Cover: The Margaret River is in focus in our July issue, introducing new winemaking talent Dylan Arvidson and reflecting on the pioneering work of Dr John Gladstones. Vintage ’24 takes centre stage with part 1 of our annual report, and Paul Le Lacheur takes us through winery sanitising techniques. We navigate termination of employment, managing frost risk and growing Gamay in Australia, and take a lens to rebranding. Cover photo of Flametree Wines in Margaret River.
REGULARS
6 What’s online
6 In this issue
16 International briefs
96 Producer Profile: John Duval
99 Looking Back
99 Calendar
100 Marketplace classifieds NEWS
7 Wine industry funding package announced, AGW seeking additional support
8 Warm inland growers raise concerns over push for sustainability certifications
10 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay takes out PM’s Trophy for best Australian wine
11 NSW winery has export licence cancelled for record-keeping failure
12 Strong Australian wine presence at Vinexpo Asia 2024: “It feels a bit like the old days”
14 Wine regions tour highlights “depth and breadth” of Australian wine to professionals in key Asian markets
15 Best of both worlds as wine industry publications merge
GRAPEGROWING
24 FEATURE When frost bites
30 FEATURE 2024 Vintage Report part 1
58 FEATURE Spotlight on Margaret River
62 Demonstrating spray-on mulch in vineyards
66 Remembering Dr John Gladstones, “Godfather” of the Margaret River wine region
WINEMAKING
70 Young Gun: Dylan Arvidson
74 FEATURE Vaporised hydrogen peroxide and dry steam as sanitisers
80 The jury is still out on Australian Gamay
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
84 How to manage termination of employment: A fair approach
88 FEATURE Reimagining a classic: SA wine brand gets its first new look since 1984
SALES & MARKETING
92 FEATURE Packamama wins university’s Sustainable Packaging Innovation Challenge
WINE ENG 2024 – PREVIEW
Robotics, low SO2 winemaking, and sustainability
WINE ENG 2024 will be two days of networking and great technical content for winery staff and suppliers. The conference and trade show will be complemented by site visits to Dorrien Estate, Pernod Ricard Winemakers and Treasury Wine Estates to see a new winery development, a combined canning/bottling line, and autonomous mobile robots and cobots. A relaxed conference dinner will feature the traditional RFDS raffle with great prizes as well as a performance by comedian Ben Darsow.
Robotics
Roboticist Dr John Vial will deliver the keynote presentation to WINE ENG 2024 on the topic of humanoid robots. Humanoid robots have attracted much publicity in the last year following announcements of prototypes, software and trials by Tesla, Figure AI, Boston Dynamics, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Amazon, and many others (Figure 1). How do they work, and do they deserve the attention that they are getting? Could humanoid robots be useful in wineries, where many
tasks are still very manual, or would other styles of robots be more suitable?
Two further presentations will cover robotic technologies that are not common in the wine sector but are well-established in some industries. Jorge Henry from Treasury Wine Estates will discuss their experiences with autonomous mobile robots and cobots and Allan Spackman from Linde Material Handling will outline considerations when adopting autonomous mobile robots and forklifts.
Figure 1: Developments in humanoid robots will be reviewed in the WINE ENG 2024 keynote presentation – photo shows an Agility Digit prototype moving boxes in an Amazon warehouse
When frost bites
By Meg Riley
Charles Simons is general manager and director at Mayfield Vineyards in Orange, NSW, where the vineyards are located on the slopes of a dormant volcano, Mount Canobolas. Roughly 900 metres above sea level and about three hours west of Sydney, it is this vineyard-defining elevation that is also a culprit of the low yet prevalent frost risk.
Whilst Simons is wary of frosts, having witnessed their wrath in full force during his time in New Zealand, he says that in Orange, the frost risk is so rare that most producers do not have permanent preventative measures in place.
“We don’t have anything on the farm for frost protection,” said Simons. “There is the odd vineyard that has water sprinklers, but again, it’s so primitive
that they can only use it for a couple hours and then the dam is empty.”
Clouded vision
From his experience with frost in New Zealand, Simons has learned how to spot an encroaching frost event.
“What I look for is if it’s supposed to clear overnight,” Simons explained.
“Normally prior to an event, you’ll have a lot of clouds around, there’ll be a wind blowing, and a lot of growers [and] farmers get a false sense of hope that the clouds are going to stay around, therefore there’s an inversion layer. Because if the cloud stays around, it keeps the temperature steady.
“But as soon as the sun sets, the wind will drop down because there’s no more
pull on the atmosphere. So the wind will drop, the clouds disappear, and all of a sudden there’s a frost event.
“Rule of thumb, what I’m used to, is it drops a degree an hour,” explained Simons. “Some would say that’s an old wives’ tale, but I always swore by that in New Zealand and it’s always been pretty much 99% correct.
“It’s fascinating how clouds can actually prevent that radiation so quickly,” said Simons.
He witnessed this phenomenon in real time during a frost event in New Zealand, where their frost alarms were set to alert at 2.5°C, allowing the staff time to arrive at the vineyard for frost fighting.
“By the time we got to the office, there was very little cloud rolling in, and as soon as
Charles Simons in the vineyard at Mayfield Frost Management
Acid balance in Chardonnay has been exceptional and tops off the list of classics from the Langhorne Creek wine region.
South Australia
Langhorne Creek
The Vintage 2024 season presented a few challenges during the growing season. Langhorne Creek experienced a dry July, though early and late winter rainfall was above average, and a few riverside vineyards also received a small flood, giving the soil a good soak. September and October were very dry and a few growers suffered minor frost damage and crop losses. An early but windy and cool extended flowering period in October challenged berry set and uniformity. This was followed soon after by a particularly wet November, December and January. This was good for vines that had achieved berry set but sent many vines into a vegetative cycle with some bunch shatter and further crop losses.
The mild summer was great for vine development and maintaining acidity, with a few warm periods in February pushing vines towards a focus on ripening fruit. Generally, yields were moderate and below average due to the poor flowering period, despite the rainfall that
followed flowering. The larger canopy growth from additional rainfall kept fruit out of the sun and reduced levels of sunburn whilst maintaining acidity and aromatic compounds. That is, up until the Adelaide Cup weekend from 8-11 March, when the region experienced four hot days; 34.9°C, 40.4°C, 39.6°C and 39.9°C with above average night temperatures in the low 20’s.
The first harvest in the region snuck in on the last day of January with the beginning of the intake of fruit for sparkling base. The white still-wine intake began with Verdelho in early February. The red grape harvest kicked in early with some Shiraz, Malbec and Cabernet Franc and pushed along rapidly until the 8 March when the region held its breath to ride out the heat mentioned above. This period put vines, people, and ferments under pressure but consistent monitoring, adaptation, overnight pressing and hard work, maintained quality.
Crop losses of up to 15-25% were reported from the heat through reduction of berry weight, particularly
in Shiraz. The bulk of the Langhorne Creek vintage concluded by the second week of April with Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and other late varieties completing the winery intakes.
In a very subdued wine industry suffering a severe oversupply of red grape varieties it is an understatement to say it has been a tough year emotionally for most. All vintages have their challenges and not all are predictable, but Langhorne Creek continues to produce wine of excellent quality. Stand out varieties Shiraz, Grenache (and blends), and Cabernet (and blends!) are shining, along with some excellent Malbec. Acid balance in Chardonnay has been exceptional and tops off the list of classics from the Langhorne Creek wine region.
A vintage all producers should be proud of.
- Report provided by Langhorne Creek Grape and Wine inc., with thanks for input from Paul Hotker, Bleasdale Vineyards.
Image supplied by Darren Mace
River
