Grapegrower & Winemaker by Provincial Press Group

JUNE 2014

Transport King -

Innovation key to logistics success story

Linking grape measurement to wine sensory outcomes

ROUNDTABLE :

Are we oversupplied or just undersold?

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June 2014: Issue 605

Contents features 28

GWRDC news

Vineyard machinery

53 The right choice the first time is a vital first step for your big-ticket equipment

Soil management and health

Crushing and pressing

Bottling, labelling and packaging

Bulk wine

Soil health workshops for WA grower

winemaking 63 UC Davis experimental super winery has opened its doors for business

news 6 My view - Facing home truths is wine’s first next step 7 Roundtable: Is our wine oversupplied or undersold?

69 Wolf’s Blonde Shiraz is really a woman of the world 72 Four-year research project investigates early influence of oxygen 74

The Visionary – who’s laughing now? Is Bordeaux à la 1855 defensible?

Egg shortage threatens industry

Meet wine’s ultimate mover and shaker

85 Grape and wine sustainability program to launch on 1 July

20 Women in wine: Forging ahead or falling behind? 26

Regional Roundup: SA

sales & marketing

grapegrowing 32

If you are pressed for time try these

Preventing those awkward spills

Esca symptoms in Vitis Vinifera

38 Yield of Shiraz in response to warming and late pruning

business & technology

40 Can you achieve yield control in the vineyard without using bunch thinning?

You have to be on the ball if you employ online

Bulk wine – it’s a big business in today’s market

New burst of life for production

Climate change and transforming the industry

97 Differences of distributor decisions across the US, Australia and China

49 Linking grape measurement to wine sensory outcomes

JUNE

2 014

People in research: 7 Dr Justin Cohen 28 “Then instead of returning to the US, to work in corporate management for a hotel group as planned, I accepted a scholarship to undertake a PhD in wine marketing.

JUNE 2014

Transport King -

Innovation key to logistics success story

Linking grape measurement to wine sensory outcomes

ROUNDTABLE : Dr Justin Cohen, Research Fellow, Ehrenberg Bass Are we oversupplied Institute for Marketing Science or just undersold?

cover

“It’s where I first connected with Professor Larry Lockshin (Pro Vice Chancellor for Strategic Coordination andA Head of Marketing at University of South Australia) and his research group.”

Cohen said he happily made the jump.

Dr Cohen continues to work closely with Larry and Armando, particularly on the current China projects.

regulars

“We’re a great team. My focus is particularly managerial, it’s my job to solve problems and come up with ways to overcome hurdles that crop up with such projects.

JF Hillebrand managing 5 What’s online director Bernd Jordan is king“Working in emerging markets like China now is really exciting, because we are 99 Looking forward getting past people just espousing their of the castle in one of his thoughts and feelings. Our EBI team is actually doing the research in country. 100 AdvertiserWe index warehouses. Responsible for the wine marketing can make arguments and claims about component and research supervision, Dr market dynamics in data and not Full story Page 16. 101 founded Marketplace classifieds After completing his PhD, Dr Cohen moved to Europe to work in the Master Vintage program, which is an EU-funded Master of Science program (MSC) for oenology, viticulture and wine business.

Cohen said that after two exciting years of delivering education and conducting research across numerous European markets he was ready for the next challenge - at the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, a specialised retailing centre at Monash University. “I focussed my energy on commercial research and strategy implementation for property groups, retailers and brands,

just conjecture.”

“Working in emerging markets like China now is really exciting.” Dr Cohen is also enjoying the growing interest and research competition in wine

In this issue June Publisher and Chief Executive Hartley Higgins Managing EDITOR Elizabeth Bouzoudis EDITOR Andrew Mole editor@grapeandwine.com.au Editorial advisory board Dr Jim Fortune, Denis Gastin, Dr Steve Goodman, Dr Terry Lee, Paul van der Lee, Bob Campbell MW, Prof Dennis Taylor and Mary Retallack Editorial Stephanie Timotheou Advertising Sales Chas Barter sales@grapeandwine.com.au Circulation: Melissa Smithen subs@winetitles.com.au Subscription Prices Australia: 1 year (12 issues) $77.50 (inc. GST) 2 years (24 issues) $145 (inc. GST) New Zealand, Asia & Pacific: 1 year (12 issues) $110 (AUD) 2 years (24 issues) $210 (AUD) All other countries: 1 year (12 issues) $174.50 (AUD) 2 years (24 issues) $339 (AUD) Students (Aus only): 1 year (12 issues) $66 (inc. GST) Winetitles Pty. Ltd. 630 Regency Road, Broadview, South Australia 5083

Well, agriculture across the board might have dodged a bullet in the Federal Budget. And the wine industry in particular came away with its WET rebate intact. But that doesn’t mean the toe cutters in Canberra might not continue tinkering with every opportunity to save a few shekels and hardly skip a beat in their concern for the common man and/or woman hurt in the fallout. Of course the WET would look a lot healthier if the loopholes so cleverly being abused by both the shiny suits in the cities and the Kiwis were not just tightened, but closed. Providing valuable breathing space for those who truly merit the financial aid the rebate was designed to provide. However, there is still a darkness to descend over the industry, as there is over most primary industry. Canberra’s decision to further squeeze the funding for health and education will have dire impacts in rural and regional areas. Children who were able to embark on tertiary studies at regional universities might find those opportunities drying up fast.

