term on 1 January 2017. Outgoing Board member Brett McKinnon’s term will conclude on 31 December 2016. The AWRI thanks Brett for his significant contribution over nine years.

Okanagan winery recruits former head of New Zealand’s Cloudy Bay IAN MORDEN HAS BEEN appointed to the managing director’s role at Mission Hill Family Estate winery in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Prior to taking the leadership role at Mission Hill Family Estate, Morden was the Cloudy Bay Vineyards estate director. With his team there he delivered eight consecutive years of growth for the iconic New Zealand winery. Morden led Cloudy Bay’s development as a next generation luxury wine brand. When asked about the motivations for his move to Mission Hill, Morden said: “It is a privilege to have the opportunity to work with the visionary Anthony von Mandl and the Mission Hill team. “Anthony understands wine and his broader vision goes beyond that. The landscape, distinctive wines and people of the Okanagan have inspired me in a similarly primal way to when I first set foot in Marlborough,” Morden said.

“Canada fills the senses. It is like New Zealand in panorama – the mountains are higher, the lakes are larger and the climate is more extreme. This is a landscape of imposing proportions and my experience in places like Central Otago is that great wines are often born of this kind of adversity,” Morden said Von Mandl said he had seen the progression of Cloudy Bay globally under Morden’s leadership, "I felt like he was the right person to take Mission Hill to the next level with me. I am a great believer in our distinctive and unique Okanagan Valley wines and I am personally looking forward to Ian bringing his experience in building a New World region and an iconic brand and taking them to the world stage,” von Mandl said. Morden also assumes responsibility for the von Mandl Family’s extensive Sebastian Farms vineyard estates which grow up to 95% of Mission Hill’s grapes.

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on the grapevine Australian Vintage Ltd reports slight profit increase AUSTRALIAN VINTAGE has reported a full year net profit result of $7.2 million compared to $7.1 million the prior year. Neil McGuigan, Australian Vintage Limited (AVL) chief executive said across the past five years sales of AVL’s three key brands, McGuigan, Tempus Two and Nepenthe have almost doubled, “as we continue to transition the business from a bulk wine producer to a quality branded bottled wine business”. “At the same time the contribution from our bulk and processing business in Australia and overseas declined by $14 million due to market conditions,”

McGuigan said. “Whilst the UK continues to be our main overseas market, we have a strong focus on growing and strengthening our distribution channels in other overseas markets. “Over the last five years branded sales into Asia have grown by 89% and branded sales into Canada have grown by 128%. We expect this trend to continue.” Cash flow from operating activities increased by $4.4 million and if you exclude the one off lease termination payment of $4.9 million, operating cash flow increased by $9.3 million. With the expiry of a number of

onerous contracts and the termination of a vineyard lease this cash flow is expected to further improve in 2017. Australian Vintage Limited Chairman, Richard Davis, said the year was “shaping up to deliver a 16% net profit (before one off items) growth but the unexpected outcome of the Brexit vote in the UK unfortunately impacted the result by $1.1 million after tax”. “This has not changed our commitment to the UK and we are working with our retailer and distributor partners to recover lost margins caused by the weakening GBP,” Davis said.

‘Best Australian Pinot Noir’ at the Decanter Asia Wine Awards STEFANO LUBIANA WINE’S 2015 ‘Estate’ Pinot Noir has taken home the platinum trophy for best Australian Pinot Noir at the 2016 Decanter Asia Wine Awards. The awards are among of Asia’s mosttrusted wine competitions and are judged by key influencers in the Asian market. Stefano Lubiana Wines are a small

family owned and operated winery and are Tasmania’s only certified biodynamic vineyard and winery. The ‘Estate’ Pinot Noir is a single vineyard biodynamic wine, produced entirely by hand on site at our estate in Granton, Tasmania. The fruit from the mature, low yielding vines is hand-picked and hand sorted. Fermented naturally from wild yeast and

matured in fine French oak barrels for up to 12 months in an underground, vibration-free cellar. This win follows success for the 2014 ‘Estate’ Pinot Noir at the Planet Earth Awards IWC Biodynamic Award for 2016 at the International Wine Challenge 2016 Awards.

Sunraysia’s big infrastructure success; on time & under budget THE SINGLE LARGEST infrastructure upgrade in the Sunraysia region in over a century was marked today with the official opening of works completed on time and under budget. Barnaby Joyce, Federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, said the $120 million Sunraysia Modernisation Project was already delivering for local irrigators and congratulated those involved on the successful completion of the project. “The completed project will generate water savings of at least 7 GL annually in the Mildura region, while providing water access 365 days a year,” Joyce said.

“I want to congratulate Lower Murray Water, the local contractors and suppliers, and the local farmers who participated in the project. Not only was work completed on time and under budget but 23.9 kilometres of open channel has been replaced, 15.9 kilometres more than originally planned.” Andrew Broad, the Federal Member for Mallee, said the initiative involved the replacement of open irrigation channels with low pressure pipelines and the upgrading of key pump stations in the district and was already delivering benefits to irrigators across the Mildura, Red Cliffs and Merbein.

“This project is helping around 2000 irrigators across Sunraysia to increase productivity while using less water, and will promote sustainable growth and development in the region for many decades to come,” Broad said. Merbein grower Richard Wells said he has seen significant savings on his property since the installation of the pipeline, which has reduced filter backwashing from every 40 minutes to every two-and-a-half hours. “This has not only given me more on-farm efficiency, it also increases the longevity and the lifespan of my filters, thereby reducing costs,” Wells said.

ICC Sydney Launches World Class Wine Collection THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE in Sydney has launched its inaugural wine collection featuring 93 varieties, 80 per cent of which have been sourced from NSW wine producers. William Wilson, the convention centre beverage operations and cellar manager, developed the collection after tasting of more than 1000 labels. “ICC Sydney is committed to partnering with small and large regional producers to encourage the growth of wineries and local jobs,” Wilson said. “Seventy-four of our wines are from New South Wales with the remainder of the collection comprised of stand-out wines

12 Grapegrower & Winemaker

from across Australia as well as a few international labels. “A number of impressive vintages from across the state really shone through during the tasting, with the Hunter Valley, Orange, Riverina and Mudgee among some of the most fruitful regions. “The list includes a range of boutique wineries, which will give ICC Sydney’s wine collection a distinct point of difference.” Stuart Ayres, NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events, said the collection presents an outstanding platform for local labels to be exposed to a huge number of Australian and www.winetitles.com.au

international guests. “Up to 200,000 bottles of wine could be served annually at an ongoing calendar of exhibitions, conventions and entertainment events across the integrated precinct,” Ayres said. “With almost 500 wine producers and 329 cellar doors, New South Wales produces some of the top wines in the world. “The diversity of climate and terrain has fostered ongoing success for established regions, as well as encouraging new and exciting hotspots.”

October 2016 – Issue 633

Trade alliance forges research partnership with leading analyst of the alcohol beverage industry THE WOMEN OF THE VINE ALLIANCE has announced a partnership with leading data and analysis company, the International Wine & Spirits Research (IWSR) to complement its mission to advance women’s careers and foster gender diversity and talent development across the alcohol beverage industry. “Women of the Vine and the IWSR share a mission to educate, which is paramount to the growth and empowerment of women in the alcohol beverage industry,” said Brandy Rand, Vice President of US Marketing and Business Development for the IWSR, who recently joined the Women of the Vine Advisory Board and whose diverse background includes managing, marketing and consulting for dozens of global brands. “The IWSR’s focus on research and trends will provide Women of the Vine members with knowledge and tools to drive success within their organizations.” The move to team up with a research organisation was a strategic one, said

Deborah Brenner Women of the Vine Alliance founder and president. “Information is power in today’s competitive global market,” Brenner said. “The IWSR provides critical, concrete data and insight into industry trends and innovations. “Partnering with the IWSR and working with Brandy Rand on the Advisory Board is a valuable resource and provides a great benefit to our mission and our membership.” Headquartered in London, the IWSR is the world’s most comprehensive collection of data on the alcohol beverage industry, quantifying the global market of wine, spirits, beer and mixed drinks by volume and value, and providing insight into short- and long-term trends. This data is used by top alcohol beverage companies, many of whom are Women of the Vine Corporate Sponsors, including E. & J. Gallo Winery, Bacardi, Brown-Forman, Beam Suntory, Pernod Ricard, and more.

Information is power in today’s competitive global market. The IWSR provides critical, concrete data and insight into industry trends and innovations. About the Women of the Vine Alliance The Women of the Vine Alliance is a membership-based alliance that empowers and equips women worldwide to advance their careers in the alcohol beverage industry. Women of the Vine offers extensive education, advocacy, training, mentorship, networking and steadfast support for women at every position in the field, particularly through the annual Women of the Vine Global Symposium which will be held March 13 – 15, 2017 in Napa, California.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

news

Making the most of 15 minutes of fame Dave Franz’s Barossa rose made news for blending more than 100 grape varieties; but despite the headlines it’s more about quality than quantity when it comes to wine marketing. Daniel Whyntie reports. IT’S NOT THE FIRST TIME Dave (Franz) Lehmann’s wine has hit the headlines; he first produced his famous 100 plus Rosé blend last year with 107 different varieties, and that effort saw him make the news pages as well. But this time he’s gone viral, with the new ‘Frankenstein creation’ from 108 different varieties. The wine itself has key components you would expect from the Barossa, Shiraz and Grenache, but also incorporates parcels of white varieties including Riesling, Semillon and Vermentino. And then there’s at least one bunch of 105 different grapes in the mix. “It’s from an un-manipulated field; I don’t regulate what happens as much as possible,” Lehmann said. “The blend is manipulated more by nature and a crapshoot of what goes in. It’s just about having faith in the grapes.” But have the headlines helped with sales? “It’s not that quantifiable at this stage but we haven’t seen any big spike, its being much more about brand awareness,” Lehmann said. Going viral is the dream of many marketing campaigns today, often seen as an end to itself and its own measure of

David Lehmann, making a splash. Photo John Kruger

success; however brands need to be able to leverage this attention into something of value. “Small companies like us have no marketing budget,” Lehmann said. “We really rely on peer-to-peer marketing; for instance we might get a group in for a personal tasting, then they tell their mates about it. “Social media is just an extension of that marketing. I think things that are not driven or sanctioned by a company, that come from a third party or from their friends and people they trust, people will put more stock in that. “Especially when they see it’s not paid for, that there’s no cash, it’s not an ad, but

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is that third party endorsement.” Headlines like ‘Australia’s craziest wine’ are great clickbait, but they are far from the most direct way to action a sale. What they can be used for is a brand connecting with a larger audience and building its identity. Lehmann takes other opportunities to develop that personality larger brands can afford to manufacture, such as designing and printing his own unique handmade tissue labels. And the Rosé blend label carries the names of all 108 grapes. Being recognised as an authentic independent producer also places the wine in a section of the marketplace that can be fiercely competitive; today about 70% of off-premise wine sales are controlled by two retail giants, which also stock their own label wines. “The overriding thing is it’s not something you can artificially generate,” Lehmann said. “Big companies turn people off when they try to fake these things, (but) you can’t manipulate what people are saying to each other. “In the end if someone hasn’t tasted it then it doesn’t matter what’s on the outside. “Today people want experience and savvy in their wine. They’re more interested in the stories on the wine. Things like our cellar door gives us a way to have that story on tap. “It’s Important to have that face for the public.” Lehmann has grown his brand to the point where he is ready to open a cellar door – and the renovation work has begun on an old ironstone cottage near Tanunda. He said his cellar door will give him the opportunity to show his customers something different. “It brings back the chance to focus on esoteric wines. Special stuff you want to hand-sell rather than explain to distributors,” he said. “At the start we were a two-man operation, we didn’t see the point of having a cellar door. We’ve evolved and got bigger, we needed to expand. When we were doing private booked tastings we would have to say not to too many people. “It’s also a chance to get a bit of margin. Normally our yield per bottle goes down as every part of the chain takes their bit through the different tiers of distribution.” October 2016 – Issue 633

NUFARM’S ORGANIC CERTIFIED COPPER

my view Celebrating 2011 and my part in its downfall Grant Dickson runs the fermentAsian restaurant in the Barossa with his wife, Tuoi, and grows grapes. In this column, he takes a look back at the prejudices that arose from a difficult 2011 vintage and the reasons he became a ‘champion’ for the wines that emerged from it. MANY VIETNAMESE believe in concepts that fall outside my own sphere of understanding. Like members of other Asian cultures, they believe in the power of ‘auspicious numbers’ and principles of feng shui (which the Vietnamese call phong thuy). If you speak to representatives of Australian building companies, they will tell you how important it is to ‘break the sod’ or begin the building process on the designated ‘auspicious day,’ if your customer is of Chinese, Vietnamese or Cambodian background. The same rules apply to opening a new business. The first day of trade may be selected only after proper consultation of certain authoritive charts and texts. A fortune-teller is usually consulted. And so in late 2010, Tuoi’s parents were horrified when I informed them that we would not be able to open fermentAsian on their optimal date, Tuesday 7 December. There had been delays in setting up the kitchen, and then Rockford, for whom I was working, had selected that same evening to host their annual ‘growers’ night.’ It was my duty to attend. I still remember the look of genuine horror on Tinh and Bang’s faces as it registered that we would not be complying with the stipulations of their Vietnam-based fortune-teller. The opening date was put off until 12 December, apparently a considerably less auspicious date. Meanwhile, 7 December rolled around and I remained behind after work at Rockford to help set up for the night on which the contributions of valued local grape growers are celebrated. During the afternoon, the sky gradually darkened and an ominously quiet, electricity-charged stillness chilled the valley. During the climax of the function, at the very moment main courses were being ferried in from the kitchen to guests huddled inside a large marquee, the evening was interrupted by the most tumultuous and terrifying electrical storm that I have experienced. The rain lashed down and overlapping lightning strikes smote the Barossa floor with a rare ferocity. Booming thunderclaps drowned out all efforts by Robert O’Callaghan to address the assembled farmers. I returned home later that evening to find that I was unable to park my car in its usual spot. Most of the driveway and

16 Grapegrower & Winemaker

In 2015 I asked James Halliday whether there were any regrets about lambasting vintage 2011, even before all the ferments were dry? “Absolutely,” he replied. car park area had been washed away by torrents of water. There were now deep culverts and several tons of soil, gravel and vineyard had washed into our neighbour’s dam. Tuoi’s parents gave me a homicidal look when I entered the lounge room. I was subjected to a second torrential downpour, this one in Vietnamese, which I didn’t understand, but the meaning was all too clear and the ‘we-told-you-so’ invective very chastening. If only it had stopped there. But the wet weather continued throughout the next three months. It didn’t make me feel any better to know that my thoughtless disregard of a central tenet of Vietnamese spiritual belief (and the associated karma) had inflicted a wet, cool, difficult vintage, not only on SA but on Victoria and parts of NSW. For many winemakers and grape growers, the 2011 growing season and vintage was one they will want to forget. But was it really so bad? Bad enough for the press to comprehensively write off the quality before a considered evaluation of completed wines could be made? In 2015 I asked James Halliday whether there were any regrets about lambasting vintage 2011, even before all the ferments were dry? “Absolutely,” he replied. “I now concede that it is one of the greatest Chardonnay vintages that we have seen.” “But what about Victorian Pinots, cool climate Shiraz, Riesling and Cabernets from the Barossa?” I asked. Using one of my own favoured musical metaphors, Halliday replied, “Many of the wines from the vintage resemble the most beautiful, pure soprano voice, singing without any orchestral accompaniment. The wines just don’t have the deeper resonances that we look for in Australian wines.” Perhaps because of my aforementioned ‘responsibility’ and guilty conscience, I have become a vocal champion for the vintage. Reassuringly, I have found many www.winetitles.com.au

winemakers who enjoyed the challenges of 2011, with its cooler temperatures, unrelenting rainfall and high disease pressure. There is a real pride among winemakers who persevered without compromise, adopting vigorous sorting regimes in the vineyard, and modifying their maturation procedures and oak selections. Nick Farr once told me that in 2011 he made the wines that he had always wanted to make. But the negative stigma in the marketplace meant that he struggled to sell them. There’s definitely a European cast to many of the 2011 wines. Many were certainly deprived of the sweet-fruited richness that easier vintages offer, as grapes bask in prolonged sunshine, accumulating sugar. In 2011 there wasn’t much prolonged sunshine. The ‘grain’ of the wines tends to be finer; what they might have lost in opulence they have gained in ethereal transparency and vibrant acidity. Arguably, they also speak with more clarity of the various soil profiles of the vineyards. In 2014, the great Philippe Guigal from Côte Rôtie visited our restaurant. He brought with him a bottle of 1994 ‘La Turque’. The wine really surprised me, as I had been expecting a more powerful, oakier, more opulent expression. He proceeded to inform me that it was his favourite ‘La Turque’, despite the dire vintage when the berries at the top of each bunch had been green and unripe, while those at the bottom had been black with rot, and how they had to sift through the middle section of each bunch, seeking healthy grapes. I asked Guigal, “So is it your favourite ‘La Turque’ because you managed, against the odds, to salvage a salable wine?” “No,” he replied. “It’s my favourite ‘La Turque’ because it tastes alive. It has the most wonderful driving acidity, and will live beyond everyone’s expectations.” Suddenly I was thinking Barossa 2011. October 2016 – Issue 633

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news

Mike Brown, Gemtree Wines winemaker; Rebekah Richardson, winemaker; Daniel Wright, viticulturist and Swell Brewing Co brewer; Corrina Wright, Oliver’s Taranga winemaker and CEO; Andre Bondar, Bondar Wines winemaker; Sami Gilligan, Pallet & Barrel viticulturist and truckie; Ian Adam, Dabblebrook Wines vigneron. Photo: Milton Wordley

Men urged to ‘step up’ on gender equality THE ADVISORY BOARD of the Australian Women in Wine Awards (AWIWA) is calling on men in the Australian wine community to join women in taking action to address the issue of gender diversity. “Gender equality is not just a women’s issue, it’s an issue for the entire wine community,” said Jane Thomson, AWIWA founder and chair. “We need more men to be actively aware and involved if we’re ever going to see lasting change. And we think the AWIWA provides the perfect opportunity for the men in our community to step up and play their part.” Several members of the board got together with a few key men in the industry for a photo shoot earlier this month where the boys wore pink boots as a way of showing their support and helping to raise awareness. Corrina Wright, AWIWA board member and CEO of Oliver’s Taranga summed up the need for more men’s involvement succinctly; “It’s up to all of us. We need to stand together to make things better.” But how can men be more active in supporting women in wine? “It shouldn’t be that hard,” said Daniel Wright, viticulturist and brewer at Swell Brewing Co.

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The advisory board has issued a number of challenges for the industry: • At a business level, examine your recruitment and promotion systems, policies and procedures, maternity leave, working hours and flexibility and make the changes needed to attract and support women in the business; • On a personal level, think about the language you use, the assumptions you make, and the personal biases you hold. Awareness is the key to change; • Speak out when you hear or see others doing the wrong thing. Call people to account over unacceptable comments, behaviours or decisions; • Don’t forget to nominate your female peers, colleagues and co-workers for one of the six award categories in the 2016 Australian Women in Wine Awards. Entries close 4 October; or • If you’re doing great things already to promote gender equality then enter yourself for the Workplace Champion of Change Award – which is open to both women and men and businesses to enter. The advisory board pointed to research that showed businesses where women hold top positions in equal numbers are more profitable. www.winetitles.com.au

So taking such measures makes perfect business sense as well as common sense. Sami Gilligan from Pallet & Barrel already recognises the benefits of a gender diverse workforce. “I am a shareholder and manager of a number of wine industry businesses,” Gilligan said. “We have a 50/50 mix of women and men on the boards, and for good reason. “Women bring a different set of values and beliefs to the table that make our companies successful.” Mike Brown, winemaker at Gemtree Wines concurs. “50% of the staff I employ are women. I am a huge supporter of the AWIWA initiative for many reasons, but none more important than seeing my wife Melissa’s challenges in being accepted in her career as a hard working viticulturist, full time Mum and everything else she fits in.”

For all the information about these awards, including the entry and nomination process visit: www.womeninwineawards.com.au. The Grapegrower & Winemaker Magazine is proud to be a sponsor of these awards. October 2016 – Issue 633

Dark clouds hang over wine industry following Brexit THE AUSTRALIAN WINE INDUSTRY will be impacted by Brexit aftershocks according to Ray Ridgeway of World First, with the Australian dollar rising against the increasingly volatile and weaker Pound and Euro. “An appropriate currency hedging strategy could help mitigate these effects as so the price of an Australian exported good does not increase in price in the UK and EU market,” said Ray Ridgeway, World First Australia chief commercial officer. The United Kingdom is one of Australia’s top wine export destinations by volume, with 247 million litres exported in 2015 worth $A370 million, accounting for roughly one third of all Australian wine exports. Existing wine trade agreements signed between Australia and the European Union (EU) have allowed Australian wine exporters to enjoy preferential access to the European market with simplified approvals of wine making techniques, labelling and certification requirements. While the agreement with the EU stands, new trade deals with the UK will now need to be negotiated over several months, with the delay expected to adversely affect Australian wine sales in the UK, as will lower consumer confidence in the region. Currency transfer experts World First said the continuing strength of the AUD against both the Pound and Euro meant it was now very important for wine exporters to hedge their currency exposure to ensure their profit margins are not negatively impacted this financial year. The consumer confidence effects of Brexit could also hurt Australian wine exporters with Britons potentially having less money to spend on overseas products, as the cost of imported goods into the UK and EU may result in those products increasing in price as new trade deals are implemented. Some major wine distributors have already implemented hedging strategies to nullify the impacts of fluctuating exchange rates of the Pound and the Euro. Moreover, some of World Firsts’ clients, which are wine exporters, have managed to hedge at A50c against the Pound. Award winning international currency specialist World First, strongly recommends adoption of hedging strategies for both small and large Aussie wine exporters to the UK and European Community. “We have executed suitable currency strategies for a lot of our exporting clients in order to beat the risks of AUD/GBP pairing fluctuations,” Ridgeway said.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

people & places

The latest in transport technology was on display thanks to BLU Logistics Solutions.

WineEng 2016: Innovations for Smarter Solutions Winery Engineering Association 2016 national conference and exhibition THE 2016 WEA Conference and Exhibition WineEng 2016 was held at the Serafino Winery in McLaren Vale in early September. The conference covered many aspects of wine production and was aimed at production operations personnel. The conference aim was to keep these key operational staff up to date with the latest global technological advancements and ensure the Australian wine industry retains its competitive edge. John Ide, the Yalumba Wine Company winery operations manager, delivered one of the key addresses and highlighted the changes he has witnessed in the Industry. He also spoke about the importance of companies being innovative and looking for smarter solutions in order to remain successful and sustainable for the long term. Other key speakers addressed additional issues across two days of presentations, while the exhibition and conference dinner offered networking and socialising opportunities. For more information about the Winery Engineering Association, visit: http://wea.org.au

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Steve Jeffs, Continental Water VIC/SA branch manager, and Erin Buckingham, Continental Water sales and marketing coordinator.

www.winetitles.com.au

October 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 633

Simon Nordestgaard, AWRI senior engineer, gave two presentations (Innovations and Options for Grape Sorting; and Rapid Extration Techniques for Red Wine).

Mark Johnson, JMA national sales manager, and Lisa Brand, JMA purchasing manager.

Vince O’Brien, AWRI business development manager and WEA committee member, chaired the afternoon presentation session on the second day of the conference.

Jo Marshall, Programmed Group SA/NT general manager delivered the Real, Resilient Leadership presentation and was also one of the entertaining MC’s at the conference dinner.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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Trevor Wicks: An enormous contribution TREVOR WICKS made a significant contribution as a plant pathologist to Australian primary industries across a career spanning more than 40 years. Wicks made an enormous contribution to the Australian wine and viticulture industry across several decades, through development and evaluation of many new fungicides and application programs. He worked on a number of investigations into fungicide resistance, linking with crop protection companies and growers. He was also interested in alternatives to conventional fungicides and brought his extensive knowledge to bear in targeting weak points in the disease cycle. At the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) he contributed to research on disease identification and management across all areas of horticulture. Wicks was respected by both researchers and industry personnel. He was often one of the first people to identify new disease problems and advise on their management. He made important

contributions to the Cooperative Research Centre for Viticulture, particularly on the biology and control of grapevine powdery mildew and trunk diseases. On the international stage, Wicks was also highly-regarded for his wealth of knowledge and experience in horticultural pathology. He was regularly invited regularly to speak at industry and scientific meetings around the world. He developed a love for travel, established scientific collaborations between SARDI and many well-known international organisations and was a strong advocate for encouraging students and young scientists to develop their careers through experience overseas. Wicks was also an affiliate Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide, where he mentored Honours, Masters and PhD students on their research projects. He enjoyed introducing students to field work in different parts of SA. He is a co-author on numerous papers arising from this work and, over his career, published at least 60 scientific papers and many more articles in

industry magazines. Wicks was diagnosed with a tumour in January 2016 and throughout his illness maintained his interest in research and in people. He was a wonderful colleague and friend to many in Australia and internationally, with a gift for making people feel valued. He was eternally curious, happiest in the field assisting growers who appreciated his practical and honest advice on disease management. He was a wonderful mentor to staff in his close-knit research group and to students, contributing enthusiastically and interested to hear the news from colleagues until he died. He will be deeply missed by his wife Keren, and his many friends and colleagues in South Australia and around the world. Friends and colleagues will be celebrating his life and achievements at a memorial event on Thursday 3 November at Urrbrae House and Gardens (Waite Precinct, Adelaide) For more information, visit: http://freersvp.com/RSVP/O/4030642809556

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October 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 633

Wine Australia for Australian Wine

New online tool to identify best rootstocks Wine Australia has released a new online tool that will help winegrape growers determine the rootstocks that will best suit their vineyard, based on the most recent research. The Grapevine Rootstock Selector brings together Australian and international research about the specific characteristics of different rootstocks in one independent resource for the Australian grape and wine community. Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark said the Grapevine Rootstock Selector is a free tool that helps to share the insights gained from rootstock research in a simple format. ‘This work distills the comprehensive range of research in this area into a useable tool that allows grapegrowers to choose specific rootstocks noting individual vineyard conditions’, Mr Clark said. ‘The tool aims to provide our growers with a single source of information before they talk to their local nursery about different rootstocks.’ Wine Australia General Manager RD&E Liz Waters said planting rootstocks is an excellent way to manage known risks to vine health and supports long-term vineyard sustainability.