If they do it will also cost the whole community as staff from those universities, from professors to cleaners, leave the area in search of work. Trying to wring the last bit of blood out of the health system will have a similar effect. Loss of services, loss of faces in the community and the domino effect that sets in motion. The money will be focused where the biggest numbers are, and that is not out in the sticks. How serious this problem is will not be immediately realised but there is little doubt change, and not change for the better, is on the way. For grapegrowing families doing it tough this type of double whammy is just about the last thing they need. Like most of you, we shall watch with great interest for the outcome of the budget we are told we had to have.

Andrew Mole Editor Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower & Winemaker editor@grapeandwine.com.au

Contributors When not skiing the snowy Colorado slopes Jeremy Galbreath from Curtin University’s Graduate School of Business is looking at why women are still the underdogs in the Australian wine industry. Join him on Page 6.

Phone: (08) 8369 9500 Fax (08) 8369 9501 info@winetitles.com.au www.winebiz.com.au Printing by Lane Print Group, Adelaide © Contents copyright Winetitles Pty Ltd 2014.

Steve Goodman is a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Adelaide and a regular contributor to Grapegrower & Winemaker. This month he looks at what influences distributors across some of our key markets. His report starts on Page 93.

Ben Rose writes that when it comes to big-ticket machinery in the vineyard there are horses for courses and you need to make sure you pick a winner when you are splashing out that kind of money. Find out more on Page 49.

on the grapevine Wine tax unchanged in tough budget

The Federal Budget has not increased wine taxes – a move welcomed by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia. Chief executive Paul Evans said there would be a collective sigh of relief across regional Australia. “The Australian wine industry supports over 30,000 jobs and earns more than $1.8 billion in export revenue but high exchange rates, a consolidated retail sector and a high cost base have all placed significant hurdles in front of local producers,” he said. “A recent industry review revealed very low average levels of profitability across the wine sector and many cases of local businesses operating below cost despite the fact we produce a truly globally competitive product. “The last thing the Austra lian wine

industry needs right now is a tax hike and the Federation has advocated strongly on this matter, so we welcome the fact that common sense has prevailed in Canberra.” Evans explained the WFA has carefully considered what the wine sector needs to maintain its global competitiveness, setting out an action plan to boost profitability led by a step-up in global marketing and promotion of Australian wine. “This plan recommends responsible reform to the WET rebate to ensure it continues to deliver its original policy intent of supporting small and medium wine businesses and regional communities," Evans said. Contact: Alexia Deegan P: 61 8 8133 4303 E: alexia@wfa.org.au

Colin Hinze crowned 2014 Viticulturist of the Year

Taylors Wines’ viticulturist Colin Hinze has been crowned the 2014 Viticulturist of the Year at the Clare Valley Regional Awards. Hinze has played a key role within the winery since joining Taylors in 2005 and is responsible for the technical management of 600 hectares of premium vineyards. Announced at the black tie and pearls gala awards dinner in late May, his entry was reviewed by an assessment panel including wine writer Huon Hooke, SA wine figure Tim Knappstein, Petaluma senior winemaker Andrew Hardy, Clare Valley Winemakers Incorporated chair Neil Paulett and Clare Valley Wine Grape Growers Association president Troy Van Dulken.

Hinze’s emphasis on development and research proved popular with the judges who were impressed by his internal programs and various research projects with the CSIRO. He was honoured to receive the top gong but said it was proof that Clare producers are at the top of the list when it came to quality drops. “While I have been named individually, I want to share this recognition with the entire vineyard team at Taylors Wines. Without their passion, efforts and innovation, none of the great work we do would be possible.” Contact: Taylors Wines P: 61 8849 1111

Air New Zealand and winegrowers invest in wine tourism

Air New Zealand and New Zealand Winegrowers have announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will see them work together to actively promote NZ as a destination for wine tourism. Air New Zealand has worked closely with New Zealand Winegrowers for almost three decades as the naming rights sponsor of the country's premium wine competition, Air New Zealand Wine Awards. The announcement signifies a further strengthening of this partnership with the organisations committing to work together on a range of initiatives to promote NZ wine in North America and Asia including a nationwide promotion with a top US retail brand and a series of consumer and trade events in the US, Canada and China. The agreement will also see Air New Zealand and New Zealand Winegrowers

work together to host international food and wine media on familiarisation tours to NZ. New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive officer Philip Gregan said he was delighted to strengthen the relationship with Air New Zealand. "Wine tourists spend 30 per cent more than average tourists in NZ and stay for longer reflecting the premium nature of the country’s wine in our overseas markets," Gregan said. "This partnership with Air New Zealand will allow us to jointly reach these important customers to increase wine exports and tourism to NZ. "We believe this will benefit Air New Zealand and the wine industry as well as enhance the overall brand of our country.” Contact: Philip Gregan P: 64 021 9645 64

what’s online

The deficit irrigation debate The quality of winegrapes under irrigation can be improved prior to harvest if growers stop irrigating them – a practise known as deficit irrigation. But there’s a lot of debate in the industry about exactly how this happens. AWRI viticulture consultant Dr Peter Dry says less vegetative growth, smaller berries or lower yields are all possibilities, reports the ABC.