‘The Grapevine Rootstock Selector has gathered the relevant research literature into one place, to help growers who may be considering rootstocks to see what might be the best options for their vineyard.

Rob Walker and Peter Clingleffer of CSIRO. It draws on published, peer-reviewed research by respected Australian and international research organisations on how the rootstocks perform.

‘By answering a series of specific questions about their vineyard, growers can use the Grapevine Rootstock Selector to identify a small number of appropriate rootstocks for their vineyard.

Growers are invited to answer seven questions to narrow down the rootstock options:

‘By answering a series of specific questions about their vineyard, growers can use the Grapevine Rootstock Selector to identify a small number of appropriate rootstocks for their vineyard.’

‘Research has shown that certain rootstocks have the potential to help improve resilience and efficiency in the vineyard, for example some are highly suited to low-water environments’, Dr Waters said.

October 2016 | www.research.wineaustralia.com

‘The Grapevine Rootstock Selector highlights the specific characteristics of different rootstocks and provides further information about the grape varieties that have been shown be suitable for each option.’ The Grapevine Rootstock Selector is based on a tool first developed in 2002 by Yalumba Nursery, the Yalumba Nursery Rootstock Selector. Wine Australia developed the Grapevine Rootstock Selector in conjunction with Nick Dry of Yalumba Nursery, and

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How would you describe your region’s climate?

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During a drought, how much irrigation water are you likely to have?

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What is your desired level of vine vigour?

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What is the salt content of your soil?

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How does the soil drain at your site?

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What is the pH of your soil?

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Do you need rootknot nematodetolerant rootstocks?

The Grapevine Rootstock Selector can be accessed at www.grapevinerootstock.com

www.research.wineaustralia.com | October 2016

Exploring the potential to regulate grape ripening How manipulating PGRs could optimise harvest time all aspects of berry development from flowering through to ripening. Some are also involved in the plant’s response to stress. However, PGRs also can be applied to deliberately advance or delay ripening, and their use to control fruit development and to aid fruit storage is common in horticulture and sometimes in other areas of agriculture. The idea of using them in the wine sector is not new. In fact, Dr Davies started doing some work back in the late 1990s before moving it onto the backburner. ‘It was really just of scientific interest then, but now it has practical interest and implications’, he said.

Pre-veraison treatment with an auxin PGR delays ripening onset in Shiraz Upper panel: Untreated Lower panel: Treated with an auxin PGR

With compressed vintages becoming more common and more of a problem, winemakers are increasingly keen to find a way to regulate grape ripening. Fortunately for them, Dr Chris Davies is already on the case. Dr Davies, Principal Scientist with CSIRO Agriculture, is leading a Wine Australia-funded project investigating whether the timing of veraison and/ or harvest can be controlled by manipulating plant growth regulators (PGRs).

There are many benefits of making the potential reality; among them, improved winery intake scheduling, optimisation of harvest timing for maximum fruit quality, reduced fruit wastage and the manipulation of fruit composition. Controlling harvest timing also could alleviate some of the issues associated with increasing temperatures due to climate change. PGRs that promote ripening include abscisic acid, castasterone and the gas ethylene, which is more conveniently applied as a synthetic ethylene-releasing compound. Another group of PGRs, auxins, delay the onset of berry ripening, and are of particular interest.

‘We now know much about how auxin levels are controlled and why some auxins are more effective than others ‘There are other approaches people are in controlling the trying, such as late timing of veraison’, pruning, but the Dr Davies said. ‘New PGR methods are tools have been There are many benefits of looking really quite making the potential reality; developed to study promising’, he said. the effects of auxins, among them, improved which have led to winery intake scheduling, ‘There’s no question optimisation of harvest timing the possibility of they will work. What novel, fit-for-purpose, for maximum fruit quality, we need to do now synthetic versions.’ reduced fruit wastage and is to refine and

the manipulation of fruit prove a few things The focus in recent composition. – demonstrate that months has been on it’s reliable and can testing in commercial be used under a rather than purely number of different research settings. circumstances, for example at different Various PGRs are being trialled under sites with different climates and with different conditions and using different different cultivars.’ cultivars to see how they perform. PGRs are small, bioactive molecules that occur naturally in grapes and affect

October 2016 | www.research.wineaustralia.com

There’s also interest in using PGRs to increase the synchronicity of ripening,

especially in varieties that can be a bit of a problem. Some are a bit finicky and are more uneven in their ripening. And there are the inevitable scientific anomalies to follow up, such as why using one PGR to delay ripening creates extra spiciness in Shiraz or why another group of PGRs appears to increase quite markedly during ripening. ‘There’s a lot out there to learn’, Dr Davies said. ‘Some of what’s in the literature we just can’t replicate and then we’re discovering other things out of the blue.’ The ultimate aim is to have the system that the researchers are working with registered for use with grapes, as it is for other crops. However, Dr Davies cautions that that is still a few years away. ‘There are some commercial requirements we need to sort out before we go to the next step. We don’t want to release something that’s not reliable or has side effects that we don’t understand.’

Apply to join the Australian Rural Leaders Program Applications are now open for the next Australian Rural Leaders Program (ARLP), set to take place from July 2017 to October 2018. Wine Australia sponsors an annual ARLP scholarship for a member of the grapegrowing and winemaking community. Run by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation, the ARLP is designed to further develop leadership skills, examine and analyse key national and international issues, and encourage interaction with leaders in government, industry and community. It is designed for individuals who will lead rural, regional and remote Australia into the future. The ARLP offers a series of experiential sessions and networking opportunities. Visit www.rural-leaders.com.au/ programs/australian-rural-leadershipprogram-for-established-leaders.

Researcher in focus: Dr Rebecca Harris Filling in the gaps in the climate change puzzle Dr Rebecca Harris’ latest research project looks set to be a win-win from both a scientific and a practical perspective. Established specifically to help the wine sector adapt to the challenges of short-term climate cycles and longterm climate change, the work will also fill some gaps in a broader regional climate model that has been developed with colleagues at the CSIRO and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) over the past few years. ‘It will allow us to add some of the missing pieces and provide the kind of information people are clamouring for’, she said. Dr Harris, whose background is in terrestrial ecology, has been specialising in climate change studies since starting a PhD 15 years ago looking at how living organisms cope with variable and increasing temperatures. She chose the topic, she says, because she was interested in learning more about ‘one of the biggest things we’ll have to deal with in the near future’. In recent years, a lot of her work has been about trying to get practical and usable information from the big climate models that she and other researchers work with, then communicating the trends to people who want to use it in a way that can help them adapt.

Dr Rebecca Harris

Including some biological information really focuses the outputs of the climate models. ‘It shouldn’t be hard, but often it’s difficult just to find out who knows what about the system. I think the wine sector is a rare example of an industry that knows a lot about the relevant biology; but that’s not the case across the board.’

The new three-year study, funded by Wine Australia, will involve researchers ‘There’s been a bit of a shift from the from the Antarctic Climate Ecosystem climate people saying “here’s the CRC and the Tasmanian Institute of information, do with it what you will” Agriculture at – and people not the University of really doing anything Tasmania, CSIRO, with it because ‘We want to get really SARDI and the it wasn’t very focused with the information AWRI. understandable – to that we are providing to these really trying to make There will regions, and then to other it useful and usable’, be ongoing regions ask: Is this usable she said. engagement with

for you? How can we make

six ‘case study’ ‘My focus, because it more useful? What are regions selected I have a biology the adaptation options for because individually background, has you? What can you learn they have shown been to try to make from what is being done a commitment those climate models elsewhere?’ to learning more more relevant to the about climate biology of the system change adaptation and collectively they that you might be interested in; whether represent a good cross section of typical that’s biodiversity conservation or an grape growing climates in Australia. agricultural crop.

The regions are Tasmania, Riverland, Barossa, Hunter Valley, Margaret River and one in Victoria, which is still to be decided. ‘We want to get really focused with the information that we are providing to these regions, and then ask other regions: Is this usable for you? How can we make it more useful? What are the adaptation options for you? What can you learn from what is being done elsewhere? ‘We’re also interested in looking at changes in the timing of events. We know that grapevines can be impacted when a heatwave happens. One of the good things that we can get from the regional climate models is a sense of how the timing of phenological events might change in the future. We want to link it into what actually matters to people.’ Dr Harris said the questions being asked by and of climate scientists had become more sophisticated and nuanced as the world has accepted that climate change is a reality. ‘We’ve moved on from simply talking about mean changes in temperature to asking what are the seasonal and regional differences, how might changes affect regions across Australia, and how should they respond,’ she said.

www.research.wineaustralia.com | October 2016

Terroir, by any other name …

Understanding the relationship between terroir’s components “provenance”, but that doesn’t really help us either.’ Dr Dry is concerned that people often think about terroir as related only to geology or soil, when there are many causal components, including the natural environment, human influence and decisions in the vineyard, microbiology and even winemaking practices. The differences between one vineyard and another close by are more likely to be about elevation, topography or prevailing winds than the rocks beneath them.

Dr Peter Dry

Asked how long he has been talking about terroir, Peter Dry quipped ‘forever I suppose’. That’s an understandable response from a man who has been one of Australia’s most respected viticultural scientists for more than 40 years, but he quickly corrected himself. ‘When I was preparing my paper for the recent AWITC, I was trying to think when was the first time I even used the term terroir and it was probably only 20 years ago,’ he said. ‘We just didn’t use it before then.

‘Terroir’ was originally described a disagreeable taste in wine believed to be related to the soil in which the vines were grown (words such as “peculiar” and even “repulsive” were common). French winemakers only began to use it in a positive context when talking up their appellation system and general standing in the world of wine. Its use in Australia was somewhat magnified, Dr Dry suggests, when young winemakers began working vintages in France. But is it scientifically relevant, and is it the right word?

‘I looked at Viticulture Volumes 1 and 2, ‘There are some of us who aren’t entirely happy with the word, particularly of which I was co-author, published in those of us who look at terroir as an 1988 and 1992. There’s no mention of interaction of many the word in either; factors – very and in the revised ‘The definition will depend complex interactions version of Volume 1 on scale, because it is the in many cases. It’s in 2004 it was used scale that determines the because terroir has only four times, and components that are most this strong linguistic even then not as an important.’ connection with the endorsement of the soil; that makes me term.’ somewhat uncomfortable because it’s There’s an interesting historical point not inclusive enough of the main driver that Dr Dry (officially retired but still of terroir at all levels, which is mainly active with both the AWRI and the climate. University of Adelaide) made in the ‘But as I said in my presentation, we’ve introduction to his presentation on the probably gone too far down the road. components of terroir at the Australian I can’t think of another word that’s Wine Industry Technical Conference more inclusive; some people have said (AWITC) in July.

‘The definition will depend on scale, because it is the scale that determines the components that are most important. In reality, perceived differences between wines attributed to terroir are generally when wines are compared at the macroor meso-scale,’ he said. ‘Human factors are important at all scales of terroir as they interact with the natural environment and the role of variety, both scion and rootstock, is often underrated in the terroir discussion. ‘If comparing two regions with same variety, particularly in the Old World, we need to be mindful that the genetic differences may be significant even though it is the same variety. This is why clones from different regions may have very different wine characters. ‘If the wines are from different regions, then the major driver is climate. If wines are from different sites within same region, again it is mainly climate, modified by topography and soil. If wines are from different parts of same site, or even within the same vineyard, then it is mainly soil physical properties having both a direct effect on vine metabolism and an indirect effect via microclimate.’ And, as is the way with science and nature, things keep changing. ‘The whole notion of terroir is built on the idea that through decades of trial and error it is possible to understand the relationship between the vine’s environment and the wine. But global climatic change threatens to fundamentally alter this relationship.’

Wine Australia for Australian Wine Australia Industry House cnr Botanic & Hackney Roads Adelaide SA 5000 | PO Box 2733 Kent Town SA 5071 October 2016 | www.research.wineaustralia.com T: 08 8228 2000 | F: 08 8228 2066 | E: research@wineaustralia.com | W: www.research.wineaustralia.com Wine

grapegrowing Grapevine nutrition and pre-flowering inputs The right nutrient additions delivered at the right growth stage can greatly improve vine health and potentially deliver healthy fruit and good returns for growers. Sam Bowman, from Bowman Viticulture, reports. GRAPEVINES NEED a variety of nutrients for healthy metabolic function. From woolly bud to flowering, a vine is utilising the carbohydrates it stored post-harvest (Holzapfel, 2016). However, if sufficient nutrients were not supplied post-harvest, there may need to be some adjustments made pre-flowering. Many of the available nutritional inputs need to be applied in the lead up to flowering, because they are crucial for inflorescence development, spring growth and inevitably, fruit set. It’s important to assess nutrient status to ensure you obtain the best results through the season. So, let’s have a refresher of what the vine needs and how it should be most effectively supplied.

MACRO NUTRIENTS Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorous, Calcium, Magnesium and Sulphur are essential in large quantities for vine growth and photosynthetic conversion pathways, the source of where we draw these nutrients is just as important as the input itself. With sustainability an essential discussion for any agricultural enterprise, every grower and vineyard manager should have a good think about the sources of Nitrogen they are supplying to their vineyard.

Glenn McGourty of the University of California has done a lot of work to compare the energy consumption to produce 1kg of Nitrogen from synthetic forms (nitrogen salts/urea) with the energy required to produce 1kg of Nitrogen from organic compost. The results are startling. To synthetically produce 1kg of Nitrogen requires 21,666Kwh of energy compared with organic compost at 138Kwh. In a time when modern agriculture needs to think beyond its on-farm use, this should be in the back of our minds when selecting where we draw on our nutrient sources from. That said, if there is an immediate deficiency that needs to be mitigated there is often no choice so building soil organics each year should be the first port of call. Leaf blade or petiole analysis should be routinely completed each season to determine the vines nutrient status. It is best to get this done around flowering to ensure you have sufficient nutrients

available for metabolic functions within the vine. Soil testing should be completed every two-to-three years in order to maintain a really good understanding of the soil structure, pH and CEC (cation exchange capacity) – which are crucial in tracking the availability of nutrients to your vines. For every tonne of grapes harvested the following macro nutrients are removed from the vineyard: Nutrient

Amount removed/tonne

Nitrogen

1.5kg

Phosphorous

0.3kg

Potassium

3.1kg

Sulphur

0.5kg

Calcium

0.1kg

Magnesium

0.1kg

Source: Managing grapevine nutrition and soil health, Proffitt 2012.

It is worth keeping these numbers in mind when you start looking toward post-harvest nutrient applications. If

As spring growth continues, it is important to consider the nutrients which are vital for reproductive development in the vine.

for a perfect growing environment

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there are pre flowering deficiencies, they should be addressed with either foliar or fertigation nutrient supply. As spring growth continues, it is important to consider the nutrients which

28 Grapegrower & Winemaker

are vital for reproductive development in the vine. Spring shoot development is influenced by Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorous, they are also vital for inflorescence initiation.

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Calcium has an influence on cell wall strength and protects against certain necrosis issues like bunch stem necrosis (BSN). Pre-f lowering Magnesium concentration in the vine has been

October 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 633

known to influence the prevalence of BSN so I like to go in with Epsom salts pre flowering. This issue also has a correlation with excessive vigour (Pickering, et al) so again, it is important to monitor nutrient balance. As previously mentioned, these nutrients are predominantly drawn from reserves laid down post-harvest which means if there was not a sufficient supply, additions will be required. I’m a big fan of foliar kelps and fish emulsion products for a quick NPK and trace boost pre flowering.

MICRO NUTRIENTS We often get caught up when applying fertilizers looking solely for Nitrogen/Phosphorus/Potassium (NPK) concentration and not thinking of the important roles that micronutrients play in flower initiation and fruit set. Grapevine inflorescences contain hundreds of potential flowers, but only about half will develop into berries (which is good news, because if 100 per cent of the flowers developed, the bunch would end up being extremely tight/ compact and this would increase the potential for botrytis and other disease issues). If the level of flower-to-berry development drops below 30 per cent, you are going to encounter poor fruit set. There are lots of external factors at play in this conversion rate, from the weather conditions for bud development in the previous spring through to the conditions at flowering.

October 2016 – Issue 633

There are a variety of products available on the market for micronutrient input and many can be used in combination with fungicide treatments to achieve efficiency in the vineyard. But nutrition has an effect on fruit set as well, especially deficiencies in any of the following micro nutrients: Boron, Manganese, Iron, Copper, Zinc and Molybdenum – which are all vital for many functions within the vine, especially in regard to inflorescence development and fruit set. Iron and Manganese are important in chlorophyll synthesis and assisting in photosynthetic and respiratory pathways which, in turn, effects early shoot growth. Boron influences the production of plant growth hormones which regulate many physiological stages such as ripening and leaf fall. Both Zinc and Molybdenum influence fruit set and the development of the vine’s reproductive organs. There has been a lot of work done around the requirement of Molybdenum

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at flowering to reduce hen and chicken and increase seed development and bunch yield (Williams, 2004). But, as there are no visual growth symptoms for Molybdenum deficiency before fruit set, and with own rooted vines being more susceptible pre flowering to deficiency than grafted vines, it is important to assess this through tissue analysis and make the appropriate amendments. There are a variety of products available on the market for micronutrient input and many can be used in combination with fungicide treatments to achieve efficiency in the vineyard. Again, soil composition will greatly affect the uptake of certain micronutrients, especially the pH of the soil. In alkaline soil (pH greater than 8), Iron, Manganese, Boron and Zinc will become unavailable to the vine. Conversely in acidic soils (pH less than 5.5), Molybdenum can become unavailable to the vine so understanding your vineyard from the ground up will give the best result throughout the season.

CONCLUSION Nutrient uptake and availability is a complex management issue which should be addressed each season. Every vineyard site is different so there is no cover all approach. Understand the composition of your soil and track excess or deficiency of nutrients to assess whether issues are ongoing or seasonal. Making the right additions at the right growth stage can greatly improve vine health and the fruit that results can end up creating great wines and good returns.

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Some ryegrass and fescue cover-crops may damage grapevines Australian under-vine cover crop research is currently being carried out by Chris Penfold (University of Adelaide, SA) and Melanie Weckert (NWGIC, NSW) with the support of Wine Australia funding. The research team, which includes Jim Pratley, Jenny Bannister and Mark Norton, will investigate the effects of different under-vine cover cropping systems (grasses and legumes) on soil microbial biodiversity, vine health and wine quality. Replicated vineyard trials are located in South Australia and New South Wales. THE UNDER-VINE AREA of the vineyard floor contains the greatest concentration of vine roots, so management of this zone directly impacts vine yield, quality and profitability. Despite their importance, under-vine zones have received little research effort committed to improving vineyard profitability. It is estimated that between $7-$12million (depending on the season) is spent annually on the purchase and application of herbicides for undervine weed control in Australia with

30 Grapegrower & Winemaker

glyphosate resistant ryegrass requiring more expensive herbicides for control. The issue here is that the zone of soil with the greatest level of root activity and potential influence on quality is not being cared for with best soil management practice. In particular, weeds growing under the vine need to be removed. Our project aims to develop novel under-vine management systems that would ultimately reduce the need for any herbicide, cultivation, mowing or imported mulch by growing self-perpetuating desirable plant species. www.winetitles.com.au

The researchers expect the successful species will either be self-regenerating annuals or summer-dormant perennials, commencing growth in autumn to smother weeds, providing root matter to improve soil structure, and then either dying off in spring (the annuals) to leave a mulch or becoming dormant before extracting valuable moisture (native grass), or later where excess vigour is an issue (exotic grass). This environmentally benign approach to under-vine weed management is intended to provide considerable cost October 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 633

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grapegrowing savings to the industry while maintaining or improving grape yield and quality. It is also consistent with improving the clean and green reputation of our production systems through the reduction in chemical inputs.

UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY: GRASSES AFFECT YIELD AND MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI The 2015-16 harvest provided an unexpected outcome; some under-vine plant species (some of the medics and clovers) seemed to have increased the grapevine yield, while others (some perennial grasses) were associated with decreased yield. At first, the research team assumed that these differences may have been caused by differences in competition for nutrients and water. Since arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) colonisation of the grapevine root is important for grapevine nutrient and water uptake, we tested root colonisation in the presence of different under-vine species using the ‘root squash’ method. The different under-vine cover crop species were associated with significant differences in the grapevine AMF colonisation. Generally, most legume species associated with higher grape yields were also associated with higher grapevine root AMF colonisation. In contrast, other under-vine treatments including herbicide application, fescues and cocksfoot grasses were associated with a much lower rate of colonisation. This discovery of an interaction between cover crop species, AMF colonisation and yield is likely to be very important for Australian viticulture and may answer the question “Why do some cover crops decrease grape yield while others increase it?”

ENDOPHYTE DISCOVERED IN COVER CROP LEAVES The laboratory studies have now shown that, although the research team did try to select seed ‘free from endophyte’, the leaves of the fescue and cocksfoot species used in our field trials were actually colonised by ‘endophytes’ called Epichloë fungi. Epichloë fungi have historically led to serious problems for Australian graziers

because they produce toxic alkaloids in the leaf sheaths and flowering stems that can harm grazing animals. A common example is the serious ryegrass toxicosis ‘Ryegrass Staggers’ in sheep. Over past decades scientists have been able to modify the endophyte colonisation to prevent animal toxicity, by replacing common toxic strains with ‘novel’ nonmammal-toxic strains. However, the literature shows that it is still difficult to find ryegrass and fescue species which are totally free of Epichloë endophyte. In many cases seed of these species is sold containing a ‘novel’ endophyte that is active against fungi and neighbouring plants although non-toxic to grazing animals (Young et al., 2015). In addition, the endophyte is sometimes able to produce fungal spores on the grass leaf, allowing dispersion from plant to plant by wind (White et al., 1996) or water (Tadych et al., 2007). The research team has used microscopy to show the existence of these Epichloë spores on the leaves of two fescues from our field trials, indicating that plant to plant transmission could be occurring in our trial vineyards.

ENDOPHYTE POT EXPERIMENT Epichloë endophytes are known to decrease AMF colonisation in adjacent plants, so we suspect that the endophytes may be decreasing AMF colonisation of the grapevines. To test this, the research team began a replicated pot experiment in our NSW DPI controlled temperature glasshouse at the NWGIC, Wagga Wagga. Two-bud Cabernet Sauvignon rooted cuttings were planted in 2kg sand/soil mix with AMF inoculant with regular application of optimal water and nutrients. Grasses or legumes were co-planted with the grapevines in half of the pots, while matching grapevines received only the water that leached from the grasses or legumes. Grapevine pots acting as ‘controls’ contained neither grasses nor leachate. The grapevines were equivalent in size before co-planting or the leaching. The preliminary results show some grasses had a large early effect on the size of the potted grapevines. The endophyte containing Safeguard

Ryegrass, Flecha Tall Fescue, and Zorro Rat’s Tail Fescue treatments caused a remarkable decrease in vine shoot growth. Surprisingly, the clovers increased grapevine growth. In contrast, other grasses including Wallaby Grass and Kasbah Cocksfoot seemed to have no effect, neither deleterious nor beneficial, on the grapevines. This is the first report of such deleterious and beneficial interactions between cover crops and grapevines. It seems likely that the Epichloë endophytes are producing inhibitory chemicals that impact on the grapevine: i.e. there is an ‘allelopathic’ interaction between the grasses and the vines. Allelopathy is a special interest to one of the research collaborators, Professor Jim Pratley from CSU, and the research team intends to use the latest technology to investigate the allelopathic aspects of vineyard cover crops further.

COULD ALLELOPATHY EXPLAIN WHY SOME COVER CROPS TRIED IN AUSTRALIAN VINEYARDS HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL? The research team needs help from grapegrowers. These important interactions, not related to water availability, are in need of continued investigation. Australian grape-growers may have noticed yield decreases with cover crops they have tried in the past. In response, they would probably have removed the offending cover crop. Have you ever noticed this sort of interaction happening in your vineyard? If so, you could really help progress this research by sending us an email outlining your experiences to: mweckert@ csu.edu.au.

References

Tadych M, Bergen M, Dugan FM, White JF (2007). Evaluation of the potential role of water in spread of conidia of the Neotyphodium endophyte of Poa ampla. Mycological Research 111, 466-472. White JF, Martin TI, Cabral D (1996). Endophytehost associations in grasses. XXII. Conidia formation by Acremonium endophytes on the phylloplanes of Agrostis hiemalis and Poa rigidifolia Mycologia 88 (2), 174-178. Young C, Hume D, McCulley R (2013). Fungal endophytes of tall fescue and perennial ryegrass: pasture friend or foe? Journal of Animal Science 91, 2379-2394.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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Burch Family Wines sets the standard for vineyard sustainability

Plan to ‘hit hard and hit early’ Regardless of whether you are trying to control Light Brown Apple Moth, powdery mildew or downy mildew, the timing of sprays in your program is critical and there is no spray more important than the first application. For Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM), insecticide labels recommend targeting this pest soon after egg lay or when larvae are small. Countless trials have shown that this application timing, when LBAM is at its most vulnerable stage of its lifecycle, is when most products achieve their best results. If the larvae get too large, they can survive the insecticide spray. Monitoring moth flights and working out predicted egg hatch dates has proven to be a valuable tool in planning when to spray. Last year, this strategy worked particularly well as LBAM were on the move much earlier than normal (up to 4 to 5 weeks earlier in some districts), as well as there being numerous flights. Growers who monitored frequently throughout the season and acted on information, such as moth flights, were able to remain in control of LBAM populations, rather than letting populations establish which required an increased effort to achieve good control of large larvae. When it comes to controlling fungal infections, preventative or very early intervention is just as important. Populations of fungal pathogens, like downy mildew and powdery mildew, are made up of individual isolates. Once these diseases establish the infection can release literally billions of spores. When talking about such large numbers, there is always the chance that some spores or isolates will have resistance or tolerance to the chemical you are applying. Having a preventative spray program in place and applying good protectant fungicides ahead of rainfall events is critical to ensure the disease does not establish and to maintain a handle on resistance build-up. With resistance management it’s a numbers game. Keeping populations of any pest or disease at low levels, or ideally absent, is the best approach. Frequently monitoring the weather conditions as well as understanding the target pest or disease in its early stages can pay dividends time and time again. If the conditions are right for the disease or pest to multiply, it is best to act before it’s too late, and also ensure you have the right product on hand to spray before it becomes a problem. Plan ahead, hit hard and hit early.