Wine prices may rise due to frost Wine drinkers could pay more for their favourite tipple after frost damaged the 2014 harvest. Australian Vintage, whose brands include McGuigan, Passion Pop and Tempus Two, says the amount of grapes it crushed for the 2014 vintage fell by nearly a fifth as a result of frost late last year, reports the Herald Sun.

‘We’re not in discussions with Pernod Ricard to sell US assets’, says TWE Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) insists it is not in talks with Pernod Ricard to sell its struggling US business after a 15 per cent share price spike followed news reports suggesting this was the case. French drinks giant Pernod Ricard went on record stating it remains keen to develop its US wine portfolio, although TWE chief executive officer Michael Clarke insisted its US business is “too important to sell”, reports Beverage Daily.

.com.au Australia’s wine industry portal by Winetitles Australia’s wine industry portal by

Winetitles

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.winebiz.com.au/dwn.

news

my view

Facing home truths is wine’s first next step The industry must also think hard about how to create a more balanced workforce Jeremy Galbreath knows more about the role of women in the Australian wine industry than most and he writes there need to be big changes and soon if the long-term future of the industry is to be ensured by accessing all the best talent. IT IS hardly any secret the Australian wine industry has had its fair share of challenges over the past few years. A strong dollar. An oversupply of grapes. Increased international competition. High labour costs. Tax and rebate policy debates. The increased buying power of a few dominant retailers. Changes to the climate. The list goes on and on. So looking at all that, is the Australian wine industry really now at a crossroads? Perhaps. Yet as I write this viewpoint piece from Colorado in the US, I’ve had time to reflect on the state of affairs back home. First, our wine industry has proven its resilience and adaptability over many decades and will press through any challenges thrown at it. Second, the wine is outstanding. As I sample many different varieties from many different countries while here in the States, I find myself wanting even more my favourites from back home. As I share some of these Aussie wines with family and friends, they always comment on how well they like them. And when I shared a bottle of Grange with a mate, well, let’s just say it was almost a religious experience. So let’s

6 Grapegrower & Winemaker

not forget that across virtually every price point, Australian wine can hold its own with anybody. Third, apart from the many great positives of our wine, individual wine businesses, national peak bodies, and various commentators are all putting forth “new” strategies for the future viability of the industry. This is a good thing because options do need to be explored. However, the one area I believe has not received enough attention is human capital, particularly a future workforce that includes women across the board, and especially in top leadership roles. Let’s look at some facts. More and more market research demonstrates women are the majority retail buyers of wine around the world—a trend that will likely continue. And who better to understand and cater to women’s tastes and to market wine to women than women working in the industry? From a different perspective, decades of scientif ic resea rch demonstrates women in business bring many outstanding qualities and traits that lead to the facilitation of new ideas, improved decision-making, and increased innovation. Surely the wine industry in Australia would benefit from such advantages. Furt her, and interestingly, a fascinating bra nch of resea rch demonstrates women have better sensory perception (taste and smell) than men. Perhaps this is one reason why recent media reports and other research highlight the fact that in wine competitions and in academic findings, women winemakers, in many instances, are producing higher quality wine than men. Here are some other facts. We know over the past decade or two women enrolling in Australia’s most prestigious oenology programs have increased. At the University of Adelaide about 30 per cent of enrolments are now women. At the Charles Sturt Wagga Wagga campus it’s 27 per cent while at the University of Melbourne it’s 50/50. While this is a positive, what is happening to these women once they complete their degrees? My own research suggests very few are reaching top roles in the industry, particularly the winemaking role. Of course, reaching such a prestigious role can take time,

www.winebiz.com.au

Cold comfort: As good as Australian wine is, Jeremy Galbreath says the local industry has to unlock the potential of its female workforce to make the most of the local talent pool.

yet my research also shows if anything, time does not seem to favour women aspiring to a winemaking position. The reality appears to be the Australian wine industry, despite its outstanding success, faces many challenges. There are growing concerns over the health issues of alcohol. It must deal with bulk versus quality wine. And how to increase domestic demand while lifting exports. It must face how to improve innovation and use new media technologies. Cope with changing consumer preferences while developing regionally distinct and branded wines. Perhaps most critically it must face how to restore profitability. Overall it must simply face change and new strategies. Seems to me that – and let me be very clear, I am in no way discounting the contributions of men – the industry must also think hard about how to create a more balanced workforce, particularly by giving more women a go in more of the top roles crucial to overall wine production and distribution. Given the many challenges faced, it stands to reason that women are well suited to confront these challenges. Women in wine: Forging ahead or falling behind? See Page 16.

June 2014 – Issue 605

WS E NE TUR FEA

Roundtable

AUSTRALIAN WINE

Is it oversupplied or just undersold? Q: Australia is such a small player on the world market, why can’t we find new sectors to soak up current excess supply?

SM: The issue is not so much about finding new markets to soak up excess supply, rather it’s about taking action to address excess industry supply by building consumer demand and expanding existing markets for high quality, high value, Australian wine.

This month Grapegrower & Winemaker invited four industry experts – Dr Steve Goodman, Xavier Bizot, Andreas Clark and Simon Marton – to consider whether the ongoing cry that there is too much wine is an accurate assessment of the industry’s true position or whether there are other ways to better manage the market.

WA: In recent years, global economic factors have changed significantly. We have witnessed a change in our export footprint with strong growth in Asia coupled with producers ignoring non sustainable price points, particularly in the UK and US. One of the challenges we have is that the excess supply does not necessarily reflect the quality and regionality of Australian wine. Flooding the market with excess,

low quality wines has the potential to impact the collective work of the industry to ensure far greater awareness in all our markets of the quality and diversity of wine produced here. We have had to navigate chronic oversupply from three successive large vintages during 2004-2006. This led to a period of stock clearance activities and entry to the sector of opportunistic

SG: Because production has grown in many areas over many years and yet consumption has stayed at relatively slow growth (marginal in fact).

June 2014 – Issue 605

www.winebiz.com.au

traders, both of which have obscured the promotion of our diversity and our fine wine endeavours. However, following three successive below-average vintages in many countries, including Australia, and continued growth in global sales, the environment is shifting. XB: Australia produced 12,660,000hl of wine in 2012, and is the 6th producer of wine in the world according to OIV. This means Australia is a big player. OIV’s State of conditions Report concludes that world production of wine increases while consumption is stabilising. Australia is facing the same problems as all other wine producing countries. Q: Is enough being done to market wine domestically? SG: Given the growing power of the anti-alcohol lobby it is a tough call on increasing wine promotion domestically. What I do think is that there are not enough supply chains that have organised Grapegrower & Winemaker

themselves to be able to more efficiently market themselves and their offering. I also don’t think enough is being done by those that cannot access the big supply routes to establish ways around the roadblocks – I think much more can be done with cooperative supply chains and merchandising as well as ‘remote located’ region-driven cellar doors. SM: The wine industry always needs to do more. We operate in a world with many wines, many consumers and changing demographics. If you stick to the status quo, you’re dead! WA: Wine Australia has been running a domestic market program for the past two years, focusing on initiatives to engage the wine trade, media and consumers through events and educational programs. Our focus is on working with the ‘gatekeepers’ of the industry to ‘influence the influencers’, nurturing an evolution of Australian wine awareness and opinion. We attempt to direct the limited resources we have into initiatives that deliver the best return on investment for our levy payers and industry partners, such as Aussie Wine Month – the biggest Australian wine celebration in the country and the major ‘call to arms’ of the Australian wine industry. It generates hundreds of media mentions for events and Australian wines across newspapers, magazines, radio, television and online channels and creates a lot of positive conversations about Australian wine through social media chatter. Education is one of the key cornerstones of Wine Australia’s market development strategy. Our One Day Wine Schools for the on and off trade are the key component of this. XB: Not unlike other wine producing countries, Australian wine marketing seems to be driven by brands, varieties (Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, etc…), the personality of the winemaker (this is also the case in Bordeaux…) and regional style (Barossa Shiraz, Mornington Pinot, etc…). They can still be considered as the main keys to the domestic market. However, the winemakers and grapegrowers start talking more about individual sites and vineyards, and “single vineyard” wines are marketed as top end wines in each range, following what has been done in Europe for ever, and in the US for a long time. Therefore, it is fair to say that all is done to market wine domestically, but it is also a fact that the offer is very varied with much more competition than ten years ago, which makes it harder to play the game.