Vine Talk is compiled by Dave Antrobus, Syngenta Solutions Development Lead dave.antrobus@syngenta.com 0429 133 436 34 Grapegrower & Winemaker

We’re all pretty keen on maintaining biodiversity across the vineyards. Our sustainable practices have been growing over the years and we’re seeing results. WHEN IT COMES TO implementing sustainability processes in viticulture, Burch Family Wines is a leader in the industry. The WA-based winery has vineyards in both the Margaret River and Great Southern regions and is committed to investing in sustainable practices wherever possible. They in fact owned one of the very first Margaret River vineyards to obtain certification from Entwine, an environmental certificate overseen by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia. David Botting, Chief Viticulturist for Burch Family Wines, says that he was first drawn to work for the family operated winery because of their commitment to high-quality, sustainable vineyard management. “I get a huge buzz out of being able to build and manage vineyards to such a high standard,” Botting said. “We’re all pretty keen on maintaining biodiversity across the vineyards. Our sustainable practices have been growing over the years and we’re seeing results.” Having a vineyard certified by Entwine is an on-going commitment to sustainability and involves independent audits to ensure their strict guidelines are adhered to at all times. Burch Family Wines takes this responsibility very seriously and is always on the lookout to introduce new eco-friendly processes. “We’re right up there in terms of our commitment to sustainability,” Botting said. “We’re constantly looking at solar power and how we can put panels all over the vineyards. This is something we hope to have in-place in the near future.” Botting said that they currently have an extensive waste water management system in place that has almost closed the sustainability loop entirely. In the Margaret River area in particular, there is not a great need for irrigation as there is plenty of rainfall. However, all wastewater is collected, filtered and the biological load managed, before being reused whenever needed. Burch Family Wines is also one of the few wineries that grows and manages their own wood lots across their vineyards to serve as wind breaks for the vines. Mostly Tasmanian blue gums, these trees serve a two-fold purpose of sheltering the crops from harsh winds, and supplying the wood chip used in the vineyard’s successful compost operation. Botting said that very few vineyards have thought to manage their own wood lots for the purpose of sustainability. “This is why we’re an industry leader, no one else has thought of doing it and we have the resources to pull it off,” Botting said.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

Sidewood turns on the sun for ‘green’ wine SIDEWOOD ESTATE, located in the exquisite environs of the Adelaide Hills has embraced its surroundings and implemented a number of ’green’ projects within the business that support sustainability and the environment. Sidewood’s Nairne winery is set to ‘flick the switch’ in the coming weeks to become solar powered. A 100kw solar system to provide over 50% of the facility’s annual consumption. The winery’s output capability will, upon completion of the expansion increase from 500 to 2000 tonnes each vintage with the installation of new bottling and canning facilities producing more than 400,000 bottles of wine and cider per annum by 2017. wine company has shown to have a Additionally, Sidewood has fundamental interest in environmental successfully undertaken a number management and has taken extended of initiatives at its primary vineyard measures in protecting the surrounding ‘Ashwood Estate’ and been awarded environment and natural resources. Entwine membership. Within the “As grapegrowers we can have a coming months, Sidewood will also seek significant impact on natural resources accreditation at its vineyards in Nairne, such as land area, soil, water courses at Maximilians and Ironstone Road. and the biodiversity. Using the correct “Securing Entwine Australia management practices and sustainable membership has been a long but highly quantities of production inputs such worthwhile process that enables us to as chemicals, fertiliser and water will provide a guarantee to our customers and ensure the long term sustainability of our suppliers that an industry recognised vineyard and the surrounding farming environmental assurance program area,” Inglis said. has been followed whilst growing our Achieving the Entwine accreditation product,” said Owen Inglis, Sidewood though the Environmental Viticulture owner. option, Sidewood was assessed and When growing grapes under the audited on nine categories including land approved Entwine accreditation, 4641ZamproGGW_R 2016-09-16T15:59:26+10:00 and soil, chemicals, fertilisers and soil Sidewood, as a grapegrower/

additives, water, biodiversity, waste, air, energy and fuel. “We looked at why we do things and how we could reduce any inputs to achieve the same outcome and not affect the environment,” Inglis said. Sidewood commenced preparing for the accreditation process several years ago with a number changes being made to become a more sustainable and environmentally friendly grower. One example has been running sheep through the vineyard across autumn and winter which maintains pasture, removes hard to kill weeds and returns organic fertiliser back to the vineyard. This also reduces chemical input, machinery operations and labour to manage these areas over the winter months.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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Mike Stone, Murray Valley Winegrowers executive officer

Growers approve new order WINEGRAPE GROWERS in the Murray-Darling and Swan Hill regions have voted decisively in favour of another four-year term for the Murray Valley Wine Grape Industry Development Order. This is the statutory provision that underpins the collection of levies by the Murray Valley Wine Grape Industry Development Committee (IDC). The Order is subject to a compulsory vote by winegrape growers every four years. With growers’ approval, the IDC has the authority to continue to collect a charge of $1.25/tonne on wine grapes produced for sale in the Murray-Darling and Swan Hill regions. The IDC also oversees the spending of levy funds, with most of the funding for Murray Valley Winegrowers (MVW) coming via the IDC. The Victorian Electoral Commission issued ballot papers in late August and polling closed at 4pm on September 23. Of the 379 growers enrolled to vote, 241 voted (64% of those enrolled), with 214 (89%) supporting the Order until December 2020. It was a similar outcome to the 2008 and 2012 polls. However, the 2016 poll attracted a significantly higher proportion of voters.

36 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Growers have given us another four years’ in which to provide advocacy and representation. “This was an extremely important vote for MVW given its dependence on the IDC process for most of its funding,” said Mike Stone, MVW executive officer. “Growers have given us another four years’ in which to provide advocacy and representation, to maintain a weather station network and provide weather alerts, employ an Industry Development Officer to provide viticultural advice, produce harvest reports on production and prices, operate a grapes for sale register and price watch, and to keep growers informed of issues affecting supply/demand and vineyard viability. The MVW represents more than 20 per cent of Australia’s total winegrape production has provided a collective voice on viticulture issues.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

Australian grapegrowers vote for change WGGA will become Australian Vignerons AT A SPECIAL general meeting of Wine Grape Growers Australia (WGGA) in September, a majority of members voted in favour of accepting a new Constitution, which will mean that WGGA will now trade as Australian Vignerons. The new name, encompassing both growing and making wine, is intended to reflect a holistic approach to the changing wine community. Other changes will include the election of an independent, skills–based board, and a change to membership structure. “This is not the end of a period of hard work – it is the start of it,” said Andrew Weeks, WGGA executive director. “We have support in –principle, but now we need to ensure financial support from those who intend to be members of this re-focused national grower body”. The re-structure followed the analysis of obstacles preventing WGGA from gaining national support from all wineproducing regions. Sources of income has been depleted through reduced member contributions; a reflection of the current challenging trading conditions in the wine industry. Weeks said the WGGA was faced with a choice to either change, or perish. “In reality there were few alternatives,” said Joanna Andrew, the WGGA independent chair. “WGGA was not seen as offering value to all Australian growers, so there was limited financial support, and that position was not sustainable. If not for these changes, we would be facing wind-up proceedings instead of proposing a new direction”. The WGGA will now adopt the new constitution and trade as Australian Vignerons. It will focus on the national activities of grower advocacy, addressing the biosecurity responsibilities for the wine industry, providing grower input into research, development and marketing programs, and doing what it can to assist with market access for Australian wine. Much of this work will involve collaboration with the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, and is intended to deliver benefits to all in the industry. There is a widely-recognised desire for industry organisations to work together; October 2016 – Issue 633

We have support in –principle, but now we need to ensure financial support from those who intend to be members of this re-focused national grower body. however, it has been made clear during industry-wide consultations there must be a separate voice for growers. The new structure of Australian Vignerons will combine the governance of an independent board and the representation of a council of members. The current executive committee of WGGA will become the interim board of Australian Vignerons, and will immediately start work on implementing the new structure, and rejuvenating the national grower organisation.

IMPACT FOR GROWERS The Grapegrower & Winemaker sought further comments on this development from Ben Rose, the Victoria & Tasmania representative on the WGGA Executive Committee. Rose grew up in the wine industry; still has an active involvement with the family vineyard; and has been running his own viticulture consultancy for almost 20 years. Q. Why do you think the time is right for a new structure for the peak winegrape body? Ben Rose: The old structure was not truly representative of the grape and wine industry, and it appeared that few industry participants were able to see the value it provided. A lot of the work that peak bodies such as WGGA do is not glamorous, but it is crucial to the functioning of the industry. For example biosecurity at a national level is extremely important for grapegrowing and winemaking. www.winetitles.com.au

Australia has some of the oldest grapevines in the world and without constant vigil they are put at threat. Q. Why will an independent board be valuable for the national organisation? BR: An independent board is a must for any organisation that wants to be relevant in the future. An independent board allows every board member to contribute as equals and act in the interest of the organisation and the industry it represents. It removes any bias that a member may have in making decisions that may be advantageous for one area of the industry, while presenting a disadvantage to other areas. A peak body must be speak in unison to be effective and hold the ear of Government. Q. How will this new structure consider different types of grower members? BR: The new structure includes a members council, that represent the general membership and elects the board. The members council will determine the issues of national policy, to which the board will operate on an annual basis. Individual growers will be able to raise concerns from national level with their representative grower organisations who will determine in the first instance if there is enough of a national interests to raise the issue at a national level. Currently there is little room for a grower to raise issues to a national level, as the industry is disjointed, with too many organisations trying to represent small groups, with few of them actually having the ear of the government or the mandate to effectively provide advocacy. Q. What are the key national issues set to be tackled through the new structure? BR: The key national issues for winegrowers at all levels are the code of conduct between suppliers and purchasers, biosecurity and of the WET rebate and associated tax reforms. For more information about the change from the WGGA to Australian Vignerons, growers can refer to this website: http://wgga.com.au Grapegrower & Winemaker

grapegrowing

Controlling vines to suit the weather: Canopy management and other techniques to manipulate grapevine phenology Dr Amber Parker recently reflected on her current research project; ‘how far can human control manipulate vines to suit the weather?’. She noted earlier compressed wine harvests and increased sugar concentration in grapes at harvest time are just two of the significant issues facing wine growers as grapevine phenology advances. Daniel Whyntie reports. of a changing climate; such as Dr Amber AS GRAPEGROWERS across Australia Parker Viticulture lecturer from the and New Zealand report grapes ripening Lincoln University in New Zealand. up to two weeks early scientists attribute An expert in grapevine phenology these changes to warming temperatures, and modelling, Dr Parker spoke about which they say could pose a threat to her research into changes to the lifecycle winemakers globally. (phenology) of grapevines in response to In places like South Australia’s Clare temperature and adaptation strategies for Valley this is causing more grapes to growers. ripen at the same time which can make “Solutions to adapt to current harvest shorter. advances in grapevine phenology may Now some of the world’s leading wine include changing varieties or areas in and viticulture researchers, along with which grapevines are planted, or using the world’s biggest wine companies, are BCH1006WVJAL_FA 2016-09-05T12:21:15+10:00 management techniques to delay ripening investigating ways to mitigate the impact

on existing vineyards,” Parker said. Management techniques may include late pruning, canopy trimming or the application of plant growth regulators. Parker has completed research investigating canopy trimming and yield manipulation.

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION STRATEGIES Current and future adaptation strategies will be crucial for the wine industry in the face of climate change, ad effective action will require a

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October 2016 – Issue 633

“We do know that different varieties have their different time clock, so in any given vineyard you will have different timing between varieties of their bud burst or flowering,” Parker said. “For example Pinot Noir go through flowering before say cabernet sauvignon, a variety that you will find further up north in New Zealand.” Climate is the key driver of the phenological models being developed by Dr Parker to predict the timing of those key events. combination of disciplines, technologies “There’s a lot of questions over and approaches according to Parker. whether the current varieties planted The problem with the fruit ripening now are going to be suitable for the early is that grapes more often than not future in that region, or do we need won’t have the flavour that they should to start looking at varieties that are and if they leave them on the vine and better adapted to warmer temperatures wait to harvest them, they will have and perhaps develop later during the undesirable alcohol levels. season. Understanding temperature as Also at stake are the roughly 24,000 a key driver in our models is important jobs related to Australia wine industry internationally in the face of climate and their exports valued at $2.1 billion. change.” Parker said. Explaining her work in a more detailed “Variability in our seasons is also a way, “I’m working on phenological characteristic of cool climate viticulture; development, so different timing of so incorporating that understanding different varieties, in terms of when they of what’s an average developmental flower, in terms of the maturation period; time, and then what’s the variability but also what’s coming up soon in the around that time is a key part of our vineyard, when they bud burst at the BCH1006WVJAR_FA 2016-09-05T12:17:28+10:00 investigations. beginning of the growing season”.

Current and future adaptation strategies will be crucial for the wine industry in the face of climate change.

“Can we predict with our models a huge variation in timing as well?” Her research on canopy trimming was based on a case study of Pinot noir and Sauvignon Blanc vines. Results showed that trimming shortly after the fruit set delayed the onset of ripening (véraison) for both varieties and slowed the rate of soluble solids accumulation. Véraison was up to a week later and caused a larger delay in the time of harvest (if harvesting on target sugars). Trimming at véraison also slowed sugar accumulation and delayed harvest but to a lesser degree. No differences were measured in the acidity of the grapes. Future studies will consider how canopy trimming affects the balance of sugar, acid concentration and other metabolites, and how this influences the final wine. The delays achieved by canopy management could be implemented as an adaptation practice to delay the harvest window and avoid ripening grapes in the warmer part of summer, which would have different consequences on the berry and wine composition than to maintain current timing of harvest.

You can trust Teldor. “We’ve always used it,” says John Evans, the viticulturist at Rochford Wines. “We’ve tried all the newer products and still keep coming back to Teldor.” For effective protection against botrytis – in rotation with other fungicidal modes of action – you can always trust Teldor fungicide.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

grapegrowing

What allows you to manipulate the ripening with trimming is with less leaves to provide nutrients you slow the developmental period. With dropping crop you’re reducing the number of fruit on the vine so it can go on a bit quicker. So you can speed up or slow down.

WHAT CAN BE CHANGED? “In terms of looking at changes in development there are management practices we can use,” Parker said. Change in variety is of course the biggest change, looking at shifting what has previously been planted. But that’s a big consideration given that a vineyard is relatively long term, in terms of how long we want to keep the vines in the ground before changing them over. So, alternatively, growers and vineyard managers might consider shortterm adaptations, for example canopy manipulations and pruning. There are also growth regulators and a lot of the work Parker has done has looked at canopy manipulations, whether it is possible to delay the timing of later events as the start of maturation and the maturation period itself. Some of the key approaches to use when shifting how those later events happen in the season are trimming, reducing the height of your canopy, leaf plucking; that’s often used in the fruiting zone to open up and aerate the canopy, so perhaps doesn’t manipulate the timing unless you do it severely, in terms of what we do in standard industry practice. Crop removal can actually enable you

40 Grapegrower & Winemaker

to speed up the ripening period. In a cool climate sometimes we’ve actually got a limited season in terms of having a cool year, dropping crop might be a tool in the tool box to accommodate and speed up that ripening phase. “In terms of flowering research by other people has shown they can delay the timing of bud bursts with a small shift in flowering. But flowering is perhaps the phenological stage that is least prone to shifting by human intervention, we’re more likely to shift the onset of ripening and that ripening period, through say canopy manipulation,” Parker said. “What’s actually happening that allows you to manipulate the ripening with trimming is your removing leaves, with less leaves to provide nutrients, predominantly sugars, to the berries you actually slow the developmental period. With dropping crop your just reducing the number of fruit on the vine that require that sugar so therefore it can go on a bit quicker. So you can do both speed up or slow.”

MODELLING AND APPLICATION Since the completion of her PhD, Parker was also involved in a threeyear project combining climate models www.winetitles.com.au

and grapevine phenological models to characterise flowering of Sauvignon blanc in the Marlborough region. This was the first implementation in New Zealand of phenology models that Dr Parker has developed with European collaborators. Application so far has been to predict the timing of flowering of Sauvignon blanc in the different grape growing areas of the Marlborough. Phenological modelling research is of great interest internationally, and Dr Parker has ongoing involvement in international grapevine phenological modelling program. In particular, in the Northern Hemisphere, they are already recording advances in phenology and considering adaptation strategies as a result of observed increases in temperature. “If we can start to understand how much we can delay phenology via changing varieties or canopy management techniques then we can consider the best practice to negate the impact of increased temperatures due to climate change on the grapevine lifecycle. This will hopefully provide us with options in winegrowing regions in New Zealand and abroad to adapt to the climate of the future,” Parker said. October 2016 – Issue 633

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Margaret River ‘viticultural excellence award’ MARGARET RIVER Wine Industry Association is proud to announce Clairault | Streicker Wine Estates as its 2016 Viticulture Excellence partner which will again feature a travel bursary as the award. Stuart Watson, Margaret River Wine Association president, said “as an Association we believe quite simply that good vines make the finest wines; you cannot have one without the other”. “It is to this end that we created and uphold the opportunity to highlight excellence in viticultural practices within the region. The award allows us to recognise the importance of quality fruit in maintaining and enhancing Margaret River’s hard won international reputation,” Watson said. An independent judging panel is appointed to assess all applications which are based on written submissions, site inspections and fruit gradings. Previous panel’s feedback is that they have found it quite difficult to choose a winner, given the high level of vineyard management and practice in the Margaret River region. All previous winners of the award have chosen to travel internationally be that Europe, North America and New Zealand. Upon their return they share their learned knowledge with Margaret River colleagues in keeping with the objective of the award to improve viticultural practice throughout the region. “Given the clear and unambiguous link between vineyard management, viticultural practice and fine wine production Clairault | Streicker seized the opportunity to become involved

The award allows us to recognise the importance of quality fruit in maintaining and enhancing Margaret River’s hard won international reputation.

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in partnering with the association in its ‘viticultural excellence award’,” said Angela Gosden, Clairault | Streicker’s general manager. “John Streicker fell in love with Margaret River in 2001 and has continued his pursuit of making ultra-premium wine, from what he believes to be the best wine region in Australia. We are very proud to sponsor this award which assists in the development of our wine region, its people and their skills that will benefit the region for years to come.” By committing to the ‘viticultural excellence award’ as a partner, Clairault | Streicker would be ineligible to enter. Applications for the 2016 Clairault | Streicker Margaret River Viticultural Excellence Award can be found at the Association’s website www.margaretriverwine.info.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

Supplier Update

Durable and sustainable trellis posts IT’S ABOUT TIME a robust, long-term, recyclable vineyard post appeared on the Australian market. Ocloc A was constructed to create a more robust, flexible, long term and recyclable solution plus help counter the high rates of post breakages and help reduce the huge piles of toxic wooden post refuse loitering in most vineyards. Research carried out across the past five years, looking at the best of existing designs from Australia and overseas, combined with extensive grower input led to the development of the Ocloc A Vinepost. Ocloc A can be used for general restructure or ‘green-field’ developments and is made from recyclable, high grade structural tensile steel with the foremost Galfan coating to substantially extend post life in what is a harsh viticultural environment. Most conscious grape growers have recognised the need for change, plus re-thinking post selection, with the general consensus being steel as the best option away from outdated and apathetic use of treated pine posts. Prior to Ocloc A there wasn’t a simple post available that was ‘set and forget’, with low labour requirements and no additional clips or previous steels that have been too weak for application. Ocloc A is a durable, sustainable and an uncompromising trellis post that will out-perform any other posts available ‘hands down’ with no ongoing environmental issues.

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Yangarra, Henschke, Paxton, Kirribilly, Bests, Zarella, Torbreck, Bowman Viticulture and Seppeltsfield just to name just a few have seen the obvious cost and environmental benefits in using steel posts and essentially Ocloc A. Ocloc products are proudly owned, designed and produced in Australia by viticulturists for long term sustainable viticulture. For more information, visit www.ocloc.com.au.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

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You should stand out like a purple cow Ashley Ratcliff, the Yalumba Winery production manager and Ricca Terra Farms general manager, explores the value of branding for grapegrowers and vineyard businesses. IN THE BOOK The Purple Cow, author Seth Godin refers to his first visit to Europe with his family. He wrote of how beautiful the herds of brown cows were grazing in the countryside as he drove along the highway. Yet, after only a short time, passing herd-after-herd of brown cows, he made a personal observation – the cows were becoming very boring and had very quickly lost their unique attraction. Godin states, “wouldn’t it be great to see a purple cow”. Now that would be exciting. “The end game is not about beating a competitor, or winning a sale. The end game is to earn profit through establishing brand loyalty.” The ‘brown cow’ paradox is present in most industries. One of the attractions of wine to the end consumer is the romance and uniqueness of where the grapes are grown that make the wine, the vineyard. Successful wine company marketers have been able to etch an image in the

44 Grapegrower & Winemaker

A brand is essentially a company’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services consistently to the consumer. consumers’ mind of grapes being hand harvested by the farmer’s weathered hands and then delivering his/her grapes to the winery in an old Bedford truck where the grapes are forked off and pressed in an old wooden basket press. These images attempt to create a setting that makes wine special and unique. While this imagery does in some

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cases represent a select group of growers and winemakers, the truth is that the wine brands most consumers drink are made from grapes that are grown in large ‘broadacre’ vineyards, harvested by machines and made in large modern ‘factory-like’ wineries where the aim is to limit hands-on winemaking to mitigate costs. There is nothing wrong with industrial winemaking. Wine made at large wineries in general is very good and consistent in quality. Wine companies invest heavily in establishing, growing and protecting their brands. Why? To understand this it is important to define what a brand is and what value it can deliver to a business. A brand is a name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller and to differentiate from those of competitors. A brand is essentially a company’s promise to deliver a specific set of features,

October 2016 – Issue 633

benefits, and services consistently to the consumer. The branding challenge is to develop a deep set of positive associations for the brand. If a wine company can establish a brand with a deep set of positive associations then the wine company can establish a brand with a high degree of brand awareness and brand acceptance among consumers, which can lead to brand preference (consumers preferring a specific brand over other brands as a result of superior features, benefits, and services). The ultimate goal in the brand building process is to obtain brand loyalty. Tony O’Reilly, former CEO of H.J. Heinze, proposed this test of brand loyalty “my acid test is whether a customer, intending to buy Heinz tomato sauce in a store, finding it out of stock, will walk out of the store and buy it elsewhere”. Brand loyalty is when the consumer becomes devoted to the brand. While a brand is an intangible asset, it can be the most valuable asset on a corporation’s balance sheet. According to Forbes Magazine, the brand value for Apple has been estimated at US$145 billion dollars. Achieving brand loyalty and hence having customers who are advocates of a brand contributes positively to a business’s bottom line. For example, a business can charge a higher price than its competitors because the brand has a higher perceived value. As a result of greater brand awareness and loyalty, a business does not need to invest heavily into marketing programs and a business will have more trade

To build a brand grapegrowers’ need to accept that ideas, signs or noises can have considerable value. A brand is an intangible asset. Building a successful brand requires a grape grower to invest, and protect, in the brand building process just as much as they do when growing and protecting their crop. leverage in bargaining with distributors and retailers as the customers expect them to carry the brand they are advocates for. If successful brands deliver value to wine companies and companies in general, why does it appear that the grape growing community has failed to embrace this cornerstone of business? The challenge facing many grape growers is the goods (their grapes) that they grow and sell to their customers (the winery) in many cases look and taste the same as their competitors (other grape growers). Basically many grape growers resemble another brown cow in another herd of brown. There are a number of reasons why grape growers, businesses and people in general want to be part of the brown herd. Herd mentality actually has a functional purpose. The term ‘herd’ implies a certain state of mind. It can be described as how large groups of animals and people act

the same ways at the same times. Herd mentality can be feared based reaction to peer pressure which makes individuals act in order to avoid feeling ‘left behind’ from the group. Being part of a herd also provides protection from predators. A cow that strays from the herd is more likely to be attacked by a predator compared to a cow that is part of the herd. Basically a herd provides comfort and safety, but the trade-off is that it is difficult to stand out and be noticed when part of a herd. The essential ingredient behind building a meaningful brand is to stand out and be noticed, meaning comfort and safety needs to be risked… so being part of a herd is not the best place to be to establish a successful and lasting brand. In relation to establishing a brand for a vineyard, unique elements of a vineyard’s operation (features, benefits, and/or services) that differs from neighbouring/competitor vineyards need to be identified.

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Family brand example: Liebich Family Vineyards are a premium wine grape producer from the Riverland region and is owned and operated by four brothers across seven sites along the Murray River stretching from Cadell to Waikerie. Liebich Family Vineyards have become a leader and innovator in vineyard production, adopting new technologies to improve the quality of fruit and efficiencies in production with an emphasis on quality, and sustainability for future generations.