8 Grapegrower & Winemaker

WS E NE TUR FEA

news Roundtable Q: If our wine is as good as everyone says do you think there is a fundamental problem with our marketing? SG: Yes. But part of that trouble is that as an SME winery you are so busy with everything else you have to do – by the time it comes to ‘past the gate’ there often isn’t any time left in the day. I think the biggest challenge (and opportunity) is to develop new routes to market – as the major routes are the ones that most SME cannot access. SM: Australian wines are consistently of high quality but quality isn’t everything when building powerful brands and giving the consumer what they want. Consumers today expect every bottle to not only be of excellent quality but you also have to invest in your brands and develop a strong and differentiated proposition to capture your consumers’ imagination, and ensure they select an Australian wine. WA: We have to collectively focus on positioning ourselves for sustainable growth ahead by making the necessary changes that are within our influence. The reality is we are constrained by lack of marketing dollars. Many of the world’s wine producing countries receive substantial funding from their governments to promote their wines around the world, which we cannot compete with. However, I don’t think it’s as simple as saying marketing is the problem. There is a combination of factors. Firstly, we have to get our distribution right so we actually get our wines on the world’s wine lists and retail shelves. It doesn’t matter how good your wines are, if people can’t buy them. Secondly, we have to continue to influence the influencers in all our markets. Wine Australia’s focus worldwide is on engaging and educating key opinion leaders including sommeliers, retailers, distributors, importers, media, food and beverage professionals from hotel chains and buyers about the quality, diversity and value of Australian wine. Thirdly, we have to continue to evolve the positioning of Australian wine. The quality of our wines has never been higher. We have always had a sector that innovates, invests in research and pushes the quality parameters. Supporting this with the long term, consistent investment in activities that build the reputation of the category and that assist producers’ position their wines at higher prices is the key. And finally, we have to move the promotion of wine into the lifestyle sector and connect it with Australian food, lifestyle and experience. Tourism Australia’s Restaurant Australia campaign will provide a unique opportunity for our wine industry to move the promotion of www.winebiz.com.au

wine into the lifestyle sector and to engage consumers on a scale that’s never before been possible. XB: Australian super premium wineries are doing a great job to promote their wines, each with their own message and story. The Australian wine industry has always been about innovation. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Australian wine industry has been very innovative in its winemaking techniques, leading the way internationally. It can now be safely assumed that the rest of the world, especially the old world, are leading the way in design of new winemaking techniques. Australian winemakers and grapegrowers - are working more and more on promoting their terroirs, i.e. soils, climate and regions. Marketing of Australian wine is evolving naturally in the right direction, but it is obvious that a lot remains to be done to secure Australia’s place as one of the leading producers of fine wine in the world.

Xavier Bizot – vigneron and importer XAVIER Bizot gave up a career in corporate law in France to become a winemaker in Australia. It might seem a radical redirection but his family also owns Bollinger in France, with his late father a former chairman. So this scion of centuries of viticultural and winemaking tradition, hailing from Ay, in the heart of Champagne, has brought his heritage and DNA destiny to South Australia. In addition to his winery he and wife Lucy established Terroir Selections in 2006 with the aim of importing a personal selection of French fine wines for sale to top restaurants and wine retailers. Bizot says “yes, right now we have a glut in Australia but I see it as a market issue, and it will self-regulate. The most important thing is we don’t want to get out of the glut at the cheap end.” June 2014 – Issue 605

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news Roundtable

Steve Goodman – industry researcher DR STEVE Goodman is the program director-higher degrees by research and a senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide Business School. He is an active researcher in consumer choice and business decision making in the wine supply chain context. In 2006 he was awarded a GWRDC grant to map the influences of consumer choice for wine selection, a research project in conjunction with the Wine Marketing Group at UniSA and collaborators in 11 other countries. Since he has been studying the decision influencers along the wine supply chain in Australia, China and the US, the outcomes of which are currently appearing in Grapegrower & Winemaker.

Q: Are key peak industry groups such as Wine Australia doing enough? SG: In one word yes – they provide a wealth of information, research insights – but at the end of the day it is up to how a winery runs, what its model is like and how it executes its marketing. I think that in many cases peak bodies are (wrongly) expected to make it all happen. SM: We need a long-term strategy for brand building and a longer term approach. We are starting to see positive signs emerging particularly with the launch of the first Wine Australia Savour event last September and their plans to execute more in-market, influencer activities in key global markets to support the positioning of “Australia.” WA: Naturally, we believe we are performing well and delivering a great service to industry and positive feedback regarding activities such as Savour Australia 2013 is gratifying. But there is always room for

10 Grapegrower & Winemaker

improvement and we are always open to hear from industry as to what we can do to enhance our services. Wine Australia focuses its efforts and resources on initiatives and programs that deliver the most value for our industry partners and levy payers but needs to live within it means. To put it in perspective, Wine Australia receives approximately $5.5 million annually through levies to fund market development activities. This levy funds staff and overheads in our offices (Adelaide, Sydney, Shanghai, London, Washington DC) and remote staff in Vancouver, who deliver market intelligence, education, PR and communications. In addition, we receive approximately $2m a year in voluntary industry funding from participants in our user-pays marketing activities across all markets which are delivered on a cost recovery basis. However, Wine Australia’s market funding pales when compared with our key European competitors. For example, in 2013 Italy received €102 million, France €58 million, Spain €40 million, Portugal €14 million and Greece €4 million. Our objective is to evolve the position of the Australian wine category towards a stronger perception of quality, diversity and suitability to a modern lifestyle. We do this through: 1. Educational programs. 2. Telling good news stories about Australian wine. 3. Aligning Australian wine with a modern epicurean lifestyle in partnership with Tourism Australia and its Restaurant Australia campaign. 4. Displaying and promoting a diverse portfolio of Australian wines at major global trade events. 5. Levering partnerships with government agencies, industry marketing boards, wine industry bodies and wine education bodies. We would welcome the opportunity to deliver more services to industry but need funding to do so. XB: Key peak industry groups are doing all they can within the frame of their respective strategies. In the end, the success of an industry lies on the hands of the grape and wine producers and their capacity to establish a strategy to promote adequately their wines. Key peak industry groups have to acknowledge that the Australian wine industry, like the wine industries from all other countries, is not a uniform body corporate. In particular, it offers branded wines, i.e. wines that are constructed for the market both in their quality and their prices, and fine wines www.winebiz.com.au

that are handcrafted by winemakers and grapegrowers. Fine wines require specific education to introduce them into the market; they ultimately shape the identity of Australian wines both in Australia and overseas for the generations to come. A lot has been done by industry bodies such as Wine Australia to re-focus on Australian fine wine; it is a work in progress - and a never ending task. Q: Do you think the future of Australia’s SME wineries is in the hands of the marketing/ advertising campaigns of the Big Four? SG: No – I think it is in their hands to have a model that sees them producing wine the market wants at a price the market will pay – and not expecting the market to ‘invest’ in supporting a lifestyle. Make wines the market will want – not wines because you like working with umpteen different varieties. SM: If we build the reputation and attitudes towards Australian wine brands, everybody wins! It’s a question of brand building in the markets that deliver positive results for Australian wines.

Andreas Clark – peak industry group boss ANDREAS Clark was appointed acting chief executive of Wine Australia in October last year in addition to his current, and ongoing, role as Wine Australia’s chief operating officer – a position he has held since September 2012. He is also the executive officer for the Geographical Indications Committee and the Registrar of Protected Geographical Indications and Other Terms. Clark has been with the Wine Australia since June 2006 and previously held a number of roles within the organisation. Before joining Wine Australia, Clark held positions with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra and Brunei.

June 2014 – Issue 605

WS E NE TUR FEA

WA: The large wine companies tend to have dedicated marketing budgets and are able to perhaps undertake more above the line promotional activities such as advertising, compared to smaller wine producers, which might make their branding more visible. SME wineries can often benefit from a halo effect. However, wine producers of all size have a role to play in promoting their products and should look at how they promote their wines and get them into the hands of consumers. It’s about getting the basics right. An up to date website that enables the ability to purchase wines online is a must. Using social media channels to create conversations with customers is also becoming important. These approaches combined with the traditional wine clubs and relationship building with the wine trade and media are essential for building a strong customer base. XB: The Big Four have more financial power to promote their wines, and this gives them a head start in their ma rketing/advertising ca mpaigns. However, they do not control how the SME want to promote their wines. The main difficulty for SMEs lies in the fact

that the two supermarket chains (Coles and Woolworths) control a large share of the off-trade market, and it is therefore difficult, although not impossible, for the SME wineries to get their wines across to the customers with the right message. Q: What role does the WET have in domestic marketing – is the rebate making SME wineries lazy? SG: Lazy is too strong – in fact wrong. I think what most wineries have done is to not take advantage of what it could offer them. As a smaller winery it is an opportunity to be able to price wine at a point it will sell, rather than simply pricing on the fact it costs more to make as we are small and don’t make much. That itself is a bit much to ask the market to support your interest – although that said you also need to have a look at your business model and ensure you can sell wine for more than it costs to make – this is something a great deal of SME wineries cannot do. I think the years of the WET should have been used as a transition time for wineries to adjust their business models

SM: The WET rebate is a damaging subsidy that negatively impacts the profitability and productivity of the Australian wine industry. The rebate should be scrapped with the funds reallocated to better support the international profile and competitiveness of Australian wine. WA: It is not for WFA to comment on the role of WET and the WET rebate and its impact on the market, however, you have to remember many of our small to medium producers are growing their own grapes, making their own wines and running their own businesses so they have to juggle multiple tasks, including marketing. I think as an industry we need to look at how we become savvier at promoting ourselves. And as mentioned earlier, wine producers off all sizes need to get the basics right including an up to date website with the ability to purchase wines, an up to date customer database and social media platforms.

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where they could produce and sell at a point where money was made and consumers would pay the price asked – I think SME wineries have missed this opportunity.

Grapegrower & Winemaker

WS E NE TUR FEA

news Roundtable XB: Every country has its own way of taxing alcohol, and there is no better or worse system; and it is common knowledge that changes in taxes rarely end up in a reduction of the Treasury’s income. The WET rebate benefits all companies, big and small, up to the maximum threshold, and all producers are entitled to receive the same nominal amount. It is a sales tax that is actually borne by the customer, even if the producers pay it.