These unique elements could be adopting different farming practices (orga nic/ biody na mic production, growing alternative varieties, and/or farming in a collaborative manner with other farmers), identifying and promoting distinctive attributes of a vineyard (soil, old vines and/or location) or using the intangible assets of the vineyard (history and story of place and people) to create a memorable story. These are just a few examples of unique elements that can turn a brown cow purple. So what are some of the potential reasons behind why grape growers have failed to brand their farms? The reasons could be: • A failure to truly identify the customer; • A failure to truly understand the customer’s needs; • A failure to identify the value of branding and intangible assets; • A fear of being different; and/or • A lack of understanding.

WHO ARE THE GRAPEGROWER'S REAL CUSTOMERS? Unless they are growing, making and selling wine to the end consumer (the wine drinker), the customer is the winery that buys the grapes. A mistake a grapegrower can make when building a brand is to establish

46 Grapegrower & Winemaker

features, benefits, and services tailored for the final consumer rather than their true customer, the winery. For example following a market trend such planting a particular grape variety or adopting a practice can lead to failure if it does not fit with grower’s customer’s strategic direction. Another key reason why grape growers fail to brand their vineyards is due to an inability to recognise that intangible objects have a value. It is easier for grapegrowers to comprehend tangible/physical assets such as a tractor has a value as they can be bought and sold through traditional methods. But to build a brand grapegrowers’ need to accept that ideas, signs or noises can have considerable value. A brand is an intangible asset. Building a successful brand requires a grape grower to invest, and protect, in the brand building process just as much as they do when growing and protecting their crop. Finally, an unwillingness to standout and be different from fellow grapegrowers and establish unique features, benefits and services that the grower’s customer values is a key reason why many grape growers struggle to brand their farms. In the end the main reason why grapegrowers have failed to brand their farms may simply be due to a lack of understanding of the value of branding or a lack of understanding of how to start the process of building a meaningful, valued and long lasting brand.

WHY BUILD A BRAND FOR THE FAMILY FARM… AND HOW? Why build a brand for the family farm? The answer to this question is simple, to grow the farm’s profitability and to increase the asset value of the farm over time. How to build a meaningful, valued and long lasting brand on the other hand is not always that simple, but it is very possible with the right approach. At the establishment stage of brand building it is critically important to refer back to the definition of a ‘brand’ and identify what is a brand’s purpose. The definition (as described earlier) states the purpose of a brand is to differentiate a business’s goods and services from those of competitors. There are many tools a grapegrower can use to assistant in identifying the unique elements of his or her vineyard that differentiate from the competitors. These unique elements may already exist, if not the opportunity exists to create them.

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The ‘Hedgehog concept’ is a useful starting point to stimulate ideas of what potential unique elements of a vineyard could be used to build a brand. The ‘Hedgehog concept’ comes from Jim Collin’s book Good to Great. The concept helps businesses obtain clarity and produce long-term results.

THREE KEY CONSIDERATIONS MAKE UP THE 'HEDGEHOG CONCEPT' 1. What we are deeply passionate about? Building a brand requires passion. Without passion it is highly unlikely that the individuals behind building a brand will endure the sometime difficult and frustration process brand building. Passion drives motivation, fuels confidence and creates excitement. All essential elements when building a brand. If a grapegrower is not passionate about the brand they are attempting to build the end result will ultimately be failure. 2. What can we be the best at? While the ‘Hedgehog concept’ identifies being the ‘best’ as one of its key components, attempting to be the ‘best’ has serious pitfalls when building a brand. Marketing guru Michael Porter states there is no such thing as ‘the best’. Think about it for a moment. Is there a best car? A best wine? The answers have to be ‘no’, as there will always be personal points of view as to what qualifies being ‘the best’. A business that sets out to compete on the creation of the ‘best’ brand has set itself an impossible goal. A branding strategy built on competing to be the best will experience rivals that will make counter claims as to why their product or service is equally good or better. Eventually the ongoing jousting used by rival businesses to persuade the customer as to why a business’s goods or services are the best leads to competitor convergence, meaning rivals goods and services begin to look the same over time and the customer is left with nothing but price as the basis for their choice. Being ‘unique’ is the preferred way to address building brands when using the ‘Hedgehog concept’ according to Michael Porter. Being unique also aligns closer to the brand definition (see above). Developing the family farm’s brand based on its ‘uniqueness’ can change the competitive landscape of the market. Uniqueness can lead to wide diversity

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of offerings to the consumers where all players in the market can win. Porter explains that competing to be unique is unlike sport in that one company’s success does not require its rivals to fail. Competing on being unique looks more like the performing arts and is less like a sporting match. In performing arts there can be many good singers or actors, each outstanding and successful in a distinctive way. The more good performers there are; the more performing arts flourish. In performing arts there are no losers, just a wonderful offering of assorted talent that satisfied the diverse needs of the audience. Everyone wins.

Building a brand for the family farm is achievable for every Australian grapegrower as long as the grower is willing to take risk, be noticed and learn. The end game is not about beating a competitor, or winning a sale. The end game is to earn profit through establishing brand loyalty.

enough value for all parties involved. Such a position is usually based on respect, recognition, trust and reward. But such grower/winery relationships are rare, meaning many grapegrowers lose value through traditional ‘commodity style’ relationships with their wineries, a results of grape growers failing to brand their farms. A macro view may suggest that a landscape of vineyards that offer wineries with diverse and unique offerings has to be better for the industry’s overall health compared to a patchwork of vineyards that all perform and look the same and offer a commodity product. Building a brand for the family farm is achievable for every Australian grapegrower as long as the grower is willing to take risk, be noticed and learn. The end game is not about beating a competitor, or winning a sale. The end game is to earn profit through establishing brand loyalty.

These growers have built brands for their farms for many reasons, some have been frustrated with their 3. What drives our resource engine? winemaking customers not recognising At the end of the day if the process the value of their farm and what it grows, of building a brand for the family resulting in the grape grower bypassing farm through identifying passion and the winemakers and creating a brand uniqueness does not generate a profit (usually a wine brand) themselves and then all the work of building a brand is growing and capturing all the value. in vein. Succession planning is another Understanding the financial cogs of reason for creating a brand for the the family farm is an essential part of farm. A branded farm provides more building a brand. opportunities for the next generation of The end game in brand building is not the grapegrower’s family returning to about beating a competitor, or standing the land. out in a crowd, or growing the best/ For whatever the reason a grapegrower unique grapes/wine. decided to build a brand for his/her farm, The end game is to earn profit through if done correctly the outcome can be establishing brand loyalty. extremely powerful. It needs to be noted that in some cases FINAL THOUGHTS a grapegrower simply does not need to There are already grapegrowers right create a brand for his/her farm because across Australia who have identified the relationship that exists between value in their story and they know what 4660FluteGGW88x185 2016-08-18T10:02:27+10:00 the grower and the winemaker delivers they grow is also of great value.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

grapegrowing

Pest & Disease

Vine diseases: A never-ending story Mark Greenspan discusses disease pressure and management.

LET’S PRETEND IT IS the ‘good old days’, when growers met at the local coffee shop for breakfast and coffee and talked shop for a while before heading to their work day. It seems like the majority of the conversations are about vine diseases and what to do about them. I have a few diseases to discuss, nothing new, but I’m pretty sure you have them all.

WOOD CANKER DISEASES: THEY NEVER WENT AWAY I recently heard about a meeting held to discuss fungal wood canker diseases. Those include Eutypa Dieback disease and Botryosphaeria Dieback disease. Odd that we’re having these meetings, as I would imagine that every grower should know about these diseases and how devastating they are. While this affliction is most commonly referred to as ‘Eutypa’, the Botryosphaeria group is possibly more commonly the culprit, and it spreads more rapidly than its counterpart. But it’s easier to say and spell E-u-t-y-p-a, so even I call it Eutypa collectively. Despite the brouhaha about viral diseases (especially Red Blotch and Leafroll) the trunk canker diseases are and have been the reason why vineyards do not last very long. The thing about the trunk diseases is you will get them if you don’t practice prevention, but nevertheless, I see numerous growers not practicing any preventative measures. They usually start when they see symptoms, but by that time, it’s too late. Prevention measures are well-known, so I’m not going to go into a lengthy diatribe about it. It’s crucial to protect pruning wounds, where inoculation occurs. Yet, who does this? Plenty of growers do, but so many do not, or they do it incorrectly. First, do not use tar-based tree sealants. They have been known to be ineffective and may actually make things worse. There are latex paints that have boric acid in them (e.g., B-lock), as well as other sealant products that do not (e.g., Vitiseal). Adding Topsin-M to these, under a special local needs registration, will improve their efficacy, especially against the Botryosphaeria organisms. If you use a boric acid product, leave an extra-long piece of internode because the boron can be phytotoxic and kill the most apical bud on the spur. Rally fungicide is also registered for control of these canker diseases, but it is applied as a spray, which is great, but a spray does not have the sealant properties of a paint. Once symptoms appear, realise that the infection has spread well beyond the symptomatic spurs, in both directions. So, if one attempts to eliminate the infection surgically, they must remove a much larger chunk of the vine. In many cases, removal of one cordon arm is insufficient, and cutting the trunk is necessary, using a sucker to retrain to a new trunk. This method can be quite effective but does result in some down-time for the vine with regard to productivity.

POWDERY MILDEW: KILL IT WITH MICROBES? Powdery mildew is our ubiquitous enemy. A vine untreated will most certainly get infected with the fungal organism Erysiphe necator. I don’t have much to add to this discussion at the moment, but I was thinking recently about the practice of

48 Grapegrower & Winemaker

An example of the fungal wood canker disease, Eutypa.

using compost teas for control of mildew. First, you should know that I am a huge proponent of compost tea, which is produced by extracting beneficial microbes from compost in water and multiplying their populations many orders of magnitude by feeding them and aerating the brew for 24 hours. It provides great benefits to soils, by boosting the beneficial microbes and increasing their diversity. Microbes are responsible for nutrient cycling and breakdown of organic matter into plantavailable nutrients. There are many other functions as well, and we’re using the compost extracts now in all of our vineyards and are producing them ourselves. But, some growers have tried using compost teas as a foliar spray, in part to control powdery mildew. I have seen this practice turn into a disaster before. In fact, there are some commercial biofungicides that contain specially cultured bacteria and fungi that help to control powdery mildew, and they are quite effective in an organic or a conventional vineyard. But, the compost teas are not likely to be those same biofungicidal organisms, as they are by nature a complex and diverse array of bacteria and fungi. Cultured organisms are less effective as soil inoculants than the diverse set of microbes in compost extracts, but they are likely better for mildew control. Perhaps when combined with other biofungicides, compost teas may add additional efficacy to the spray, but I caution anyone against using them alone as a mildew control agent. I’ve seen too many disasters. This is not to take anything away from compost extracts for soil-building. They are the bee’s knees for both soil and plant. Well, there’s some more information for your next chat at the local coffee. Hopefully you’ll also have some positive news to share about the great potential of the vintage as well. Article originally published in US Wine Business Monthly.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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grapegrowing

Beetle pest deterred by mussel shell mulch We still have many questions to answer about how these treatments are working, and whether preventing feeding in one area will increase damage in another. RESEARCH TO FIND NATURAL WAYS of reducing insect pest damage in vineyards was highlighted at the 2016 Romeo Bragato Conference – the largest conference for wine growers and makers in New Zealand. Mauricio González-Chang, a Lincoln University PhD student in the BioProtection Research Centre, presented evidence that mineral feeding deterrents and mussel shell mulch can protect vines from grass grub beetle attack. González-Chang’s study of vines in the Awatere Valley in Marlborough, found that natural silica-containing feeding deterrents, such as kaolin particles (hydrophobic particle films) and diatomaceous earth, reduced the damage caused by beetles by about a third in chardonnay, and a half in pinot noir grape varieties. While the silica results were promising, the greatest reduction in damage was seen when crushed mussel shells were spread under the vine rows. The shells affected landing behaviour of the beetles and resulted in a two-thirds reduction in feeding damage. Grass grubs have been damaging pastures in New Zealand for more than 100 years, and the adult beetles are a severe pest of grape vines. The beetles emerge in spring and feed on the vine leaves, shoots and buds. Damage has been reported in vineyards from Waikato to Waipara. As well as vines, the beetles can also feed on other horticultural crops, such as kiwifruit, avocados, tamarillos, apples and blueberries. While insect numbers can be controlled with synthetic pesticides, consumers increasingly want to reduce or eliminate their use. “We know that wine growers in

50 Grapegrower & Winemaker

New Zealand have a respect for their environment, and want to keep the nation’s reputation as a clean, green country producing high quality wine,” González-Chang said. To do this, more research is needed into alternative pest control methods that are practical, inexpensive and sustainable. The Chilean student was inspired by the diversity of speakers at the Romeo Bragato conference. “It was an amazing experience to meet all kinds of people there, from growers and winemakers to scientists and politicians, all working together for a better wine industry, but also committed to protecting the environment, and

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enhancing social benefits for their workers,” González-Chang said. The knowledge that his work will benefit New Zealand wine growers was one of the González-Chang’s key motivations for undertaking the study, which was supported by Callaghan Innovation and leading sustainable winemaker Kono Beverages. “However, we still have many questions to answer about how these treatments are working, and whether preventing feeding in one area will increase damage in another,” he said. González-Chang is currently seeking funding to continue his research in the Marlborough vineyard for another season.

October 2016 – Issue 633

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grapegrowing

Product Update

Managing Botrytis Bunch Rot and Powdery Mildew IN WHAT LOOKS SET to be a potentially ‘wetter than normal’ year for many wine regions, growers are likely to continue to face challenges in managing the spectrum of diseases present in Australian vineyards in the 2016/17 season. While captan has long been a costeffective fixture in many spray programs for the management of key diseases, its future remains unclear and use in grapes that may end up in wine destined for the EU should still be avoided. Andrew Horsfield – General Manager Technical Development, Adama Australia, explains that his team have been busy developing effective alternatives to fill the gap left by captan. “As the leading manufacturer of captan globally, Adama aim to provide evidence

52 Grapegrower & Winemaker

to support its use in several key wine grape markets around the world. Captan (Merpan®) is widely used by apple and pear growers in the EU to protect fruit from Apple and Pear Scab while folpet (Folpan®) is instead used in the EU in grapevines and is the leading protectant fungicide due to its higher level of Downy Mildew control.” Andrew confirmed that “Adama Australia will this season commence its fifth year of development work in Australia to bring Folpan® to market here with the aim to once again provide a broad spectrum, cost-effective Multi-site Activity (Group M4) protectant fungicide alternative”. “We also hope to be able to announce shortly an extension to the Gem® Fungicide label allowing not only its

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use against Eutypa but perhaps more importantly to target Downy Mildew and Botrytis Bunch Rot from early flowering this season. We have performed extensive development trials in recent years to be able to bring this unique use for fluazinam (Group 29) to Australia after introducing it in NZ where it now plays a very important role in wine grape disease management programs.” Luke Collins, Adama Market Manager - Horticulture, said “with captan use in grapes destined for the EU not supported at this stage, the imminent approval of Gem® is an exciting development and we hope to be able to demonstrate to as many growers as possible this season what an effective protectant it will be”. Apart from Gem®, the next closest alternative to captan in terms of cost-

October 2016 – Issue 633

With captan use in grapes destined for the EU not supported at this stage, the imminent approval of Gem® is an exciting development and we hope to be able to demonstrate to as many growers as possible this season what an effective protectant it will be.

effectiveness would be the chlorothalonil based products (e.g. Cavalry® Weatherguard, Bravo® Weatherstik etc.). “Chlorothalonil is a multi-site activity (Group M5) fungicide that offers a similar level of control against Downy Mildew, Botrytis Bunch Rot and Black Spot and can be used out to E-L 29 when berries are peppercorn-size. Unfortunately for grape growers, once again there has been significant pressure on chlorothalonil fungicide supply in 2016 globally and nationally due to demand from chickpea and lentil crops, making it difficult to procure adequate stocks.” Collins said “Pyrimethanil products (e.g. Predict® 600, Scala® 400) remain powerful tools (Group 9) to control Botrytis bunch rot wherever these fungicides haven’t been overused in the past but may be used no later than 80% capfall in export winegrapes”. “Likewise, Custodia® offers a practical option where effective Downy Mildew and bunch rot cover is required - as well as outstanding protection from even strobilurin resistant Powdery Mildew and is registered to control all three of these diseases from pre-flowering through to E-L 29”.

“Solaris® continues to demonstrate how easy it is to apply and how quickly it penetrates vine tissue to protect leaves and fruit ensuring effective control of bunch rot. Moreover, Custodia® and Solaris® have been used together with outstanding results in grapevines and are now a keystone in many growers programs, particularly in the Sunraysia growing district – and especially in table grapes where fruit finish is so important.” When used in combination, Custodia® and Solaris® give outstanding results and provide a highly effective resistance management option - utilising 3 different modes of action” If you haven’t included Custodia® and Solaris® in your vine management program for 2016 yet or would like more information on Gem® Fungicide, contact your local Adama Innovation Centre or visit adama.com and find out how you can Be Rewarded for being responsible in your resistance management strategy. Adama always recommend that growers consult with their winery and follow winery guidelines to ensure all necessary criteria are met.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

ask the Re-entry periods after vineyard sprays The 2016/2017 edition of Agrochemicals registered for use in Australian viticulture (also known as the ‘Dog Book’) for the first time features guidelines about re-entry into vineyards after agrochemicals have been applied. This column summarises some common questions about vineyard re-entry periods.

Q: THE DOG BOOK NOW PROVIDES GUIDELINES ABOUT RE-ENTRY PERIODS. WHAT EXACTLY IS A RE-ENTRY PERIOD? A re-entry period is the minimum amount of time that must pass between when an agrochemical is applied in the vineyard and when that vineyard can be entered without protective clothing and equipment.

Q: DOES THE RE-ENTRY PERIOD LISTED IN THE DOG BOOK APPLY TO ALL PRODUCTS WITH THAT ACTIVE CONSTITUENT? No. A recent review of product labels by the AWRI showed that re-entry periods can vary across different products even when the active constituent is the same. The tables in the Dog Book only list the most stringent re-entry requirements on product labels for the active constituent. The labels were accessed from the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority website. The review showed that it is common for re-entry intervals for the same active constituent to vary and highlights the need to always check the label of the product and follow the directions.

Q: WHY IS IT THAT PRODUCTS WITH THE SAME ACTIVE CONSTITUENT CAN HAVE DIFFERENT RE-ENTRY PERIODS? It is common for products with the same active constituent to come in different forms such as wettable granules or suspension concentrates and the re-entry requirements can be affected by how the product is formulated. For example, an organic solvent used in one product may increase the skin sensitivity to that product and require a longer period before re-entry is permitted.

Q: WHY DO SOME LABELS HAVE A LONGER RE-ENTRY PERIOD THAN THE WITHHOLDING PERIOD (WHP) FOR HARVEST? This is unusual but can occasionally occur, because of the different ways re-entry periods and withholding periods are calculated. The re-entry period is based on potential skin

54 Grapegrower & Winemaker

exposure in the vineyard (the APVMA uses the US EPA crop re-entry calculator), whereas the WHP is based on potential residues on the fruit and their toxicity if consumed. If access to the vineyard is required before the re-entry period has been satisfied, for instance for grape sampling or harvest, appropriate personal protective equipment must be worn.

Q: TO WHOM DO RE-ENTRY PERIODS APPLY, AND WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT? The re-entry interval applies to anyone who enters a sprayed vineyard. The intervals are in place to protect people from exposure to agrochemicals that can occur by inhalation or skin contact if a treated area is entered too soon after application. A person can be exposed to spray residue through a range of means including: inhalation of vapour or dust; skin or eye contact; and ingestion of food that has come in contact with the chemical.

Q: ARE THERE SITUATIONS WHERE A VINEYARD CAN BE ENTERED BEFORE THE RE-ENTRY PERIOD IS OVER? Yes. Product labels provide information about the personal protective equipment that should be worn if entry is necessary before the re-entry period is over. A typical requirement for people entering the vineyard early is that they wear cotton overalls buttoned to the neck and wrist (or equivalent clothing) and chemical resistant gloves. It is also a requirement that clothing be laundered after each day’s use.

Q: IF THERE IS NO RE-ENTRY PERIOD ON THE LABEL, WHAT IS RECOMMENDED? Unless personal protective equipment is worn, it is recommended that vineyards are not entered after spraying for 24 hours or at least until the spray has dried. For more information contact the AWRI helpdesk: P 08 8313 6600 E helpdesk@awri.com.au

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October 2016 – Issue 633

Biodynamic bird control: Is it vineyard voodoo? Bird Control

PEPPERING IS A METHOD promoted by Biodynamic advocates that offers farmers and gardeners another option to reduce the incidence of weeds, insects and rodents. It is one of the techniques pioneered by Rudolf Steiner and part of his belief that biodynamic farming could increase the fertility of the soil, and the yield of the crops, without using chemicals or pesticides. In order to achieve this, Steiner said farmers needed to view their property as one living organism. The term ‘peppering’ refers to a process where the ash from a fire which burned the target pest is then sprinkled over affected areas. The ash (from a burnt bird – if the pests are birds targeting the grape crop) are either scattered around the vineyard, or combined in a solution and sprayed around the area requiring protection. Peppering also needs to be carried out during the highest fertility of the lunar cycle. Apart from the birds required for the fire, no birds are harmed in the process – but the process is said to deter them from entering the vineyard. The ash does not kill the birds; but it is spread around the boundary of the area to be protected and the birds will not enter.

While it does seems hard to fathom how this could be plausible, other conventional methods to limit damage by birds don’t always work either. Birds have shown the ability to gradually ignore sound devices; they understand that rubber snakes and kites are harmless; and if they are sufficiently hungry, they will even eat grapes that have been sprayed with an emetic. All of this has helped to reinforce the use of bird netting as the most reliable solution for vineyards facing significant bird damage pressure. However, proponents of biodynamic farming have suggested their properties have been largely untouched even when neighbouring conventional farms have been devastated by pest plagues. These proponents point to the goal of the biodynamic approach, which is ultimately to have the healthiest possible living soil and plants, and the complete health will naturally deter pests. Peppering however, is recognised as a last resort measure because its effect is to eradicate something completely from a treated area – which goes against the biodynamic ambition to establish or maintain a healthy balance in the ecological system.

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grapegrowing

Raptors could help grapegrowers

GRAPEGROWERS KNOW small, harmless-looking birds can severely damage a valuable winegrape crop. Hungry starling, silvereyes and parrots don’t just selectively eat a few grapes – they can damage whole bunches and increase

disease risk along the way. So growers are always on the lookout for the best ways of keeping the birds away from their vines. Growers in the Okanagan Valley – a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia – will be keeping an eagle eye on an organisation that runs a raptor visitor centre on Vancouver Island. ‘The Raptors’ is hoping to expand the use of birds of prey to control vineyard pests (raptors include birds like eagles, hawks, owls and falcons). A bird abatement program might see falcons and hawks used to control birds like starlings around vineyard properties. “You are working with a natural predator/prey response so the prey birds never habituate to [the raptors],” said Robyn Radcliffe, operations manager at The Raptors. Having the raptors fly around is usually all that is required. “Just their presence is enough to chase away these birds from a specific area,” Radcliffe said. It’s an idea that has interested Ex Nihilo Vineyards in Lake Country. The winery typically puts up netting to protect the grapes from problem birds. “We’ve always netted, but we know some vineyards in the south that have not – and the birds can clean you out. They can ruin a whole crop,” said Jeff Harder, the Ex Nihilo winery owner. Bird abatement is a tactic that has been used in other industries – one example has been at landfill sites where hawks have been used to scare off crows.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

Supplier update

Fertilisers & Nutrition

Minimising crop stress

IF YOUR CROP could sail through the season with ideal conditions and zero stress, imagine what could be achieved. There would be no limits in achieving yield, quality and overall return on investment. When you think about it, most of our farm management practices are designed to take away the impact of stress: • Optimising soil conditions; including structure, pH and moisture; • Providing full and balanced nutrition (NPK and micronutrients); • Minimising competition from weeds; • Protecting from insects and disease; • Protecting from extreme temperatures (heat wave and frost); • Minimising extreme weather impacts (wind, flooding, drought); and • Managing the irrigation for optimal supply of moisture. There is a limit to what we can do to manage all these items… but we have to try!

BE CAREFUL NOT TO FREEZE YOUR ASSETS As we come towards spring and anticipate still clear conditions and low temperatures, it is a time when we are threatened by frost. It is difficult to prevent frost damage because no matter what we do, these severe events can still have a big impact on our vulnerable crops. The team at Stoller believe that a robust, well fed plant has the best chance of surviving and recovering from frost. There is some evidence that calcium builds strong cells and that elements such as Zinc, Manganese and Copper, when elevated in the plant cells, can

lower the threshold temperature where tissue damage will occur. But, if frost does hit, we want to try to minimise the impact.

STOLLER FROST RECOVERY PROGRAM After frost, the aim is to minimise the downtime (as the plant tends to shut down after a frost event) and to aid the fast recovery and generation of new tissue. The Stoller frost recovery program uses a product called Bio-Forge which can speed the recovery of a plant by driving down ethylene (stress hormone). The program also incorporates Stoller’s Zinc Chelate which enables refreshed growth and Foli-Zyme which promotes new vegetative growth and enhanced root development. This combination has been proven over the years and many farms keep the stress recovery products on standby, ready for application in the event of a frost. If you are impacted by frost, it is difficult to avoid permanent damage, but the Stoller program can lessen the impact in many instances. Here’s the steps to follow after a frost – on all crops. Step 1 As soon as possible after the stress event, apply Stoller’s Bio-Forge at 1.2 L/ha and Stoller’s Zinc Chelate at 2 L/ ha to restore healthy growth. Bio-Forge will give the plants a nutrient boost and trigger new shoot growth, while Stoller’s Zinc Chelate is an essential component of many proteins and vital to many plant functions. Step 2 Four to five days after the initial

treatment, apply Stoller’s Foli-Zyme at 5 L/ha to feed the new growth and promote healthy growth. Foli-Zyme is a full nutrient spray to promote healthy tissue development. Applying Stoller’s Bio-Forge in combination with Foli-Zyme will give plants the nutrient boost they need, trigger new shoot growth and help fruitfulness and root growth. Stoller’s stress recovery program is suitable for a broad range of crops including vegetables, tree crops and vines. To find out more, contact your Stoller representative on 1800 FERTILISER or info@stoller.com.au.