Simon Marton – big gun with the biggest player TREASURY Wine Estate’s chief marketing officer Simon Marton has more than 18 years’ experience in the global drinks industry. In that time he has held a variety of senior roles with a focus on international brand-building and strategic marketing. Immediately prior to his appointment as TWE’s chief marketing officer, Marton held the post of managing director for TWE’s Penfolds and Wolf Blass brand business units, giving him a strong hands-on link to some of Australia’s premier wine brands. He was previously marketing director for TWE’s Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) division, responsible for all its portfolio, brand and category marketing strategy and execution.

WHERE CUTTING

Q: What do you think is the answer if you had the final say? SG: I honestly wish I had one. I don’t think there is any one thing but there is a need for businesses to be established which focus on the demand of the market (varieties, price points) and a need to invest ‘post the gate’ rather than a focus on the technical side alone. SM: Premium, quality wines backed by consistent consumer marketing that builds brands that fulfil consumer needs. WA: Sustainable prof itability continues to be a challenge for the wine sector – an issue shared by all in the value chain. Wine Australia’s focus is on long term, consistent investment in activities that build the reputation of the category in our major markets including Australia and get more quality Australian wines onto the world’s retail shelves and wines lists. The wine industry is working collectively to ensure there is greater awareness around Australia and the

world of the quality, diversity and regionality of Australian wine, to help improve returns for grape growers, winemakers and all in the value chain. XB: I assume the question is how will we secure the success of our Australian wine industry in the future? The success of an industry is generally measured by its capacity to export and to challenge competitors from other countries. Given our high cost of labour, the Australian wine industry cannot build its future exclusively on competitive price points and marketed/advertised brands. It has to reinforce its status overseas as a fine wine producer. Australia has great potential to produce fine wines, but this still remains a well-kept secret to a large extent (sometimes even to the producers themselves). There is now a strong demand in the world for fine wine, looking at the prices fetched by top end Bordeaux and Burgundies. Winemakers, grapegrowers and industry suppliers should grab the opportunity and build a fine wine strategy for the years to come. Hugh Johnson concludes the Australian chapter of his excellent first edition of The Story of Wine as follows: “Australia is the France of the southern hemisphere: there seems to be no limit to her potential (enormously reinforced by modern technology) for producing ideally balanced, delicate wine very much in the French style (though with original touches of her own). But potential alone has never been enough. Fine wine has only been made at moments in history when the market has asked for it.”

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news

Egg shortage leaves industry in fining pickle

Has your business been affected by the egg shortage? Visit the Grapegrower & Winemaker blog and join the conversation: www. grapegrowerandwinemaker. wordpress.com/2014/05/07/ egg-shortage

But not all winemakers are paying the price

Winemakers are set to face higher egg prices until spring as a national shortage affects all major supermarket chains, businesses and industries. But as Stephanie Timotheou reports, it’s not all doom and gloom for some winemakers who source their own googs. IF in a few months’ time you realise it’s getting harder and harder to find an egg or two, you’re not the only one scrambling. A national egg shortage caused by an avian influenza outbreak in NSW last October is forcing prices as much as 8 per cent and is expected to continue until spring. And it’s now become a threat to winemakers who use egg whites as a fining agent to clarify and stabilise their wine. The incident is one of seven outbreaks

of highly pathogenic avian influenza strains and nearly half-a-million birds had to be destroyed. Country Fresh Eggs, one of SA’s largest producers, says the avian influenza outbreak cut production by 2.5 million eggs a week and has led to a continuing shortage. Owner Dion Andary told Grapegrower & Winemaker the current situation isn’t looking bright and the business is still desperately short of eggs. He says regardless of whether the SA wine industry sources eggs locally or

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news nationally, it will still feel the effects of the shortage in the coming months. “Unfortunately the industry is just going to have to understand the situation we’re in because there’s nothing that can be done,” Andary says. “It’s kind of like vintage. If you have a bad vintage in 2014 you’ll just have to wait until 2015 for it to correct itself. “Eggs are a commodity – it’s not something you can manufacture yourself so it’s going to take a bit of time for things to get back up and running again but we’re remaining positive.”

EGGS WHITES IN WINEMAKING

While some winemakers only use eggs as their first meal of the day, others are using it to improve the quality of their wine. Egg whites absorb and precipitate the colloids suspended in the wine, an important step in the winemaking process. By encouraging these microscopic particles to fall out of the wine, it is less likely to become cloudy or hazy. Fining with egg whites saves time and money for the producer and is most effective in removing molecules including polymerised tannins, anthocyans, pigments phenolics and heat-unstable proteins. As a natural and cost-effective way of fining, it’s no wonder more and more businesses are turning away from mass producers and are and finding their own ways to source eggs.