DON’T FREEZE YOUR ASSETS THIS SPRING Hit back at Frost with Stoller’s proven 2 step recovery program.

Step 1: Apply Bio-Forge and Zinc Chelate (immediately after Frost) Step 2: Follow up with Foliar treatment of Stoller Foli-Zyme and Zinc Chelate (5 days later)

CALL 1800 FERTILISER WWW.STOLLER.COM.AU October 2016 – Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

grapegrowing

Environmental Focus

South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) 2016 environmental awards

THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) recently announced the winners of the 2016 Environmental Excellence Awards, based around the theme of leadership. When presenting the awards Rohan Wighton, from Treasury Wine Estates and the chair of SAWIA’s Environment Committee, commended the entrants and noted the strength of all the applications. Wighton said the entrants were examples of wine industry businesses that had “undertaken significant efforts towards environmental sustainability with impacts beyond the company gate”. “These awards recognise and celebrate the achievements and innovations of SAWIA members in good environmental practice, and provide leadership and inspiration for others to benefit from improved environmental management,” Wighton said. Kay Brothers was the winner in the small-medium business category, which was sponsored by Adelaide sustainability consultancy 2XE. The McLaren Vale winery was recognised for a program that included renewable energy, resource and production efficiency, and native habitat restoration, leading to outcomes including the generation of nearly 70% of the winery’s energy needs, and use of 100% recycled water in vineyards.

These awards recognise and celebrate the achievements and innovations of SAWIA members. Pernod Ricard Winemakers claimed the large business category, which was sponsored by environmental service and products provider Tarac Technologies. The large company was recognised for a broad and sustained environmental program with a 10-year plan comprising of projects including renewable energy, waste and litter reduction, biodiversity conservation and resource efficiency. Specifically, the highlights of the Pernod Ricard achievements included a 1.34 MW solar array – the largest private installation in South Australia; a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the past five years; and reduction in waste to landfill of more than 60%. Wighton pointed out these initiatives were more examples of the wine industry’s “good record in environmental stewardship” that contributed towards one of South Australian Government’s seven strategic priorities – premium food and wine from our clean environment.

Accolade Wines Australia Limited, Aravina Estate, Australian Vintage Ltd, Barwick Wines, Beltunga, Bests Wines Great Western, Bremerton Wines, Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard Pty Ltd, Campbells Wines, Casama Group Pty Ltd, Cellarmaster Group, Charles Melton Wines, Clover Hill Wines, CMV Farms, Coriole Vineyards, Delegats Wine Estate, Delegat’s Wine Estate Limited, DogRidge, Edgemill Group, Fanselow Bell, Five Star Wines, Fowles Wine, Fuse Wine Services Pty Ltd, Gemtree Vineyards, Glenlofty Wines, Harry Jones Wines, Henry’s Drive Vignerons Pty Ltd, Hentley Farm, Hope Estate, Hospitality Recruitment Solutions, Howard Park Wines, Hungerford Hill Wines, Inglewood Wines Pty Ltd, Innocent Bystander, Jack Rabbit Vineyard, Jim Barry Wines, KarriBindi, Kauri, Kingston Estate Wines Pty Ltd, Kirrihill Wines Pty Ltd, Krinklewood Biodynamic Vineyard, L’Atelier by, Aramis Vineyards, Leeuwin Estate, Make WInes Australia, McWilliam’s Wines Group, Memstar, Mondo Consulting, Moppity VIneyards, Moxon Oak, Nadalie australia, Nexthire, Oenotec Pty Ltd, Options Wine Merchants, Orlando Wines, Ozpak Pty Ltd, Patrick of Coonawarra, Plantagenet Wines, Portavin Integrated Wine Services, R&D VITICULTURAL SERVICES PTY LTD, Robert Oatley Vineyards, Rymill Coonawarra, Seville Estate, Stella Bella Wines, Streicker Wines, The Gilbert Family Wine Co, The Lane Vineyard, The Scotchmans Hill Group Pty Ltd, The Yalumba Wine Company, Tintara Winery, Tower Estate Pty Ltd, Treasury Wine Estates, Turkey Flat Vineyards, Two Hands Wines, Tyrrell’s Wines, Vinpac International, Warburn Estate Pty Ltd, WebAware Pty Ltd, Wine and Vine Personnel International,Wines Overland, Wingara WIne Group,Wirra Wirra Vineyards, Zilzie Wines, Accolade Wines Australia Limited, Aravina Estate, Australian Vintage Ltd, Barwick Wines, Beltunga, Bests Wines Great Western, Bremerton Wines, Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard Pty Ltd, Campbells Wines, Casama Group Pty Ltd, Cellarmaster Group, Charles Melton Wines, Clover Hill Wines, CMV Farms, Coriole Vineyards, Delegats Wine Estate, Delegat’s Wine Estate Limited, DogRidge, Edgemill Group, Fanselow Bell, Five Star Wines, Fowles Wine, Fuse Wine Services Pty Ltd, Gemtree Vineyards, Glenlofty Wines, Harry Jones Wines, Henry’s Drive Vignerons Pty Ltd, Hentley Farm, Hope Estate, Hospitality Recruitment Solutions, Howard Park Wines, Hungerford Hill Wines, Inglewood Wines Pty Ltd, Innocent Bystander, Jack Rabbit Vineyard, Jim Barry Wines, KarriBindi, Kauri, Kingston Estate Wines Pty Ltd, Kirrihill Wines Pty Ltd, Krinklewood Biodynamic Vineyard, L’Atelier by, Aramis Vineyards, Leeuwin Estate, Make WInes Australia, McWilliam’s Wines Group, Memstar, Mondo Consulting, Moppity VIneyards, Moxon Oak, Nadalie australia, Nexthire, Oenotec Pty Ltd, Options Wine Merchants, Orlando Wines, Ozpak Pty Ltd, Patrick of Coonawarra, Plantagenet Wines, Portavin Integrated Wine Services, R&D VITICULTURAL SERVICES PTY LTD, Robert Oatley Vineyards, Rymill Coonawarra, Seville Estate, Stella Bella Wines, Streicker Wines, The Gilbert Family Wine Co, The Lane Vineyard, The Scotchmans Hill Group Pty Ltd, The Yalumba Wine Company, Tintara Winery, Tower Estate Pty Ltd, Treasury Wine Estates, Turkey Flat Vineyards, Hands by Wines, Tyrrell’s Wines, Vinpac International, Warburn Estate Pty created & Two managed Ltd, WebAware Pty Ltd, Wine and Vine Personnel International,Wines Overland, Wingara WIne Group,Wirra

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October 2016 – Issue 633

Supplier Update

Drum Muster and ChemClear: Product stewardship waste management programs THE DRUM MUSTER and ChemClear stewardship programs make it very simple for grape-growers and winemakers to meet their audit and quality assurance (QA) requirements for waste management. The aim of the two stewardship programs is to promote a safe and sustainable future by giving users of chemicals a simple and effective disposal route. The programs are funded from a small per litre levy which the user pays at point of sale. Due to the recent rainfall and with the winter weed control spray program almost completed and the pest and disease control programs well underway, there is lots of chemical being used by grape growers across Australia. Drum Muster is well placed to assist growers in disposing of their eligible cleaned containers in all regions. All

containers are then recycled into other useful products such as bollards, cement reinforcing bar chairs and fence posts, to name just a few items. ChemClear is a national product stewardship program and enjoys the support of 120 participating agvet chemical manufacturers and industry stakeholders, including grower and farming associations, local and state governments. Each season growers should check their chemical sheds for out of date or unwanted chemicals and register them for disposal through ChemClear. The Drum Muster and ChemClear programs can be especially useful for those who need to demonstrate through their QA programs that they have appropriately disposed of their on farm waste, such as empty containers or surplus chemicals.

For the Drum Muster program, all the user has to do is log on to www. drummuster.com.au/find-a-collectionsite/ to find their local site among the 800+ located nationwide. All containers should be clean and free of residue before delivery to a collection site. The ChemClear program requires the user to register their unwanted chemicals through www.chemclear.com.au.

BE CLEAN AND GREEN

disposal tion for agvet chemical recycling and Our programs provide an easy solu

On our websites you can locate your nearest drumMUSTER collection site with an interactive map. You can also find out the status of the next ChemClear collection in each state. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quick and simple.

1800 008 707 | www.drummuster.com.au 1800 008 182 | www.chemclear.com.au October 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking Winery sustainability: Huge water, chemical and waste water savings Ian Jeffery continues his investigation into the advanced sustainability and innovative winemaking being used at the UC Davis winery with direction from Professor Roger Boulton.

AT A GLANCE The UC Davis winery When it was opened in 2011, the facility delivered on the university’s two goals: to build the most advanced winery in the world; and the most sustainable winery in the world. It features more than 150 state-of-the-art stainless steel research fermenters equipped with monitoring technology which wirelessly provide real-time Baume and temperature data. Automated temperature control is possible through set jacket temperatures and pumpovers based on set cap or must temperature limits. There are also 14 fermenters capable of being cleaned using automated cleaning (cleanin-place or CIP) that will provide better and safer cleaning with significantly reduced water and chemical use. The facility has the highest rating for environmental design and construction awarded by the US Green Building Council. It is the first winery in the world to receive such certification. The building has high-thermal insulation for reduced energy use, solar panels to supply all winery energy use during harvest, and rainwater capture for yearround landscape irrigation and toilets. All carbon dioxide generated during fermentation is sent out of the building to reduce unnecessary air intake and air conditioning. The UC Davis winery is a 120 to 180 tonne crush world leading teaching and research winery. It is completely energy and water selfsufficient. Solar powered photo voltaic cells combined with energy storage meets all electrical power requirements sevendays-a-week, 24-hours a day. A solar powered hydrogen generator enables all winery vehicles to be hydrogen powered virtually zero greenhouse gas emitters. All the winery water requirements are met by collecting and recycling rainwater. The recycled rainwater system achieves 95% water recovery and 99% chemical recovery. The result is an 80% reduction in winery water usage (taking a typical small winery water usage from say 2.5 litres per litre of wine to just half a litre of water per litre of wine).

DISCUSSION This article deals with the UC Davis ‘Clean in Place’ system. The concept is not new, it’s been around for 50 years and used by the dairy industry, juice and beverage and brewing and to a limited degree by the wine industry. The UC Davis design however has taken a unique innovative approach.

60 Grapegrower & Winemaker

The design collects and processes winery site rainwater using reverse osmosis, nano filtration, CIP (cleaning in place) and potassium based cleaning chemicals. Reverse osmosis is used to remove E.coli etc. from the rainwater. Rainwater has very low TDS (total dissolved solids). Reverse osmosis treatment of rainwater produces water of the highest quality and uses considerably less energy than that required when processing say South Australian water containing a high percentage of Murray River water. Nano filtration is used to separate the CIP water into two streams, one of solid waste removed by cleaning, the second of partly used cleaning chemicals. ‘Single valency’ chemicals such as KOH and KHSO4 pass directly through the nano filter, ‘higher valency’ chemicals are collected and discharged in a waste stream. The partly used cleaning chemicals are pH tested and brought up to strength for recirculation and re-use, Roger Boulton claims UC Davis CIP design achieves 99% chemical recovery and 95% water recovery. Potassium based cleaning chemicals KOH and KHSO4 are used as they have been assessed as doing less harm to the soils they are discharged on than Sodium based chemicals. www.winetitles.com.au

ACHIEVEMENTS OF UC DAVIS CIP DESIGN The winery CIP installation with potassium based cleaning chemicals has, reduced winery water use by 80% (from, for a small winery, an average of between two and two-and-a-half litres of water per litre of wine to less than half a litre of water per litre of wine). This has achieved 99% recovery of cleaning chemicals by re circulating and reusing caustic and acid cleaning agents until they are ‘fully spent’ which delivers significant reduction in the amount of chemical used and the cost. It has reduced winery waste water production and produced waste water that requires less treatment per litre and improved sustainability by producing waste water that has less impact on the land it is being discharged onto.

POTASSIUM VERSUS SODIUM CLEANING CHEMICALS There appears to be some debate about the value of replacing sodium with potassium in winery waste water. The following statements are taken directly from Professor Boulton’s threeday course, ‘The Chemical Engineering of Sustainable Winemaking’ (and his statements appear to be supported by CSIRO publications on the subject). October 2016 – Issue 633

Professor Boulton advocates using KOH and KHSO4 for wine caustic and acid cleaning respectively. When mixed the spent acid and caustic produce a ‘mild’ K2SO4 salt solution. Potassium vs Sodium for plants and soils: • Most plants have uptake systems for both; • Preference is between 10 to 100 fold in favour of Potassium; and • Sodium generally considered toxic at moderate levels. Chloride, Phosphate, Nitrate, Sulphate for plants and soil: • Challenges include Chlorosis of plants, Phosphate -Algal growth and Groundwater “nitrification”; and • Low to medium levels Sulphate are taken by the vines. Sulphate verses Citrate/Citric Acid: • Sulphate is inorganic and has no BOD associated with it; and • One per cent w/v Citric Acid has a BOD of 7,496 mg/g

CONCLUSION The introduction of CIP and potassium base cleaning chemicals to Australian wineries will improve sustainability by reducing water use, chemical use, and waste water generation and save time and labour.

GO SEE FOR YOURSELF There is just too much advanced sustainability a nd innovative

“UC DAVIS teaching winery innovative technologies, the thoughts of Professor Roger Boulton and Continuous Improvement (CI)”, a one-day workshop by Ian Jeffery (robjef@picknowl.com.au)

winemaking at UC Davis to fit into magazine articles. You need to go to California and see for yourself that UC Davis and Roger Boulton have advanced winemaking “another generation”. Don’t go by yourself; go as a small group of like-minded practical, pragmatic visionaries with long term strategies. You need a team of critical mass to prevent procrastination, paralysis by analysis and inertia to change by the “Nay Sayer’s” when you return to your winery. Note in the late 1970s Roger Boulton trailed and recommended cross flow filters for the wine industry and it then took the industry 20 plus years to take on this technology. We don’t need repeat slow adoption we need to take Roger Boulton’s innovations and put them into operation as rapidly as practical.

Previous articles on UC Davis and advanced winemaking technologies include “UC DAVIS experimental super winery has opened its door for business”, Lance Cutler, US Wine Business Monthly, (and Aust. & NZ Grapegrower & Winemaker, June 2014) Articles on “Next gen. sustainable solar wineries”, advanced white juice flotation, advanced tartrate stabilisation and winery CO2 sequestration (Aust. & NZ Grapegrower & Winemaker December 2015, March 2016, April 2012 and August 2016.)

FURTHER DETAILS

REFERENCES

Further detailed information on UC Davis CIP and Potassium Cleaning Chemicals are given in “The Chemical Engineering of Sustainable Winemaking” - a three day course given by Professor Roger Boulton at the University of Melbourne, in December 2013. More general discussion on seven innovative winemaking technologies in use or proposed for UC Davis is given in “Designing Wineries for Sustainable Practices” – Roger Boulton – International Conference – EcoSostenible Wine, Forum Berger Balguer, Vilafranca del Penedes, 27/11/2008.

“The Chemical Engineering of Sustainable Winemaking”- a three day course given by Professor Roger Boulton at the University of Melbourne, in December 2013 “Designing Wineries for Sustainable Practices”- Roger Boulton – International Conference – EcoSostenible Wine, Forum Berger Balguer, Vilafranca del Penedes, 27/11/2008. “UC DAVIS experimental super winery has opened its door for business”, L. Cutler, Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower & Winemaker, June 2014.

DAVIS WINERY CLEANING CHEMISTRY BACKGROUND

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young gun

Tasmania nights: The wine of Ricky ‘Bobby’ Evans Tasmania is in Ricky Evans blood, so when he left the island to head to university he knew he’d be back. It may have seemed in doubt when he finished at the University of Adelaide and travelled even further away – but this journey was all about searching for the best techniques to apply at home. The boy who was born in the Tamar Valley is now making his mark with Bay of Fires and his own label, Two Tonne Tasmania. Daniel Whyntie spoke to Evans about the future of Tasmanian wine and his place in it. IT’S NOT SO EASY to escape Van Diemen's Land; especially when it’s got everything you need to make your dreams come true. When Evans left his home state to go to University he did it without a clear idea of what his future would look like. He knew he wanted to do something practical, hands on, perhaps agricultural science? “I probably would have headed down that path. Who knows, I may have double backed into viticulture in the end,” Evans said. He had worked on a winery as part of his high school work experience but made the choice to study winemaking more by default than design. “When I was at school, I was like many, didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Evans said. “I got into the Adelaide course, and I was lucky, because I loved it from the first day. I met great people, and keep continuing to do so, this is why I’m still doing what I’m doing.” Since then he has found a whole new appreciation for a region with unique characteristics and rich with resources, experience that came to fruition in 2013 when he bottled his first Pinot Noir. There’s nothing easy about starting your own label, especially while working full time as a winemaker at Bay of Fires, based at Tamar Valley. Evans’ label Two Tonne Tasmania (TTT) began in early 2013, a simple and literal name that reminds Ricky of what his wine is all about; small parcels of fruit from the land he loves. An opportunity arose when he managed to nudge into the tightly held Tamar Valley, and he grasped it, TTT began, yes, with just a couple tonnes of Pinot Noir. “Working full time at Bay of Fires, pretty much all my spare time is taken up by making TTT work. I genuinely love what I do, so TTT is my hobby I guess, although I’ve managed to drag my family and partner into that, in a good way.”

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October 2016 – Issue 633

I spend most of my weekends in the summer in my vineyard, very close to Launceston, it’s only a few minutes from home so spending a few hours here and there, mixing up my weekend works for me. HIS OWN PATCH The gusto in which Evans has forged his place in the Tasmanian wine industry has led him from success to success. “You make your own luck. People who are ‘lucky’ probably worked very, very hard to create some of that luck,” Evans said. “That’s something I think about a lot, when things aren’t going well, and also when things are nicely. “You always need to take a moment to reflect and understand how something was successful, or alternatively why something didn’t work out. “Not everything is due to chance.” It’s as if Evans heard the advice given to his comedy movie namesake... In Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby the fictional racing driver receives the following advice: “You gotta learn to drive with the fear”. It is with this spirit most young wine brands are created, where the risk of not being able to sell the wine hangs large before the decision to pick the grapes is even made. But Evans jumped in the deep end and created his own label, to run alongside his work with Bay of Fires. “Starting a wine company I’ve had to learn a lot, very quickly. There’s some great people who have allowed TTT to exist firstly, and then evolve,” Evans said. “I spend most of my weekends in the summer in my vineyard, very close to Launceston, it’s only a few minutes from home so spending a few hours here and there, mixing up my weekend works for me. “It’s a nice release being in the vineyard, the mind can wander and it’s where I have most of my ideas.”

THE PEOPLE'S CHAMPION After university Evans completed a vintage in the Napa Valley, before he headed home for the 2010 harvest in the cellar at Bay of Fires. Since then he has worked in the Mosel Valley in Germany, the United Kingdom, and more recently at one of the most famous Italian wine producers, Vietti, in Barolo. Evans’ Two Tonne Tasmania just took home the people’s choice award at the 2016 Young Guns of Wine Awards, he was also a finalist in the main category. “Being named a finalist at Young October 2016 – Issue 633

Guns of Wine this year was a highlight personally. It was great to get such early recognition for my work with TTT.” Evans said. “I don’t muck round too much with my wines. I spend plenty of time in the vineyards over the summer and develop clear ideas on what direction I want individual patches and parcels within patches to go.” “I spend a fair bit of time fussing over picking decisions; the window for Pinot is so tiny; I reckon attention to detail here allows me to leave things alone thereafter. “My ferments are natural, but I look after them carefully, I want the wines display natural poise and balance above all, but also express regionality in my own style.”

BUILDING TASMANIA For Evans it’s all about representing his region, and building Tasmania as a wine destination. “Generally, I just want to contribute positively to the industry, the Tamar Valley, and Tasmania,” he said. “TTT is a platform for me to do this, as is Bay of Fires and Eddystone Point. Tasmania is so exciting. “I just look forward to carving something into it, there’s plenty ahead of me, and this place.” This is why he jumped when the opportunity arose to join the Bay of Fires team on a permanent basis, and hence a permanent move back to his home state occurred. “The only problem here is finding available fruit. The Tamar Valley is the largest region in the state, yet, everything is so tied up,” Evans said. “It’s the same all over, it’s a reflection of how the industry is tracking down here, its exciting times, challenging, but well worth it, and the resources here are just so good.” Even though he has made his mark in his youth, the winemaker isn't sitting back, reflecting on how far he has come. “I feel that one day I’ll just stop, and realise that I have achieved what is was that I wanted to do, it’ll be a great day,” Evans said. “Like a lot of winemakers, I’m never really satisfied, so perhaps that day may never come. “I’m comfortable with that.” www.winetitles.com.au

Grapegrower & Winemaker

M333_DMA35_2010_BRIXBAUME_59x272Strip.indd 1 11/02/2014 14:05

winemaking Supplier Update

Zonte’s Footstep: The path to export market success Andrew Watson, Efic executive director, reports.

AUSTRALIA’S WINE EXPORTERS continue to experience growth, with economic conditions offering excellent opportunities for the wine industry overseas. A number of recent developments such as the depreciating dollar, and recent free trade agreements, have helped create these favourable conditions. However, many wine exporters continue to struggle with access to export finance – often citing the long business cycle in the wine industry as one hurdle, meaning the gap between production and payment is large. Another challenge is that most banks require cashflow balances that are unrealistic for many wine exporters. A number of innovative companies in the wine industry are taking advantage of alternative sources of funding, such as the new Small Business Export Loan provided by Efic and designed specifically for small business in need of export finance. One such company is Zonte’s Footstep.

WINE DISCOVERY IN MCLAREN VALE Zonte’s Footstep is a wine brand working out of South Australia’s McLaren Vale. Even the business name is tied to the Fleurieu region and a play on the currant variety, Zante, planted in Langhorne Creek in the 1890s – a small and sweet intense flavoured grape. The name, says Managing Director Anna Fisher, is a hat tip to the story of the company’s footsteps as they travel their journey of wine discovery. Established in 2003, the business works with a number of local wine brands, sharing back office, production and export resources. Since 2009, Zonte’s has increased its sales five-fold. With a strong domestic market, Zonte’s looked to grow its business globally. “At the moment our largest export market is Canada, followed by Sweden. We also export to the USA, UK, Singapore, Thailand and China. Our exports make up about 60% of our revenue. Ultimately, we’d like to see ourselves 80% export focused,” Fisher said.

A JOURNEY TO CANADA

For further information, please contact Kauri AUS Tel: 1800 127 611

NZ Tel: 0800 KAURIWINE

Email: info@kauriwine.com

Website: www.kauriwine.com

64 Grapegrower & Winemaker

In 2011 the business developed a strong relationship with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). This year the LCBO increased their order, making Zonte’s the second largest imported brand in the LCBO “vintage” segment. With a growing export market this put added pressure on Zonte’s cashflow. Long client payment terms and a bank unable to provide further assistance due to lack of security meant that Zonte’s needed to find an alternative source of financial support. “I found out about Efic through a banking event where Efic presented on their products,” Fisher said.

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October 2016 – Issue 633

“The introduction of the Small Business Export Loan has been fantastic for small business exporters like Zonte’s. The ability to do a simple online application that provides the added flexibility of choosing our own terms was brilliant. “It was important for us to be able to set the terms around what we felt we were able to deliver, and Efic provided us with the flexibility to do that.” The EficDirect online portal, through which exporters can apply for the Small Business Export Loan, was designed with small business exporters in mind. Providing unsecured loans from as little as $50,000 to $250,000, businesses can get access to critical funds in nine business days.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO MOVE FORWARD “We received a $250,000 loan with a 12-month repayment term. It really helped us manage our working capital,” Fisher said. “If we hadn’t gotten the funding from Efic, it would have been extremely difficult to fulfil our orders. Efic has given us the confidence to keep moving forward.” When asked about what the future looks like for Zonte’s, Fisher commented, “wine is such a fantastic industry and I’ve been very lucky to have found my home here”. “Zonte’s is a passion,” Fisher said. “I love the wine we make. We’re trying to make wine that appeals to developing drinkers, or people who are learning about wine. We don’t want to make it overcomplicated.”

A LESSON FOR ALL WINE EXPORTERS Australia has one of the most successful wine industries in the world, but many wine exporters face challenges when exporting to new markets – often when they have been financially stretched by a previous export contract. Financial assistance is out there for exporters who know where to look. Zonte’s is one such exporter, who has been able to continue its export journey through seeking out alternative sources of finance. As Australia’s export credit agency, Efic operates on a commercial basis and partner with banks to provide financial solutions. For more information of Efic’s Small Business Export Loan visit www.efic.gov.au/sbel.

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National 03 9555 5500 SA & WA Sales 0401 560 550 October 2016 – Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking

Online wine shopping behaviours of Chinese wine consumers Online retail in China continues to rapidly increase its share of retail sales, reaching 12% in 2015, with mobile becoming the most popular means of online retail access at 55% of online retail sales. China has a higher level of online retail sales than any other global market and therefore may signal trends in the evolution of e-commerce in other markets. This report has been compiled by Huanmei Li, Yabing Wang and Paul van der Lee. WINE IS ONE PRODUCT where online sales are growing rapidly in China, Therefore the purchasing behaviours of e-commerce wine consumers are gaining great attention. Generally speaking, wine e-commerce platforms could be classified into three categories: the first one is wine specific e-commerce, like yesmywine, jiumeiwang, pinshang etc.; the second one is an integrated alcohol offering e-commerce platform like jiuxianwang, wangzhongwang, zhongjiuwang, jingdong, T-Mall etc; the third one is a wine businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own e-commerce platform. This article is based on the feedback of 2276 wine online consumers collected from 2015 to 2016 using the customer data base of yesmywine, which is the biggest wine specific platform in China and focuses on imported wine. In this article, statistical analyses were used to understand online wine consumers

in order to provide insights for the future development of e-commerce wine marketing and sales strategies. Table 1 profiles online wine consumers by gender, age, price and delivery location (cities/provinces). From table 1, it can be seen that female consumers dominate the online wine shopping, accounting for 80.8% while only 18.7% were males. Wine consumers were predominantly 26-35 years old with a proportion of 41.6%, 22% were 46-55 years old, which was followed closely by the age group of 36-45. The wines sold online were predominantly under 100RMB, of which 43.9% were between 50 and 99 and 41.8% were under 50 RMB. Only 5.2% of wine purchases were priced at 150 RMB or above, indicating how small this market segment was on this wine specialised online sales channel. The online wine consumers were mainly from the south

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NZ Tel: 0800 KAURIWINE Website: www.kauriwine.com

October 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 633

Table 1 Descriptive Analyses Variables

Frequency Distribution (n=2276)

Gender

Female

Male

N/A

Total

a.v*

1839

426

2276

p.v*

80.8%

18.7%

0.5%

Age

18-25

26-35

36-45

46-55

≥56

N/A

Total

a.v

124

946

460

501

150

2276

p.v

5.4%

41.6%

20.2%

22.0%

4.2%

6.6%

100%

Price(RMB/Bottle)

< 50

50-99

100-149

150-200

≥200

N/A

Total

a.v

951

999

169

2276

p.v

41.8%

43.9%

7.4%

3.1%

2.1%

1.7%

100%

Provinces

Shanghai

Guangdong

Beijing

Chongqing

Jiangsu

Others

Total

a.v

546

523

231

135

122

719

2276

p.v

24.0%

23.0%

10.1%

5.9%

5.4%

31.6%%

100%

*a.v: Absolute Value; p.v: Percentage Value

Table 2 Factors Influencing Online Wine Purchase (multiple responses) Variables

Familiarity

Promotion

Recommend

Price

Varieties

Originality

Commend

Design

Trophy

Platform

Yes (a.v)

999

1085

592

1292

715

1105

711

391

367

1222

(p.v)

43.9%

47.7%

26.0%

56.8%

31.4%

48.6%

31.2%

17.2%

16.1%

53.7%

No (a.v)

1277

1191

1684

984

1561

1171

1565

1885

1909

1054

(p.v)

56.1%

52.3%

74.0%

43.2%

68.6%

51.4%

68.8%

82.8%

83.9%

46.3%

Total(a.v)

2276

p.v

100%

*a.v: Absolute Value; p.v: Percentage Value

of China such as Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu,Chongqing. Beijing was the only prominent city in Northern China. In summary, a typical profile of online wine consumers in China reveal the following characteristics: female, 26-35 years old, purchasing wine under 100 RMB, resident in southern China. Table 2 shows the factors that influence the purchasing decisions of online wine consumers. These factors include wine familiarity (previously tasted), online wine promotion activities, friends recommendation, price, (grape) varieties, wine origin (wine region), others’ comments on these wines, wine label design, trophies and the e-commerce platform for wine purchase. It can be seen from the multiple response consumer results collated in table 2 that all these factors are of comparable importance except for wine label design; and for trophies, both of which are contrary to our expectation. Price, and online platform are the two factors that influence above 50% of wine purchase decisions of wine consumers. The importance of familiarity, promotion and region of origin are around 45%, although recognizing that promotion actually is mainly a price indicator, whereas familiarity and origin are factors that register the level of trust. Friends’ recommendation, grape varieties and others’ comments are in the middle range of importance. The reason behind the lower than expected trophy factor is most likely due to most Chinese wine consumers not having much wine knowledge to understand wine, let alone comprehend the relevance of the prolific wine shows and trophy awards. The limited wine knowledge explanation may also partly explain why grape varieties, friends’ recommendation and others’ comments are not of much importance, with Chinese wine consumers inclined to try new wines from various sales channel sources rather than rely on a single source. Table 3 describes the wine consumption occasions of online wine consumers. These wine consumption occasions including October 2016 – Issue 633

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Your wine deserves only the best...Naturally Australian Tartaric Products manufacture and supply the finest quality Natural Tartaric Acid and Natural Cream of Tartar to the Australian wine industry.

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ATP Colignan Victoria | 0407 189 552 malcolm.douglas@australiantartaric.com.au

Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking Table 3 Wine Consumption Occasions (multiple responses) Variables

Home

Party

Business

Relatives

Colleagues

Yes (a.v)

1255

1402

451

1264

461

(p.v)

55.1%

61.6%

19.8%

55.5%

20.3%

No (a.v)

1018

871

1822

1009

1812

(p.v)

44.7%

38.3%

80.1%

44.3%

79.6%

N/A (a.v)

p.v

0.1%

Total (a.v)

2276

p.v

100%

*a.v: Absolute Value; p.v: Percentage Value Table 4 Reason for Wine Drinking (multiple responses) Reasons

Yes

Not Sure

Relaxation

26.1%

24.5%

49.4%

Social

39.2%

16.2%

44.6%

Health

60.3%

6.2%

33.5%

Influence

34.1%

27.9%

38%

Atmosphere

57.0%

6.3%

36.7%

Knowledge

15.5%

57.1%

27.4%

home, party (with friends), business, relative (big family gathering) and colleague gathering. It can be seen from table 3 that more than 50% of wine purchased online was consumed at home or with relatives, while only 19.8% is for business purpose and colleague gathering only accounts for 20.3%. This result suggests that wine in China is gradually becoming a common daily family drink instead of a luxury product. However this

conclusion should be used with care since the data cited here is only for online sales channel wine consumers. Table 4 shows the reasons that wine consumers were drinking wine. These reasons include relaxation, social contacts, health, peer influence, special atmosphere created in wine drinking and wine knowledge. Health and atmosphere overshadowed all the other factors as the most important ones motivating wine drinking. It is not surprising that wine knowledge is the least important factor influencing wine drinking. Compared with a relaxation reason of 26.1%, more people, 39.2%, were using wine as a social tool. Online wine shopping is becoming a very important factor influencing the wine purchase behaviours of people. Understanding online wine consumer shopping behaviors is of crucial importance in wine marketing. This article used a data set of 2276 online wine consumers purchasing from a wine specific e-commerce platform in the China market to deepen our understanding of online wine consumer behaviours. The results of the analyses revealed some findings that we may not be aware of or challenge previous beliefs such as the results that trophy and wine label design had only a slight influence on online wine consumer shopping behaviours; that most wine purchased online was for home consumption; the dominant reasons for people drinking wine was for health and the special atmosphere/feeling creating in wine drinking; that online purchasers were predominantly female, young and purchasing wine for less than 100 RMB. These results could assist wine exporters to China to design and better target their online wine marketing strategy in the China market, especially for consumer segments and export pricing.

Storage - Fermentation Stainless and Mild Steel Fabrication

TANKS & CATWALKS Jury Road, Berri SA. Ph 08 8582 9500 Ivan 0429 697 219 Mark 0408 822 434 jma@jmaeng.com.au www.jmaeng.com.au

68 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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October 2016 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 633

The New Tradition New Alternative Toastings Integration | Revelation

PO Box 560, Terry Hills NSW 2084

winemaking

Pinot, the Prince Oak

Peter McAtamney, Wine Business Solutions (WBS) principal, is using his extensive industry knowledge and experience to pick apart the Australia On-Premise market. This month he examines Pinot Noir.

IF SHIRAZ is the ‘King’ of Australian red wine, Pinot Noir is, without doubt, the ‘Prince’. Pinot reached its peak of popularity in the Australian On-Premise around five years ago but, unlike straight varietal Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon which have seen their share whittled away by imported styles and Australian blends, Pinot stands strong and steady at around 17% of red wine by-the-bottle listings. Part of Pinot’s charm is that, on one hand, Pinot Noir pleases just about everyone (where straight Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon typically have a more male following). On the other, it works better than most red wine with ever more refined food. The key issue, of course, is that there are only a very limited number of places

in Australasia where Pinot can produce optimally. Tasmania has led the charge and is now steady with around 15 per cent of total listings. The Yarra follows closely. Everywhere we look, ‘commercial’ is giving way to ‘premium’ and regional strength where the lead wine style is concerned is beating the broader range of products produced under strong regional brand names. Hence we see Marlborough giving way to Central Otago where Pinot Noir is concerned just as we have seen Barossa Rieslings give way to Eden Valley’s. Mornington has recovered well after a bad vintage in 2011. Burgundy shows just how strong the demand is at the very top end for

Pinot Noir and just how far Australasian producers have to reach in order to position themselves as competitive with the best in the world. The Languedoc rides on Burgundy’s coat tails as the cheaper French alternative. The Great Southern is the fastest advancing Australian region where Pinot Noir is concerned but its cool climate Riesling and Shiraz based wines are growing even faster in terms of On-Premise listings. Martinborough, despite being one of the best regions in Australasia for the variety, is struggling to remain relevant in the Australian market. Geelong and Gippsland are finding it harder still.

Figure 2 – The Most Listed Pinot Noir Producing Regions in the Australian On-Premise Region

2016

2015

Tasmania

14.9%

15.0%

Change -1%

Yarra Valley

13.7%

14.0%

-2%

Central Otago

11.1%

10.0%

12%

Marlborough

10.8%

12.9%

-16%

Mornington Peninsula

10.0%

9.0%

12%

Burgundy

6.1%

3.1%

96%

Adelaide Hills

4.3%

4.7%

-10%

Great Southern

2.7%

1.6%

68%

Martinborough

2.6%

2.9%

-12%

Geelong

2.1%

2.8%

-23%

Gippsland

1.7%

2.1%

-21%

LanguedocRoussillon

1.5%

0.3%

367%

Source – Wine On-Premise Australia 2016

Figure 1 – Number of Pinot Noir By-The-Bottle Listings and Average Price by Region Source – Wine On-Premise Australia 2016

...when ...wh w en tradition wh tra r dition meets ra tts the t highest standard of quality... Family owned and enriched by the history and experience of three generations of coopers Saint Martin is used by the highest quality references overseas and the ﬁnest wines in Australasia.

Jason King Territory Manager E jking@saintmartin.com.au M +61 (0)400 255 788

Garry King Director - Export E gking@saintmartin.com.au M +61 (0)439 766 777 T +61 (0)8 8358 5657 F +61 (0)8 8358 5658

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October 2016 – Issue 633

The �rench oaks. Naturally diverse. Origins, species, climate, soils, silviculture. The notion of terroir. At Dargaud & Jaeglé we understand and respect this diversity. We offer our �rench oak barrels by reqion and sub-region of origin, to further personalise your wine.

In Australia contact Geoff Henriks 0412 947 090 | geoff@djbarrels.com.au www.dargaud-jaegle.com/en

Creating barrels for winemakers since 1921

winemaking

Supplier Update

Looking after the forest with the ‘one barrel, one tree’ program AN OAK TREE needs to grow for two centuries before it can be used in cooperage. French oak, our industry’s raw material, is a precious resource that Tonnellerie CADUS is working to protect. Since 2015, in partnership with the Pépinières Naudet plant nursery (Burgundy), Tonnellerie CADUS has been leading the ‘One Barrel, One Tree’ program in order to replant oak trees. Thanks to this program, the symbolic figure of 10,000 trees funded was reached hardly six months later, at the end of December 2015. The first oaks were planted in early 2016 near Épernay (Champagne-Ardenne). By the end of January 2016, more than 11,000 trees had been funded by Tonnellerie CADUS. For every barrel sold, Tonnellerie CADUS helps to fund the purchase and planting of an oak tree, and the plant nursery takes care of the young oaks. A long-term agreement has been signed in order to maintain the ecological impact of this unique program. In addition, the independent body ECOCERT Environnement, an international benchmark for forestry certification, checks that the trees are healthy and well-maintained, and that the growth of the future forest is assured.

72 Grapegrower & Winemaker

The benefits of the plantations: • Storing CO2 to fight climate change; • Keeping soil moist to prevent desertification; • Protecting biodiversity and the ecological benefits it brings; and • Promoting regions’ economic development.

DID YOU KNOW? France is unrivalled when it comes to oak: with 4.5 million hectares, it accounts for 30 to 40 per cent of the total area covered by oaks in Europe. It is the leading oak-producing country in Europe and the second-largest in the world after the United States. A major first in the cooperage industry: in 2015, CADUS launched the ‘One Barrel, One Tree’ program to replant oaks in a number of French regions.

CADUS: AN ECO-FRIENDLY COOPER Since 2010, Tonnellerie CADUS has been aiming to promote its working methods while managing French forests in a sustainable way. PEFC certification, renewed in September 2015, guarantees that the wood is tracked from planting to use. www.winetitles.com.au

France is unrivalled when it comes to oak: with 4.5 million hectares, it accounts for 30% to 40% of the total area covered by oaks in Europe.

In addition, recycling the cooperage’s waste material was the logical next step following certification. With the help of the Conseil Régional de Bourgogne (Burgundy regional council), the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and ADEME (the French energy and environment agency), an investment of €500,000 was made in 2011. A wood furnace now enables the cooperage to ensure its energy independence using wood chippings, shavings and sawdust.

October 2016 – Issue 633

THE TREE GIVES US THE BARREL. NOW THE BARREL IS REPLANTING THE TREE.

OVER 2

This is an exciting innovation of which each Tonnellerie CADUS client can be proud â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a generous contribution back to nature which is so generous to all of us. CADUS will plant a new tree for each barrel delivered. In the coming months, a forest of oak trees will be created. You can learn more and watch the trees grow at www.tonnelleriecadus.com

0,000 TREES FUNDE D

winemaking

Stainless steel barrel with a gold internal coating A BARREL WITH golden internal coating is set to be used by the winery Champagne Leclerc Briant for the 2016 vintage. This barrel can vinify in contact with the purest material to enhance terroir’s qualities The company GD Industries, a stainless steel tank manufacturer based in Bordeaux, has teamed up with the Champagne winery on the design of a stainless steel barrel with an internal coating in 24-carat gold: an idea which took inspiration from biodynamic agriculture.

GOLD PURITY The idea to vinify in contact with gold came from the biodynamic approach at Leclerc Briant, as Hervé Jestin (consultant for the winery) points out: “Gold is always associated to the sun, it represents perfection and fire. In the biodynamic approach of winemaking, gold is associated to the fire element, to alcoholic fermentation’s fire. There is a strong resonance between gold and Wine during this winemaking process,” Jestin said. “Gold is a powerful symbol of Purity, a strong quality in Champagnes Leclerc Briant. “We wanted to make a fermentation in contact with gold to take advantage of this metal’s resonance with the fermenting environment. “Gold is also associated to elevation and that’s precisely what we are searching for during our aging process. “The idea is to enhance the best parcels vinifying in contact with the purest material ever made to bring to light the high quality of the terroir. For that purpose we had to adapt our barrel which resulted to a registration as design both from Leclerc Briant and our company.”

THE INTERNAL COATING Gold is very malleable when it’s pure; and this feature allows it to be formed into very thin layers - measured in microns, in thousandth of a millimetre. This malleability of pure gold is a problem for jewellery applications, where any shock would deform the item. That is why you find different gold alloys used in jewellery and the proportion of gold in the alloy is measured in carats (pure gold is 24 carats). “This stainless steel barrel with a golden internal coating was designed to establish contact between must and pure gold,” Jestin said.

74 Grapegrower & Winemaker

“We didn’t wanted an alloy. For that purpose we designed a stainless steel rigid hull and we applied a 24-carat gold internal coating made by electrolysis.” The coating is only applied inside, so this rule out the usual method of immersion in an electrolytic bath (never mind the 228-litre barrel was too large for these baths). www.winetitles.com.au

“We had to create the bath inside of the barrel,” Jestin said. “For that purpose we had to design a removable bottom without losing hermeticity.” The barrel will be on display at Vinitech in Bordeaux, from November 29 to December 1. October 2016 – Issue 633

Advanced Wine Assessment Course scholarship STEWART BYRNE has been announced as the 2016 recipient of the Advanced Wine Assessment Course (AWAC) Scholarship made available by the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology (ASVO) and Seguin Moreau Australasia. The $4500 scholarship will allow Byrne, the Josef Chromy Wines assistant winemaker, to refine his palate and sensory skills. Byrne wants to become a key player in Tasmania, driving quality focused wines, and stamping the region on the global stage as a leader in cool climate winemaking. “Tasmania is currently in a growth phase based on the back of some excellent wines, and a perception that it may become one of the world’s great cool climate wine growing regions,” Byrne said. “In order to build upon this foundation, it is critical that there exists a highly skilled workforce to utilise these resources and consistently produce wines of the highest quality.” Mardi Longbottom, the ASVO president, said the scholarship program is an important component of the ASVO awards program. “Our ‘awards for excellence’ and scholarship program is one way we honour outstanding people from across Australia who are making a significant contribution into the Australian wine industry,” Longbottom said. While each of the candidates were worthy of merit, the panel of judges felt Byrne had presented an articulate and thoughtful application and were impressed by his current contribution to

industry at local and national levels. The judges said there was evidence both Byrne and the wine industry would benefit from his attendance at the AWAC in November 2016. Recognition of Byrne’s scholarship will be made at the Annual ASVO ‘awards for excellence’ dinner, which will take place in November in Adelaide. The ASVO is a professional society which serves the interests of practising winemakers and viticulturists by encouraging the exchange of technical information. Established in 1980, the ASVO has a long and distinguished history within the Australian wine industry, playing a critical role in leading the professional knowledge development, through running cutting-edge technical viticultural and winemaking seminars around topical industry issues, networking industry professionals, holding the key triennial Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference in partnership with the Australian Wine Research Institute and in the publishing of the world’s highest ranked peer-reviewed viticulture and wine scientific journal, the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research. Seguin Moreau Australasia is proud to be the founding sponsor of this AWAC scholarship. Seguin Moreau have been servicing Australasia since 1980 and enjoy a worldwide presence servicing all major wine regions throughout the world, with a commitment to sustainable development of the oak industry through continual innovation.

Long associated with some of the world’s best producers. France: Jayer Gilles, Jean Grivot, Meo Camuzet, Ramonet, Ann Gros, Denis Mortet, Emmanuel Rouget, Francois Carillon, George Noellat, Hudelot Noellat, Robert Groffier, Jean Fournier, Pascal Marchand, Phillip Leclerc, Talbot, Lagrange, Caillou, Alain Graillot, Chapoutier

•

• USA: Spottswoode, Dunn, Hess, Beaux Freres, Hobbs, Calera, Ramey

• Australia: Howard Park, Savaterre, Castagna and many others Cavin Difference: Access to the highest quality oak and forests available in France thanks to family who are among the largest oak buyers in France .

•

• If you believe in terroir you will want to buy oak by forest not just grain. A choice of toast.

• Aged a minimum of 24 months outside in the snow, heat and rain.

• Provenance is guaranteed and traceable.

Cavin Family Tonnellerie

One of the highest quality artisan barrels in France. Orders taken now for January 2017 delivery

For more information: Keppell Smith, Savaterre Vineyard keppell@savaterre.com | 03 5727 0551 | 0418 451 499

October 2016 – Issue 633

Traditional or the House Style (EP): The house style is a long slow toasting on a small oak fire that deeply penetrates the wood but produces only a light char compared to the traditional toast. This is recommended for wines that require extended barrel maturation. Traditional is also available and uses a slightly stronger flame for a shorter time for earlier drinking styles.

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www.tonnellerie-cavin.com Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking

Capturing the spirit of winemaking A COM PA N Y specialising in turning wine industry waste Yeast & into value add products Enzymes is helping to drive Australia’s booming craft spirits sector. Tarac Technologies is Australia’s largest producer of high quality grape spirit, which it sells back to the wine industry or to beverage producers around the globe. Established in 1930, Tarac has also become a driving force behind Australia’s booming craft spirits industry, and is used by many of the more than 50 boutique distillers around Australia. The company processes 40 million litres of distillation wine and lees and more than 120,000 tonnes of grape marc at its sites in Nuriootpa, Berri and Griffith to ultimately produce about 10 million litres of grape spirit a year. Jeremy Blanks, Tarac chief executive officer, said high-strength grape alcohol was a core product across a number of styles at Tarac including neutral grape spirit, brandy spirit, fortifying spirit, matured brandy and industrial spirit. He said the craft spirit industry in Australia was still very small but it was growing fast. “We certainly see it as a small but growing and important market for us to support domestically,” Blanks said. “There are a large number of distillers who we are working with.” Blanks said Tarac offered these new producers a cost effective high quality base spirit that was consistent. “If you’re a small to medium-sized producer it’s very hard to do that consistently yourself,” he said. “We are a company that supports the brands – we’re a name behind the brands and our approach is to work with the customers to develop exactly what they want because being a craft market, they all want something a little bit different.” Blanks said maintaining this consistency and distilling high quality clean spirit were keys to preserving a strong reputation. “Grape spirit is not just grape spirit. If you’re using it for a gin, for example, you need the highest grade,” he said. “If you don’t have the very best quality, the flaws or the taints will come through in your end products.” Despite the growth in the Australian market, Tarac exports up to 80 per cent of its grape spirit primarily to North America and Europe.

76 Grapegrower & Winemaker

We are a company that supports the brands – we’re a name behind the brands and our approach is to work with the customers to develop exactly what they want because being a craft market, they all want something a little bit different. “We don’t always know what beverages our export products go into but a lot of it goes into brandy and the wine industry. A taste for premium spirits is driving growth by value in Australia as consumers look to high quality and craft products. Despite their increasing popularity, locally owned and produced spirit brands, led by gin and whisky, account for less than five per cent of the market. One of the latest distillers to release a gin featuring Tarac spirit is Barossa Distilling Company, which launched the wine region’s first craft gin in July. Born out of winery Soul Growers, Barossa Distilling Company’s Generations Gin uses Tarac grape spirit base made from marc recycled from local wineries including Soul Growers. Neil Bullock, Barossa Distilling managing director, said being able to source high quality grape spirit from the region was an important part of the Generations Gin story. www.winetitles.com.au

He said up to 80 per cent of Australian gin companies were using Tarac spirit as a base. “There’s some using cane, there’s some using grain but the majority are using Tarac grape spirit,” Bullock said. “To have that quality of spirit right on our doorstep makes things phenomenally easier. “You can go down the route of doing it yourself but you’re not going to produce a better product.” Bullock said the new gin had been “incredibly well received” prompting the distillery to work on a second product – a spring/summer seasonal – which will be released in the coming months. “We’re delighted to be in some of the hippest cocktail bars in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and we’re beginning to stretch further afield now,” he said. “When those guys want it on the bar you know you’ve got a good product.” Tarac uses a closed loop system where it is able to repurpose 90 per cent of grape industry waste. It also produces grape juice concentrate and processes solid residuals and filter cake to make a range of products including tartaric acid, which is a natural product from grapes used in the wine, food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, soil conditioner for broad acre farming and stock feed. “By us managing the wine industry’s residuals we deal with what would otherwise be a significant problem and an expensive problem for the industry to deal with,” Blanks said. “We also run a very large wastewater treatment facility next to our production plant in the Barossa and that takes all of our production wastewater and cleans it up and that comes back to us for process water or is sold for irrigation. “Because we have so many different products and they all vary in terms of their supply and demand dynamics we are constantly having to work on and balance what we are producing against what we can sell.”

Looking for more articles, visit the Grapegrower and Winemaker article archive at: www.winetitles.com.au/gwm October 2016 – Issue 633

Raise a glass to

the future Redox is pleased to announce that it now has enzymes available to the Australian wine industry.

AB Enzymes is part of the Associated British Foods group and sister business to AB Mauri who currently offer the maurivinâ&#x201E;˘ wine yeast range. AB Enzymes superior range will be available for the 2017 vintage, with technical support provided by AB Mauri.

Sales contact debbie.shah@redox.com Tel: +61 (0)402 321 292 Technical contact tina.tran@abmauri.com.au Tel: +61 (0)420 309 480

winemaking

Macerating enzymes and fermentation tannins to enhance colour and structure PECTIN, CELLULOSE AND HEMICELLULOSE are structural polysaccharides in the middle lamella and primary cell walls of grape cells. Grape skins contain approximately 75% more cell wall tissue than grape pulp. Cell wall polysaccharide structure changes with grape ripening due to grape’s own pectinases becoming more active. Insoluble pectin (mostly in the middle lamella: the “glue” between cells) becomes more soluble as grapes mature and as a result its grip on the surrounding cell walls is loosened and the fruit becomes softer. Grape pectinases, however, are not very active under winemaking conditions. Commercial pectinase based enzyme preparations derived from Aspergillus species are commonly used in red winemaking to enhance colour and tannin extraction, to improve yield and to aid in clarification and filtration. The increased extraction of tannins

(proanthocyanidins) can also contribute to the colour stability of red wines over time as they react with anthocyanins to form derived pigments such as tanninanthocyanin adducts. Oenological tannins are often used in red winemaking to achieve the same objective as enzymes in terms of colour and structure improvement. The action of enzymes, however, is to extract more from the grape, whereas the action of tannins is to protect what is already extracted. The use of oenological tannins is also recommended in the case of Botrytis infection to minimise the oxidative browning caused by laccase. This article reports on a trial conducted in vintage 2012 to demonstrate the effectiveness of three of Laffort products: LAFASE® HE GRAND CRU (red wine macerating enzyme), TANIN VR SUPRA® (mostly ellagic tannin for a “sacrificial” binding of grape proteins) and TANIN VR COLOR® (mostly naturally active

SUPERSTART

catechins for copigmentation with anthocyanins) on the improvement of wine colour and structure.

TRIAL: BAROSSA, AUSTRALIA Summary of treatments TREATMENT / CONTROL DOSAGE LAFASE® HE GRAND CRU

3 g/hL (30 ppm)

LAFASE HE GRAND CRU

3 g/hL (30 ppm)

TANIN VR SUPRA®

25 g/hL (250 ppm)

LAFASE® HE GRAND CRU

3 g/hL (30 ppm)

TANIN VR COLOR®

25 g/hL (250 ppm)

LAFASE HE GRAND CRU

3 g/hL (30 ppm)

TANIN VR SUPRA®

10 g/hL (100 ppm)

TANIN VR COLOR®

15 g/hL (150 ppm)

This vintage 2012 trial forms part of long-term trial conducted at the same winery on the same grapes every year. Shiraz grapes from the same block were crushed into eight ton open fermenters and different enzyme and tannin

NATURAL YEAST OPTIMISATION

SUPERSTART® Blanc

78 Grapegrower & Winemaker

SUPERSTART® Rouge

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October 2016 – Issue 633

treatments were compared to a control that received no enzymes or tannins. After the completion of malolactic fermentation (MLF) wines were pressed and drained into 1000 L mobile tanks. They were then racked of the gross lees and stored in third fill French hogsheads. The different treatments were bottled separately after 4-6 months in the barrels. Informal sensory analyses were done in South Africa by 34 winemakers from the Stellenbosch area in October 2013. The wines were tasted blind and evaluated on colour and overall quality. Colour analyses were done 18 months after production on three of the treatments: control, enzyme treated and the most preferred tannin treatment by the winemakers.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION It is clear from the results of figure 1 that the control was seen by the winemakers as the wine with the least colour and the enzyme and combination of tannins treated wine was seen as the wine with the most colour. The overall quality perception which involves a blind tasting of the wines, matches the colour perception in terms of preference. This answers the question often posed

by winemakers whether or not the analytically measured increase in colour and structure brought about by these oenological tools are perceivable by the naked eye and on the palate, and whether it will improve wine quality. The spectrophotometric results presented in Figure 2 shows an increase in colour in the LAFASE® HE GRAND CRU treated wine when compared with the control. A further increase is observed when tannins, VR SUPRA® and VR COLOR® are used in conjunction with LAFASE® HE GRAND CRU. This demonstrates the usefulness in using the two types of products in conjunction to enhance the longevity of red wine colour and structure and to improve overall red wine organoleptic qualities.

CONCLUSION LAFASE® HE GRAND CRU, TANIN VR SUPRA® and TANIN VR COLOR® increase and preserve the colour and tannin concentrations of red wines. LAFFORT has a range of enzymes and tannins for use in red winemaking. We recommend the use of these products in conjunction (extraction + protection) for optimal results.

LAFASE® HE GRAND CRU, TANIN VR SUPRA® and TANIN VR COLOR® are registered trademarks of LAFFORT. All analyses were done by Vinlab, Stellenbosch South Africa.

REFERENCES

Canal-Llaubères, R-M (2010). Enzymes and wine quality. In: Managing wine quality Vol. 2, 93 – 132. Edited by Andrew G. Reynolds, Woodhead Publishing. Ducasse, M-N. et al. (2010). Effect of macerating enzyme treatment on the polyphenol and polysaccharide composition of red wines. Food Chemistry 118: 369 – 376 Fulcrand, H. et al. (2004). The fate of anthocyanins in wine: Are there determining factors. In: A. L. Waterhouse & J. Kennedy (Eds.), Red wine color: Revealing the mysteries. Vol 886: 68 – 85. Washington DC: American Chemical Society Kashyap, D.R. et al. (2001). Applications of pectinases in the commercial sector: a review. Biosource Technology 77: 215 - 227 Salas, E. et al. (2003). Reactions of anthocyanins and tannins in model wine solutions. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 51(27): 7951 – 7961 Versari, A., et al. (2013). Oenological tannins: A review. Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research 19: 1 – 10 Vidal, S. et al. (2004). Use of an experimental design approach for evaluation of key wine components on mouthfeel perception. Food Quality and Preference 15(3): 209 - 217 Vidal, S. et al. (2001). Polysaccharides from grape berry cell walls. Part I: tissue distribution and structural characterization of the pectic polysaccharides.

FERMENTATION CHARACTERISTICS

ORGANOLEPTIC CHARACTERISTICS

• Alcohol tolerance: up to 16 % vol. • Wide range of optimal temperatures: 20 - 35°C.

• Very low production of negative sulphur compounds (including SO2 and H2S) and of compounds binding SO2.

• Low nitrogen requirements.

• Masked perception of green characters.

• Moderate volatile acidity production.

• Aromatic freshness and expression of black fruit notes.

• Regular fermentation kinetics.

• Great smoothness of mouthfeel.

• Good malolactic fermentation compatibility.

LAFFORT AUSTRALIA - Tél: 08 8360 2200 - Email: info@laffort.com.au - www.laffort.com

October 2016 – Issue 633

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking

A new generation of yeast protection

Flotation for wine clarification – how does it work and why use it? Greg Howell and Carly Gamble, from Vintessential Laboratories, explore the benefits and the details of lees clarification using flotation. THE FLOTATION PROCESS was originally developed in Australia and has been in use in the mining industry for over a century. It has been used in the wine industry for the clarification of juice for several decades and appears to be gaining renewed popularity due to recent technological improvements. The basics of flotation are discussed in this article, and some conclusions are drawn as to the ongoing growth in the use of this process in the Australian wine industry.

THE FLOTATION PROCESS Flotation, as used in the wine industry, is yet another way of clarifying juice. Instead of the solids settling out to the bottom of a tank by gravity (as has been a long standing and common practice), using the flotation process, the solids are agglomerated and rise to the surface of the tank or vessel by the action of gas bubbles. Flotation is primarily used in the production of white and rosé wines.

ADVANTAGES OF FLOTATION

Increase yeast vitality Increase yeast ethanol tolerance The highest level of sterols within the GO Ferm product range No more oxygen addition worries with white and rosé ferments Improves yeast aroma precursor use

Lallemand Australia Pty Ltd 23-25 Erudina Ave, Edwardstown, SA 5039 AUS Tel: +61 8 8276 1200 | Fax: +61 8177 1802 Email: australiaoffice@lallemand.com Lallemand Oenology: Natural Solutions that add value to the world of winemaking

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There are several advantages of the flotation process. These include the increased speed of separation of the solids compared to the traditional sedimentation approach, plus the ability to use it in either a continuous or batch mode. Due to the dense nature of the solids on the surface, juice loss is minimised and the need for expensive juice recovery steps reduced. In regard to speed, one quite recent article states that by using flotation “you can go from pressing to fermentation in a few hours.” (1)

ENZYMES REQUIRED The use of enzymes in the flotation process is necessary to increase the speed and efficiency of separation and therefore reduce overall flotation time and increase yields. When grapes are pressed pectins are released into the must. Pectins are complex polygalacturonic acids found in the cell wall of plants. After pressing, juice will contain positively charged proteins which are surrounded by an outer layer of negatively charged pectins. These negatively charged outer layers repel one-another, and result in a stable haze. This increases the overall viscosity of the juice and can impact the efficiency of the flotation process. Addition of an appropriate liquid pectolytic enzyme preparation will degrade the outer pectin layer by cutting the long pectin chains into molecules of smaller size. The precise location of these cuts within the pectin chain will depend on the type of pectolytic enzyme used. It is therefore preferable to use a blend of enzymes that has been specifically formulated to achieve maximum pectolytic activity for the flotation process (e.g. Rapidase Flotation). Addition of a pectolytic enzyme preparation should be done as early as possible after pressing with a minimal time for depectinisation of between two-to-three hours. This is temperature dependent, the lower the temperature the slower the work done by the enzymes. This process will expose some of the positively charged inner protein layer and allow particles of opposite charge to attract and agglomerate. This results in

Nitrogen is the most effective gas for ﬂotation as it forms good size bubbles, is of low solubility and has no side effects. It can however be relatively expensive. www.winetitles.com.au

October 2016 – Issue 633

1 uch_A4.pdf 27/08/2015 1

a rapid decrease in viscosity of the juice and in conjunction with the subsequent use of clarifying agents, allows particles to be removed more easily by flotation.

CLARIFYING AGENTS Following the addition of flotation specific enzymes, clarifying agents are added to complete the process and ensure the overall effectiveness of the operation. As with the addition of the flotation enzyme, these additions must be done prior to fermentation. The typical dosages 3:41 27/08/2015 pm 3:41 pm for the additives are shown below as an indication only, as they are quite variable and all have to be adjusted to achieve the level of clarification required.

1. Bentonite Bentonite is a widely used additive in the wine industry. Bentonite particles are negatively charged and so attract positively charged particles such as proteins, thus removing them from the must (2). When used in the flotation process it must be used after the addition of the flotation enzyme and where the pectin degradation by the proteinaceous pectolytic enzyme has occurred, otherwise the bentonite will strip out the enzyme and so make it ineffective. The

range for dosage is typically 200 – 400 g/kL.

adherence to the gas bubbles. A typical dosage range is 100 – 200 g/kL.

2. Gelatine

3. Silica (kieselsol)

This material has a mainly positive charge (2). Its main function is to cause the bentonite to form flocs. It strengthens the flocs, improves cohesion and helps

Silica is used as a colloidal solution and generates larger flocs from the particulates in the juice. It can be used with gelatine but should be added prior to

make to make the perfect the perfect sparkling sparkling wine. wine.

Enzyme for fast, efficient flotation of white grape must Rapidase® Flotation reduces flotation time. Its use enables rapid viscosity decrease, allowing for faster migration olution a unique based solution on naturally based naturallymannoproteins occurring mannoproteins that ®canFlotation improve that can theimprove quality the of your quality sparkling of your sparkling of solidonoccurring particles. Rapidase promotes more nblyit noticeably enhance the enhance mouthfeel the and mouthfeel tartaricand stability, tartaricbutstability, it also preserves but it alsotheir preserves elegance, their freshness elegance,and freshness and compact foam facilitating haze agglomeration. egardless nvenient: regardless of whether your of whether sparkling yourby wine sparkling is made wine byisthe made Charmat byparticles theorCharmat traditional or method, traditional you method, simplyyou simply

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vintessential.com.au vintessential.com.au Email: info@vintessential.com.au Email: info@vintessential.com.au Phone: 1300 Phone: 30 2242 1300(Australia-wide) 30 2242 (Australia-wide) or +61 3 5987 or +61 2242. 3 5987 2242.

N T N TE ESSE SSE

Printed on 100%Printed recycled onpaper. 100% recycled paper.

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winemaking

the gelatine. The combination of gelatine and silica provides excellent clarification but floc formation can be a little slower than using bentonite/gelatine. The range of dosage of silica is typically from 100 – 300 g/kL.

GASES THAT CAN BE USED Gas bubbles are used to make the agglomerated particulates rise to the surface of the vessel where they can be removed leaving the clarified juice below the surface. The size of the floc particles formed is important. If the particle size is too small bubble adherence can be poor and this can result in sub-optimal flotation. If they are too big they can be too heavy and again result in poor flotation. Several different gases can be used for the flotation:

1. Air Air can be a good choice compared to nitrogen due to its lower cost. The oxygen content of around 20% can lead to some oxidation, but can be of help during the subsequent fermentation. It is very important to purify the air to remove any traces of oil or odours.

2. Argon As an inert gas it has some great advantages, however cost is usually a prohibitive factor.

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3. Carbon dioxide

Acknowledgement

Although carbon dioxide provides protection from oxidation it does form large bubbles and this can cause some issues with foam removal.

Photos courtesy of Blair Hanel, Sales Manager, Della Toffola Pacific.

4. Nitrogen This is the most effective gas for flotation as it forms good size bubbles, is of low solubility and has no side effects. It can however be relatively expensive.

References

1. Lansing, R; “Flotation can expedite juice clarification, improve quality”, Wine Business Monthly, 2012, October 2. Mierczynska - Vasilev, A; Smith, P.A; “Current state of knowledge and challenges in wine clarification”, Aust J Grape Wine Research, 21, s1, 2015, pp 615626

5. Oxygen Small bubbles are formed but as oxygen is very reactive it can cause unwanted oxidation. It is therefore rarely recommended.

CONCLUSION Flotation for use in clarifying juice is not a new process, but is one that has recently gained renewed interest from the wine industry. It is becoming more popular due to improvements in technology and its inherent advantages. The use of flotation systems to speed up and provide a continuous flow system for clarification of juice appears to be undergoing a resurgence of interest. The correct use and dosage of enzymes, plus some or all of the common clarifying agents (bentonite, gelatine and silica) and the appropriate gas, are all critical to the successful operation of wine flotation clarification systems. www.winetitles.com.au

Greg Howell is the founder and Managing Director of Vintessential Laboratories. He can be contacted by email on greg@vintessential.com.au. Dr Carly Gamble is the Western Australian State Manager for Vintessential Laboratories and a specialist in enzyme applications. More articles on related topics are available on the Vintessential website: www.vintessential.com.au/ resources/articles/

Looking for more articles, visit the Grapegrower and Winemaker article archive at: www.winetitles.com.au/gwm October 2016 – Issue 633

Supplier Update

Big tanks require careful project planning CROWN SHEETMETAL is a New Zealand specialist in the design and manufacture of stainless steel vessels for the wine, dairy and food processing industries. The Crown brand also incorporates Crown Stainless Systems, which specialises in winery equipment including walkways, conveyors, drains and fittings. Based in Invercargill, Crown has been in business since 1974 and joined the NDA Group in early 2008. Since then, it’s expanded to incorporate two workshops in Blenheim, giving it a presence throughout the South Island – and a base in one of New Zealand’s premium wine-growing regions.

Tanks & Wine Storage

READY FOR ANYTHING The three sites also produce a range of other products, including vessels for the dairy and biodiesel industries, and cabinets and control centres for the electrical industry. The 3500sqm Invercargill workshop includes a high bay, which makes it easier and more efficient to build large vessels such as wine tanks. With a high bay also a part of the Blenheim facility, Crown Sheetmetal can build vessels of up to 19 metres high and weighing in at up to 60 tonnes. A team of skilled designers and draughters work closely with our fabricators, welders and polishers to ensure that your project is delivered to the highest standard.

THE BIG JOB When it comes to building and delivering big capacity tanks last year, all the skill and ingenuity of the team really shines through. Crown Sheetmetal built four larger tanks for the Drylands Winery, in Blenheim, in 2015. Each had a capacity of the 500,000 litres and was built in Blenheim before being transported to the winery in three sections – because they were too big to be transported as a finished product. Crichton Purdie, Crown Sheetmetal site manager told the Marlborough Express the 11-metre high and nine-metre wide stainless steel tanks were too big to fit on a truck in one piece and need to be trucked in three sections before being assembled on site. The three sections ranged in thickness from 2.5 to 8mm. Up to 25 staff were involved in the project which was one of the biggest undertaken by the company for the wine industry. “It has been an interesting project in terms of logistics, and co-ordinating with other contractors,” Purdie told the Marlborough Express. “We have never previously undertaken building tanks of this size and a lot of thought by staff was put into the project before we started. “We have avoided double handling of the sections by transporting each section at a time.” The 14.5-tonne tanks were built on a four-day cycle, involving a total of 10 stages, including the final stage – welding the three sections together. The tank sections were transported by truck in the early hours of the morning to avoid traffic disruption. The 16-kilometre journey took 90 minutes from Cloudy Bay Business Park, in Riverlands, to Drylands Winery on Hammerichs Road. Most of the Crown Sheetmetal business involves contracting to the wine industry, with a small percentage manufacturing for the dairy industry, Purdie said. October 2016 – Issue 633

At the time Sam Glaetzer, then Constellation Brands NZ managing director said demand for the company’s Marlborough wines was continuing to grow internationally, particularly with Kim Crawford and Nobilo brands in Canada and the United States. “We need tanks with the capacity to meet our increasing demand as well as tanks that are carefully designed,” Glaetzer told the Marlborough Express at the time. “The tanks have been designed and installed to blend into our existing winery, and the overall landscape of the Wairau Plains region.” Glaetzer said having Marlborough companies supplying the materials, and Marlborough people carrying out the work, was great for the company and the region. “It will ensure we can continue to supply Marlborough wine to the world.” (Glaetzer was promoted earlier this year to Senior Vice President of Winemaking and Production in the US.) For more information, contact Crown Sheetmetal: P +64 3 577 6310 E info@truformstainless.co.nz

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winemaking Supplier Update

Taylormade tipping tank THE TAYLORMADE TIPPING TANK has taken multi-function to a new level. These tanks pivot near the top, which enables them to be rotated and tipped. Once drained the Tipping Tank transfers wet marc to the press without pumping or digging out tanks. Because each tank is at ground level, access to doors and valves is made simple. When tipped, the tanks empty quickly and in a controlled manner which is important when processing larger volumes. Tipping grapes is safer than manually digging out tanks and is significantly quicker. Cleaning times are also reduced because of the simple internal design. The tanks can be washed out in either lowered or elevated position. When not used for tipping, the tank offers flexibility for: • White pre draining – control skin contact time then achieve over 60% of free run juice; • Red wine fermentation – includes fixed lines to pump over juice; • Cold stabilisation – tanks can be insulated in stainless steel; and • Storage – used as a normal storage tank after vintage. TIPPING TANKS AT NAUTILUS The winemaking facilities at Nautilus Estate are state-of-the-art; and the winery has installed Taylormade Tipping Tanks as an important component. The big item winemaking equipment includes 16 open-top fermenters each with a capacity of eight tonnes. The tanks have both heating and cooling capacity, enabling us to cold soak prior to fermentation and warm or cool ferments as necessary. The crusher is mounted on a rail above

the tanks and a ‘Taylors’ bin lifter is used to elevate the fruit and feed the crusher/ destemmer. The fruit is destemmed directly into the tanks avoiding the use of a must pump. When one tank is filled the crusher/destemmer is moved along to the next. A three-head pneumatic plunging device (known as the ‘Big foot’) has been constructed which gently plunges the cap during cold soak and fermentation, offering the winery total management of the cap. Automated control not only enhances quality but has also turned a labour-intensive, time-consuming task into a simple and controllable procedure. The central catwalk, which provides unrestricted access to the tanks, allows us to closely monitor the ferments and cap temperature. After fermentation, the wine is drained off and the skins are dropped into bins to be loaded into the press using the same bin lifter. The young wines are transferred to barrel after pressing by gravity and will typically remain undisturbed in barrel until blending and bottling. A very efficient receival area means

that grapes arrive into the winery in perfect condition. Nautilus uses the locally-designed-and-built hydraulic tipping drainers – the Taylormade Tipping Tanks – to manage skin contact time for Sauvignon Blanc, and a pneumatic Diemme press that allows the winery to whole-bunch press Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and also the grapes for Nautilus Cuvee (a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay). The relatively small size of the facility, combined with these fantastic equipment means the winery has great flexibility in scheduling the vintage work program. This helps to ensure picking decisions are made based on optimal ripeness and flavour development. In the winery itself, all tanks are insulated for precise temperature control and energy efficiency, meaning Nautilus can chill and stabilise the wine in any tank. For more information, contact Taylors Engineering: P +64 3 578 5787 E sales@taylormadenz.com

Manufacturers of TAYLORMADE Tipping Bins - Tipping Tanks - Slot Drains - Wine Tanks Leaders in the Design and Manufacture of Wine Making Equipment Taylors Engineering (Blen) Limited Liverpool St Riverlands Estate Blenheim New Zealand Phone Conway Taylor: +64 (3) 579 4783 Email: sales@taylormadenz.com www.taylormadenz.com 84 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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Supplier Update

A&G since 1963 A&G IS A PROGRESSIVE COMPANY and a leader in the wine industry, having developed many of the engineering concepts and fermentation equipment currently in standard use in the Australian wine industry. The A&G product range is extensive and includes stainless steel storage vessels, static and rotary fermentation vessels, the Ron Potter designed SWAP fermenters, stainless steel pipe work systems, stainless steel receival bins, stainless steel conveyor systems screwed and belt types. The Potter fermenter (named after company founder Ron Potter) revolutionised fermentation technique in the 1970s and its successor, the Sweeping Arm Potter (SWAP) fermenter, has further improved the process. Ron Potter also introduced the rotary fermenter to the Australian wine industry, allowing rapid fermentation of as little as four days with minimal labour input. One of A&G Engineering’s biggest

successes has been the construction and installation of a large number of 1.1 million litre tanks and associated equipment for Casella Wines at Yenda. A&G has also completed extensive projects for Treasury Wine Estates, De Bortoli Wines and McWilliams Wines. The team has also completed significant projects internationally, including complex installations in Vietnam and China as well as supplying tanks and equipment to wineries in France, the USA, Portugal and Chile. A&G has the capacity to manufacture stainless steel wine storage vessels on site or at one of the workshops; as well as a variety of fermentation vessels, pipe work, pressure vessels (designed and manufactured to AS1210), stair towers and walkways, conveyor systems and a wide range of ancillary equipment. The range of ancillary products include, stair towers and walkways, materials handling equipment, structural steel and general fabrication in both

Stainless steel tanks specifically designed to the customers needs MARZOLA PDP1000 PRESS ex stock!

stainless steel and mild steel. A&G’s in-house professional services include mechanical and electrical engineers, drafting and design personnel, project managers and backed by a comprehensive OH&S and Change management team. Services offered include onsite project management (incorporating ‘turnkey’ solutions), equipment relocation, site re-engineering and scheduled maintenance. A&G also manufacturers the Spinning Cone Column Flavour Recovery System and the Integrated Extraction System for the Flavourtech Group. A&G operates specialist materials handling equipment which includes long haul prime movers, extendable lowloaders, B-double drop decks, escort vehicles, knuckle booms and mobile cranes up to 100 tonnes. For more information contact A&G Engineering: P +61 2 6964 3422 E sales@agindustries.com.au

• Marzola PDP & Basket Presses • Providing obligation free quotations • Design & manufacture of stainless steel tanks from 500L to 1.5 million litres • Galvanised structural steel • Catwalks & stairs • Drafting & design • Pumps & Fittings • Transport to site and installation anywhere in Australia

A&G Engineering Pty.Ltd. Manufacturing sites at Griffith (NSW), Mildura (VIC.) 23-25 Lenehan Road, Griffith NSW. Ph: 02 6964 3422 Fax: 02 6964 3497 www.agengineering.com.au EXCELLENCE | INNOVATION | SERVICE

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Proprietary yeast: Custom yeast to allow for better ageing and drinking Michael S. Lasky reports on a winemaker’s proprietary yeast which binds anthocyanin better for better acidity, colour and mouthfeel. First published in US Wine Business Monthly.

DANIEL DAOU, the winemaker at Daou Vineyards, has been involved in a process to identify alternative yeast strains and trail their influence on colour stability and acidity. As Daou summarised: The purpose of this experiment was to compare the newly made Daou yeast (D20) to another common commercial yeast: WS. This experiment tracked the daily phenolics, Brix, pH and temperature of both lots. The aim was to see if the different yeast strains had a significant effect on the phenolics, alcohol content and acidity of the wine.

HOW THE TRIAL WAS CONDUCTED? A homogeneous lot of Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon was divided equally into two separate lots. Lot 1 was harvested on Oct. 26, 2015 at 24.1° Brix and 3.9 pH. Lot 1 was 12.52 tons fermented in a 4000-gallon fermenter with Enartis WS yeast. Lot 2 was harvested on Oct. 27, 2015 at 24.1° Brix and 3.9 pH. Lot 2 was 14.43 tons fermented in a 4,000-gallon fermenter with DAOU D20 yeast. Daily pump-over regimens were identical for both lots and included twice-daily, 60-minute, closed-circuit pump-overs. The same temperature (23.9°C to 25.5°C) was maintained in both tanks. Samples were taken every day of each lot. Brix, temperature, pH and phenolic development were tracked and recorded for comparison. At the completion of fermentation, Lot 1, with WS yeast, had 140 ppm bound anthocyanins, 1,603 ppm tannins, 3,104 ppm IRPs and a tannins-to-IRP ratio of 51.64 percent. Lot 2 with D20 yeast had 147 ppm bound anthocyanins, 1,523 ppm tannins, 3,072 ppm IRPs and a tannin-to-IRP ratio of 49.58 percent. Lot 2 with D20 was inoculated one day after Lot 1 with WS, but finished fermentation earlier with more stable colour and better mouthfeel than the WS yeast.

Daniel Daou, the winemaker at Daou Vineyards.

CONCLUSION D20 was more effective in binding anthocyanins that result in stable colour. D20 also resulted in a more optimal ratio of tannins-to-IRPs and therefore a better mouthfeel. Lastly, D20 maintained acidity better than WS throughout fermentation. D20 was a stronger, faster fermenter while still contributing to important quality aspects of the wine that will allow the wine to age and drink better.

WINEMAKER’S POST-MORTEM Daou: Basically, a lot of winemakers – especially in California, and even in Bordeaux for that matter – have decided to go the route of using a yeast like Uvaferm 43 because at higher alcohols, they are too afraid of getting stuck fermentations. It has a high alcohol tolerance, short lag time and ability to ferment over a broad temperature range. The problem that I was having is that I like to push the temperature on the fermentations; and when you start getting a little bit higher heat, say around 32 degrees or so, you damage the fatty acid membranes of the yeast, and you end up with a stuck fermentation.

Wine Tank Specialists

32 SPEY STREET, INVERCARGILL 9810 • Ph 03 214 4817 • Fax 03 218 3354 • Email andrew@crownsheetmetal.co.nz 86 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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October 2016 – Issue 633

So my first desire was to create a yeast that could actually tolerate higher temperatures in excess of 37.5 degrees and not have a stuck fermentation. My second desire was to have something that goes beyond just having a bionastrain – as bionastrains really don’t impart great aromas and mouthfeel in my opinion. During harvest time, we collected a bunch of grapes, sent them over to a lab in Italy, and they found 100 different yeast isolates on those grapes. So then we took all 100 isolates and ran tests in the lab to not only measure heat tolerance, but also measure glycerol levels, pH, TA, VA, etc. After doing trials for about two years in the lab and then one year at the winery, we found a yeast called a D20 (the number 20 yeast) that had an extremely high level of glycerol and could tolerate up to 104 degrees in temperature. It had very good levels of acidity and a little bit lower alcohol, which I was looking for. It also possessed great levels of RS. So we thought, let’s do a real test this year [2015], and ferment about 100 tonnes of this yeast and do a lot of different trials with other yeasts just to see what we get in a real-life scenario. I’ve created a whole new technique where I use phenolics very aggressively. So I actually measure phenolics twice a day to really allow me to hit the bull’s eye in terms of mouthfeel, in terms of stabilizing colour and in terms of hitting the tannin structure that I’m looking for.

WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF THE TRIAL? Daou: When we started using this yeast, we had something very interesting happen. We did some trials with other yeast, and we were blown away with one thing. Not only did the D20 have a higher glycerol level, not only did it have a lower alcohol level, not only did it dry up better, not only did it have lower VA numbers and higher TA, but the biggest thing that we saw is that it was binding colour quite a bit higher than all the other yeasts. As a matter of fact, the worst performer was Uvaferm 43. But D20 was a yeast that allowed us to dry up our fermentations better, and it also allowed us to increase our bound anthocyanin and have a better mouthfeel scenario to the phenolics we were looking for. What I learned from the trial is that this yeast allows you to really push the temperature higher and, therefore, allows you to extract more phenolics, which is something that we always look to get. By the same token, it allows you to have more stable colour. So not only do you get to extract more phenolics overall, but it allows you to increase the number of bound anthocyanins. I also learned from all the trials that the aromas, mouthfeel and glycerol level were quite a bit more pronounced in the D20 yeast.

HOW WILL THE RESULTS AFFECT YOUR FUTURE WINEMAKING? Daou: Starting next year, we will pretty much be using it for the majority of our grapes. We only tested on Cabernet, but I would think it would be the same for most other varietals. I did use it on a Sauvignon Blanc last year and loved the results. Currently, we haven’t made a decision if we’re going to release D20 to the public yet; this is a yeast we’re using exclusively for the winery. However, after we do more trials and spend another year or two using it, we may decide to make it available to the public.

Alternative yeast strains were trailed for their influence on colour stability and acidity.

The biggest thing that we saw is that it was binding colour quite a bit higher than all the other yeasts. this year we’re going to be doing this trial with other yeasts on our estate – wines which are super high in phenolics – to see how they react and to see if the trend we saw last year continues. If the trend continues, it’s very exciting because this is a yeast that would be very rare.

FINEWELD STAINLESS STEEL Manufacturers of Quality equipment for the Wine Industry > Storage and Settling Vats > Variable Capacity > Transportable Tanks > Grape Receival Bins > Conveyor Systems > Installations > Valves > Manways > Fittings 17 TOVA DRIVE, CARRUM DOWNS, VIC 3201

Ph: 03 9775 0339 Fax 03 9775 0338 Email: info@fineweld.com.au

Were there any further questions to be answered? Daou: This year I’m planning on doing several different trials against other yeasts and more real life situations whereby I’m going to apply them to higher-end wines. Last year most of the products were on more of our commercial grapes that we get; October 2016 – Issue 633

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winemaking Supplier Update

Refrigeration

Yalumba’s Oxford Landing winery incorporates latest in winemaking

MEETING CONSUMER DEMANDS throughout seasonal variability with an advanced automation and process control solution from Rockwell Automation. Set on the northern edge of the Barossa Valley the key to the success of the Oxford Landing Estate Winery is their ability to achieve a continuous production flow via a sophisticated automation and control system. In winemaking, this timing is particularly crucial since the grapes need to be processed within a critical window of time where the acid and sugar content are at a premium. To achieve this, together with keeping up with increasing consumer demands, winemakers are turning to technology to streamline the process.

OVER A DECADE OF SERVICE AND SUPPORT Yalumba is Australia’s oldest family-owned winery, and one of the country’s largest wine exporters. Its Angaston winery was founded in 1849 in South Australia’s famous Barossa Valley. Over time however, the demand for Yalumba wines has grown to exceed the processing capacity of the heritage-listed Angaston facility. This led to the establishment of the Oxford Landing Estate Winery, which is now the primary producer of Oxford Landing Estate wines and Yalumba’s popular two litre cask wine varieties. One of the main challenges with winemaking is that

CHALLENGE To provide an automation and process control solution that ensures the winemaking capacity of the Oxford Landing winery throughout seasonal variability.

Solutions • Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® programmable automation controllers perform the functionality required for sequential, process and drives control as well as controlling the refrigeration temperature at all stages of the process; • PowerFlex® 700 drives control screw feeders, compressors, crushers, pumps, presses and agitators FactoryTalk® View SE provides site wide monitoring via PanelView™ Plus HMIs for robust and reliable functionality in a single software package; • FactoryTalk® EnergyMetrix provides site wide monitoring of energy use; and • A site wide EtherNet/IP™ network together with some ControlNet™ is used as the backbone for communications while device level communications are provided by DeviceNet™.

Results • FactoryTalk ViewPoint provides historical trending and real time data for improved decision making and monitoring; and • The solution provides a continuous production flow with increased capacity and has the capability to produce 40,000 tonnes per hour.

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customers expect consistency, they get used to a particular label and expect it to taste the same, but every year the acid level is different, the sugar content is different as are the aromas and colour of the berries. According to John Ide, winery operations manager, at Yalumba, the aim for the Oxford Landing winery “was an environmentally friendly plant incorporating the latest in winemaking technology, plus a new and unique process stream methodology”. “The objective was to achieve greater management of the process and the product,” Ide said. The agility needed to meet the demands of frequently changing production demands was uniquely met by the process automation solutions from Rockwell Automation. This on top of the end to end efficiencies of the plant wide control inherent in Integrated Architecture truly made this a solution real win for Yalumba. The Oxford Landing Estate Winery was commissioned in 2005 and has been able to meet market requirements and improve product quality for more than a decade now. The secret, says Ide, is the automated process streams that ensure the grapes are fermented under optimum conditions, given the high volume throughput. It is particularly critical at all times to control fermentation rate and minimise oxidation, both of which are highly dependent on temperature. From the moment the skin is broken during harvesting, the product is moved quickly through the crushing stage, chilled and into the controlled environments of the fermentation tanks.

VIRTUALISATION AND VISIBILITY The control and automation system plays an important role at Oxford Landing, the system performs sophisticated control of the numerous process streams, while at the same allowing the winemakers to exert their influence and apply their experience to achieve the desired result. The primary user interface for the system is a virtualised server supported by two virtualised clients and six onsite clients, each running FactoryTalk® View SE. Winemakers and operators use this supervisory-level HMI to specify process streams, crushing speeds and fermentation schedules; plus monitor the operational status of the entire plant. This system is integrated with Yalumba’s proprietary ‘wine management system’ which is a non-commercial database of all vintages for the purpose batch tracking for label integrity. FactoryTalk View SE is a key component of Oxford Landing’s automation system, providing a clear view across entire lines and production processes. This unified site-wide monitoring and control via the terminals and numerous plant-floor PanelView™ Plus human-machine interfaces (HMI). “Having everything on a common visualization platform was an attractive part of the package,” said Ide. From a programming point of view, Integrated Architecture® provides a common development environment for all applications utilising the mobility and virtualisation of the FactoryTalk system. The ability to share data tags considerably reduces the software development time. The whole network was connected

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Power consumption 25-40% less than HFC based chillers

Low Cost No more maintenance and service cost

Very High Operating Coefficient of Performance (COP) Utilizing the latest VSD technology to provide infinite control, maintaining high COP’s at high and low cooling loads Industrial control system, with accessible PLC hardware Industrial quality plant and equipment with proven reliability and performance Screw compressor technology Efficient semi-welded evaporator and condenser heat exchangers Manufactured in Melbourne Australia from high quality local and imported equipment and materials Full temperature range application, from close approach chilled water (+1.5°C) to low temperature glycol and brine

tri tech refrigeration 43-47 Northgate Drive, Thomastown VIC 3074 p (03) 9465 0099 f (03) 9464 1327 e sales@ttrefrig.com.au

winemaking in the workshop and programmed at the same time. There was one tag database available to both the SCADA and the PLC programmers. Any tag created was immediately available to everybody so there was no importing, exporting, connecting or waiting. From the onset, the system could be programmed concurrently so there was no time delay.

FLEXING MUSCLE At the heart of the system, more than 10 Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® programmable automation controllers (PAC) perform the hybrid functionality required of sequential, process and drives control. This includes overseeing a myriad of AllenBradley PowerFlex® drives that control screw feeders, crushers, pumps, presses, agitators, and so on; and also encompass enhanced PID control of temperature. “We have introduced a system for automatic dosing of yeasts for ferments which is also controlled by this system,” said Ide. ControlLogix also controls the advanced refrigeration plant – perhaps the most critical function of all. “The refrigeration plant is our main tool for controlling temperature at all stages of the process,” said Ide, explaining that three ammonia compressors and a pumping system circulate liquid ammonia through the must chillers, ‘rack and return tanks’, and fermentation vessels as required. The control system works out the required load and directs which should be the lead compressor and what the optimum settings are, based on how much cooling is needed for the required fermentation rates. “We have also just installed a PowerFlex 755 variable speed drive on the 450kW motor of our lead compressor increasing efficiency, flexibility and saving energy over the vintage period,” added Ide. To link the automation system all together, the Oxford Landing plant utilises a site-wide Ethernet/IP network that connects the SCADA server and clients with each other and the ControlLogix PACs for a seamless flow of information through the plant. A ControlNet communications network provides high speed peer-to-peer communications, while device-level communications are provided by DeviceNet. In addition, CompactLogix™ is used as the control system for equipment such as press and cross flow filters, which are networked back to the ControlLogix via Ethernet. FactoryTalk ViewPoint provides visibility remotely via a tablet, which delivers real time and historical trending.

LOW VOLTAGE AC DRIVES The control system works out the required load and directs which should be the lead compressor and what the optimum settings are, based on how much cooling is needed for the required fermentation rates.

“We have also just installed a PowerFlex 755 variable speed drive on the 450kW motor of our lead compressor increasing efficiency, flexibility and saving energy over the vintage period,” Ide said. To link the automation system all together, the Oxford Landing plant utilises a site-wide Ethernet/IP network that connects the SCADA server and clients with each other and the ControlLogix PACs for a seamless flow of information through the plant. In addition, CompactLogix™ is used as the control system for equipment such as press and cross flow filters, which are networked back to the ControlLogix via Ethernet. FactoryTalk ViewPoint provides visibility remotely via a tablet, which delivers real time and historical trending. “As a result of the success of we’ve had with FactoryTalk View SE integrating all areas of our plant in one platform, we’ve now rolled it out at our Yalumba site in Angaston,” Ide said.

TWO SHADES OF GREEN The Oxford Landing site is ‘green’ in more than one sense, with a number of strategies in place to ensure environmentally friendly practices. The refrigeration system is highly efficient, with the option of off-peak loading. In addition, the hot return ammonia gas heats the water used for washing tanks throughout the plant, plus Oxford Landing has its own complete wastewater recycling plant. The ultimate goal has always been to achieve a continuous production flow through the plant. Ide believes the Integrated Architecture from Rockwell Automation is key to ensuring that this objective is met and maintained. “FactoryTalk View allows us to see trends in real time, and we can backtrack to specific batches as required,” he said. “Troubleshooting is also easy. For example, we can delve right down into the drives remotely, changing programming and configuration and perform pretty much anything. That’s the advantage of a fully integrated system. “In addition, we are currently utilising our newly installed FactoryTalk® EnergyMetrix system to control the maximum kVA demand and email alarms when we are nearing the limit. We are in the stages of using the integrated system to automatically shut down other non critical motors to reduce demand when we are approaching the limit.” Yalumba has shown that efficiency leads to quality and by using automation, efficiency can be increased and quality improved. It is the high-volume processing technology and winemaking art that is making Yalumba successful. The results mentioned are specific to this customer’s use of Rockwell Automation products and services in conjunction with other products. Specific results may vary for other customers. For more information visit www.rockwellautomation.com.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR WINERY REFRIGERATION?

We provide reliable and impartial engineering design and review services for a range of winery sizes and types: • Energy Audits OEH Energy Saver panel member • Winery & tank farm refrigeration capacity • Australian Refrigeration Standard AS 1677 Compliance audits

• Brine and glycol system design • Cold rooms, grape & must cooling • Hot water systems design • Compressed air design

ISECO Engineering Services Pty Ltd Specialist Refrigeration Consultants 90 Grapegrower & Winemaker

462 Burwood Road Hawthorn Victoria 3122 Australia

www.winetitles.com.au

• Advice on alternative refrigerants and how to reduce winery refrigeration carbon emissions • Engineering support for grant applications

www.iseco.com.au email: iseco@iseco.com.au tel: (03) 9818 2033 international: 61-3-9818 2033

October 2016 – Issue 633

Supplier Update

New refrigeration unit for Bird in Hand winery THE BIRD IN HAND winery in the Adelaide Hills is getting ready for its new refrigeration system. The winery team is already looking forward to the 2017 vintage with the new equipment promising a reliable system, while also increasing refrigeration capacity. “The first thing we want is a unit that won’t fail, we just can’t afford an unreliable system,” said Jared Stringer, Bird in Hand assistant winemaker. The system will be installed by Oomiak refrigeration and the new chiller will be able handle increased capacity as well as been more energy efficient than the old unit, helping to keep costs down. “We had one chiller fail on us last vintage, it blew up on the back half of vintage. Luckily we were mainly fermenting our reds at that stage ,” Stringer said. “Our whites and sparkling base, our core business which relies heavily on refrigeration had been fermented so we were able to manage, but we had still had to hire a second chiller to get early release wines cold stabilised.”

October 2016 – Issue 633

The increase in capacity will be important as Bird in Hand looks to expand its production, with the aim of building to volumes of up to 2000 tonnes. “We have been growing steadily each year, in 2014 we crushed 1250 tonnes and we are predicting around 1650 for the 2017 vintage but the way we are growing we could be looking at potentially 2000 tonnes by 2019/2020,” Stringer said. The initial consultation phase was a key to get the right set up to match the needs of the winery. As a result, the replacement project has helped the winery improve its warehouse space and overcome a minor flooding issue. “The old chiller had been installed down the bottom of a hill and was getting run off and mud flooding over the coils, damaging the system,” said Doug Steel, Oomiak SA customer support manager. The upgraded model will be installed in an area where it can’t be damaged –set on top of a concrete mounting base, with Glycol reticulation pipework to connect the chiller.

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“As the winery expanded, the position the chillers were originally installed ended up being where there was water run-off, causing the units to degrade quicker,” Stringer said. “I already knew Doug, and knew they’d be good to work with, so we were really able to push what we wanted. Then they were able to gives us five or six options walking us through all the pros and cons of each one,” Stringer said. The new system will be much more economical than what it replaces; and while it has the capacity to chill brine to -6°C, Bird in Hand will aims to find further energy savings by chilling to -6°C. Rising electrical prices, along with fierce competition in the wine industry means it is imperative refrigeration plants are maintained at optimum efficiency, which includes regular upgrades as energyefficient technology becomes available. For more information, contact Oomiak Refrigeration: P 1300 731 699 E customerservice@oomiak.com.au

Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking Supplier Update

Cold Logic ices energy savings COLD LOGIC HAS BEEN serving the Australian Wine industry for more than 30 years. The business has shown a longterm commitment to bring leading edge refrigeration to the market and this has earned Cold Logic a position as one of the most respected names in this area. You only need to look at the numbers which show the significant involvement to the wine industry, having helped chill more than 655 million dozen. Cold Logic recently completed a project for Margaret River Vintners in upgrading and replacing their refrigeration plant. The winery with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes, consisted of a 400kW and 1000kW air cooled chillers on Freon refrigerant. By engaging Cold Logic to design and construct a new Ammonia based refrigeration plant, significant power savings have been realised. Paul Dunnewyk, Margaret River Vintners winemaker and site manager, noticed direct impact of the new plant once 2015 vintage was finished. “A total of 310,000kWh was saved on a like for like vintage which translated to a saving of more than $65,000, and that was just over the vintage period,” Dunnewyk said. “The new Cold Logic ammonia plant has reduced our risks in the heat of vintage as the new plant has redundancy and remote monitoring.” The total power saving for the refrigeration plant was more than 39% and demonstrated the benefits of highly efficient ammonia refrigeration. The new plant was capable of reducing the kWh per tonne of crush average from 141 down to just 86. The flexibility of a new plant with two separate skids gives flexibility and capacity when needed, while being extremely energy efficient. The nature of winemaking requires such flexibility in the refrigeration plant,

SEARCH N W

A total of 310,000kWh was saved on a like for like vintage which translated to a saving of more than $65,000, and that was just over the vintage period. particular when vintage and non-vintage months are so different. Meanwhile, in South Australia, the installation of a high-efficiency ammonia refrigeration plant has helped wellknown McLaren Vale winery Wirra Wirra shave almost 50% off its annual energy costs. Another new refrigeration plant installed by Cold Logic has been the key component of a major upgrade of the winery’s energy systems undertaken earlier this year. Jeff Cannan, Cold Logic’s managing director, said his company had been approached by Wirra Wirra, after the winery’s energy prices had doubled from 2008 to 2013. “Typically, more than half of a winery’s power is consumed by a refrigeration system,” Cannan said. “Wirra Wirra were keen to see what options existed to upgrade the refrigeration plant to cater for increased production, better sustainability and what energy savings could be obtained. “After discussions, the decision was made to install a new high efficiency ammonia refrigeration plant to cater for a planned 2500 tonne grape crush. “The refrigeration plant was installed on time and within budget earlier this

ABOUT COLD LOGIC Founded in 1984, the national industrial refrigeration specialist has offices in Adelaide and Melbourne. Cold Logic is a manufacturer, supplier, contractor and service provider of industrial refrigeration solutions to the beverage, food processing and cold storage industries throughout Australia. Cold Logic is celebrating its 30th year in business this year. Its client list includes major companies such as Coopers Brewery, Thomas Foods International, Arnotts, Pernod Ricard Winemakers and JBS. The company employs 52 staff and plans to reach annual turnover of $25 million by 2020. For more information, contact Cold Logic: P 08 8240 3333 E solutions@coldlogic.com.au

Online Buyers’ Guide Equipment, Supplies & Services for the wine & grape industry

www.winetitles.com.au/guide

WID16_Directory online buyers guide 43x185.indd 1

92 Grapegrower & Winemaker

year.” Andrew Kay, the Wirra Wirra CEO, said the energy and maintenance savings from the new refrigeration plant alone was worth nearly $25,000 a year. “The new high efficient ammonia refrigeration plant, together with upgraded brine lines and solar panels, had delivered savings of nearly 50% from Wirra Wirra’s annual energy bill,” Kay said. Cannan said Cold Logic was focussed on delivering green energy efficient refrigeration solutions. “The plant upgrade at Wirra Wirra is the kind of project that Cold Logic has built its reputation on and we are delighted to have been able to assist such a well-known South Australian business,” he said.

26/11/2015 11:27 am

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October 2016 – Issue 633

sales & marketing Snapchat for your wine business: There are plenty of options for wine brands when it comes to interaction on social media - including Snapchat. In this article, Dr Rebecca Dolan from The University of Auckland Business School Department of Marketing, works through the reasons Snapchat deserves attention. SNAPCHAT OFFERS A GLIMPSE into the future of mobile marketing. On the most basic level, users (such as brands and consumers) can send image or video ‘Snaps’ directly to a recipients inbox. Snapchat has over 100 million active daily users who collectively send around 400 million Snaps per day, making Snapchat one of the fastest-growing social network platforms. Many brands are already using Snapchat to produce daily updates (known as ‘Stories’) that engage and excite audiences. A ‘Snapchat Story’ lasts only 24 hours, and is a string of Snaps used to create a video-like narrative. More than 1 billion Snapchat Stories are created each day. The platform provides many native tools and features, such as filters, geofilters, text, emojis, and music. Snapchat is quite unique compared to other social networking platforms. The posts aren’t archived, and the sponsored ads don’t stay for more than 10 seconds. In this article, we will focus on some simple ways that brands can use Snapchat for marketing.

TELL A GREAT STORY Snapchat allows you to collate videos and images into ‘Stories’ on your channel. When you add content to your ‘Story’, it remains there for 24 hours. The advantage of adding content to your ‘Story’ is it allows your followers to replay the material. This differs to a single Snap, which can only be viewed once. You can also continually add Snaps to your Story, keeping the content highly relevant. As a brand, you can create a Story for an event, adding new content as the event unfolds. Before using the Stories feature, make sure you log in to your Snapchat account and permit all followers to see your Stories.

ACCESS TO LIVE EVENTS If you’re hosting or taking part in live events (e.g. trade shows, charity events, gourmet weekend, new product releases), then Snapchat is a great tool to leverage. Audience members are granted direct access to your live event, no matter where they are. Additionally, using a tool like Snapchat allows you to liaise directly with event goers. This gives you access to real-time, relatable brand ambassadors that your customers can relate to.

94 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Your content does not need to be over polishes or preprepared. In fact, the more it looks like one of their friends created it the better! BUILD BRAND AWARENESS WITH SNAP ADS Snap Ads is a new feature that provides a targeted approach to reaching your audience. A Snap Ad is a 10-second, full screen vertical video advertisement that appears between Stories. Advertisers can offer Snapchat users the choice to ‘swipe up’, which allows the user to engage with more in-depth content. Examples could include longer videos, articles, or a mobile website. According to Snapchat, the ‘swipe up’ rate is five times higher than the average click-through rate on comparable social media platforms.

PROMOTE ENGAGEMENT WITH ‘ON-DEMAND GEOFILTERS’ Geofilters make it easy for Snapchat users to let their friends know when they are at an event or particular location. A great example of this would be a Snapchat user applying a filter to their Snap that lets their friends know they are at a cellar door or winery. Starting at just $5, a Geofilter can be designed on the Snapchat website. It allows you to customise the location of the filter as well as the time period the filter is available to visitors for.

PRODUCT DEMONSTRATIONS Give your Snapchat followers a private tour of your business and products, and explain the reasons why and how you have made them. A great example of a company who are achieving this is Vinomofo, who frequently update fans with Stories related to the wines they have tasted, cellar doors they have visited and so on. www.winetitles.com.au

TAKE YOUR AUDIENCE BEHIND THE SCENES On Snapchat, it’s easy to add a human touch to your Snaps. Your content does not need to be over polishes or preprepared. In fact, the more it looks like one of their friends created it the better! This helps the audience to think of you as their friend who is sharing important details with them. Behind the scenes content can include: images of staff having fun in the winery or vineyard, a glimpse into the company culture, a product launch teaser or even a guided tour of an event.

USE Q/A TO INTERACT Snapchat is a highly interactive platform. The disappearing nature of content encourages quick replies and provides you with a unique way to interact with fans and followers. Remember, questions don’t necessarily have to be related to your product or brand. For example, you can ask the audience about their weekend plans, or what famous person they would share their favourite bottle of wine with. These questions, although trivial, begin to position your brand as fun and interactive, rather than too promotional or serious. Remember the Q&A can be the other way around, allowing fans to ask you questions about your recent ‘Snaps’.

FINAL THOUGHTS The team at Snapchat are getting very serious about competitive marketing solutions. It is a young platform, and marketers (particularly in the wine industry) are just getting started. This means there is an opportunity for you to attract followers and build an active community, without facing a lot of competition. On Snapchat, users always have a limited amount of time to see your content. This means for that one-to-10 second window of content availability, you have 100% of your audiences attention. It is important to ensure that a range of company representatives have access to your Snapchat account. This will help to ensure that your content remains varied and engaging, which are both keys to successfully leveraging Snapchat as a communication tool. October 2016 – Issue 633

Supplier Update

Reliable vintage staff NOW IS THE TIME many wine businesses look to lock in their additional vintage staff, but there’s often some nervousness about whether these staff will actually turn up when you need them to start work. Each year many wineries that were counting on staff, find the potential employee has made other plans and neglected to tell them. How frustrating that must be! There are a number of ways a winery can prevent this from happening – and one of them is securing staff through Bibber. The team at Bibber sources qualified and experienced wine people from all across the world (28 countries so far) who are looking to travel to Australia for vintage. Bibber collects information (such as CVs, autobiographies and references) and also requests a YouTube video. All of this information is accessible to registered wineries from the Bibber website. When you choose a Bibber applicant, he or she cannot work at any other winery without prior approval from you and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP). Bibber organises the visa and liaises with the Department of Immigration personally to make sure each visa is granted in time. Bibber also helps the new employee get over their jetlag

and prepare for their Australian vintage by hosting them for three days in Adelaide before they travel to the winery. The three-day introduction reinforces the conditions of the visa and also acquaints the new arrival with some of the ‘rules’ of life in Australia. Bibber also organises the bank accounts, taxes and superannuation so none of this work falls to the winery to coordinate or chase. Bibber also handles any mail forwarding or other follow-up correspondence after the employees have finished and departed. For a winery to qualify, there are three requirements: • The Bibber employees must be paid according to the award; • The winery must keep them safe, by following all the OH&S rules; and • The winery should assist the employee with finding accommodation, at least in the short term. Now is the right time to register and take advantage of the opportunity to lock in your vintage staff. More information about having a Bibber employee in the winery for vintage 2017 is available online, www.bibber.com.au