OH, BY JINGO!

averages 21 eggs per week with three out of the four chickens laying. While the business has a decent supply of eggs and is only a small producer by volume, By Jingo! also only uses them as a fining agent when necessary. “We used egg whites in 2009 when the tannins impacted on the astringency of our Montepulciano Zinfandel blend,” Bahen says. “We used a total of one dozen eggs. That exercise was effective in reducing the harsh, coarse tannins resulting in a less astringent, more soft and supple wine. “If By Jingo! didn’t produce its own eggs, I don’t think the current egg shortage would affect the business as such, but it would definitely affect me personally as I love a good goog or two – even Jessie the dog gets an egg every now and then.” Bahen says most wineries and vineyards in the Adelaide Hills area, particularly in Mount Barker, also have their own chickens so if By Jingo! was ever in need, the neighbours would “chuck us a few”. While prices are set to soar, Bahen says she would still pay a higher price for free range eggs. “Occasionally when the girls aren’t laying we do purchase eggs from the butcher but we only buy free range. Price isn’t really a big issue for us,” she says. Grapegrower & Winemaker approached the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia for a statement but the body was unable to comment, as concerns about the shortage have not yet been raised by winemakers.

While some winemakers are being forced to pay more, Contact: Annick Bahen producers such as By Jingo! are a step ahead of the rest with 693 6 2 four-bird 7 Q M _ A production d _ 1 3 0 x enterprise. 9 0 1 2 0 1 4 - 0 5 - 1 4 T 1P:1 61 : 30400 0 : 3 6 +812 1 0 : 0 0 its3own E: annick@byjingowines.com By Jingo! marketing manager Annick Bahen says the winery

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14 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Cost-saving chicks: Adelaide Hills’ winery By Jingo! sources its own eggs with the help of its own four chickens which produce more than 20 eggs per week.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

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news The global wine trade only exists because it’s backed by international logistics expertise. It’s the people who get the wine from one part of the globe to another in a timely fashion – and in one piece – who are the unsung heroes of wine. Felicity Carter from Meininger’s speaks to one of them, Bernd Jordan of German logistics company JF Hillebrand. ON a cold winter’s day in a warehouse on the outskirts of Mainz, Germany, it doesn’t feel like you’re standing in the control room of a global logistics business. Partly that’s because everybody is low key as they go about their business and also because, disappointingly, there are no James Bond-like control panels showing the movement of ships and planes around the globe. But what it lacks in gadgetry, Bernd Jordan, managing director of JF Hillebrand in Germany, makes up for in his infectious enthusiasm for the logistics of the global beverages trade. “We do budgets and forecasts and see where markets are growing,” he says. “We can see which price ranges are shrinking or growing and carefully monitor the trends from bottle wines to bulk wine.” The wine world is dynamic, he says, with everyone on the globe constantly changing their inventory and sourcing from new suppliers as trends change – which means they have to be ready to pivot as well.

FOUR BILLION LITRES A YEAR Founded in 1844, JF Hillebrand, which remains privately owned, this year celebrates 170 years of continuous trading. It began as a freight commission business on the Rhine River, when Johann Friedrich offered loading, unloading and customs clearance services to the riverbarges connecting Mainz to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the wine trade was booming and the services extended to both land and rail, and into new territories such as Eastern Europe and America. Although its warehouses and offices were destroyed in World War II, and the company had to almost begin from scratch, JF Hillebrand never stopped trading. But a big turning point in the modern wine trade came in the 1960s when Jan Hillebrand and his partner Paul Ebert realized the sea container was the ideal way to ship wine to anywhere on the globe. Today, JF Hillebrand is the largest specialist player in the beverage logistics trade. It employs 2000 people in 57 offices around the world, and shipped more than 440m cases of wine in 2013 – or 4 billion litres give or take a bottle. Jordan himself worked with TNT Express, United Parcel Service and rival Kuehne & Nagel, before

16 Grapegrower & Winemaker

moving to JF Hillebrand in 2002. Innovation has always been crucial to the company’s success. Jordan walks over to a shelf covered in what look like silver space blankets. These are VinLiners – protective foil liners designed and produced by the company to protect cargo in transit, when using refrigerated reefers are too expensive. He can also describe the ins and outs of flexitanks, which can ship around 24,000 L of bulk wine – more than twice as much as can be moved in a single container of bottled wines. These are increasingly important now that UK supermarkets, in particular, are demanding UK-bottling to save financial and environmental costs.

PROBLEMS – AND SOLUTIONS As well as solutions, Jordan can also reel off a list of the problems that can face wine in transit. The liquid from one broken bottle in a truck can quickly ruin all the stock around it. There are places where wine risks being left cooking on the docks in tropical heat. “We could talk about Odessa,” he says, “where in winter time it’s -25˚C in port. If the cargo isn’t released in time because the authorities are slow, then your container is frozen and your cargo is lost.” To a wine producer, this is the stuff of horror movies. But to Jordan, these are simply potential issues the company is aware of so they can prevent them. “Most problems are related to administration barriers,” he says. “A company sends one case and it went well, but now they want to make a true shipment and they’re not sure how. There could be excise issues, or legal restrictions.” In some markets, certain types of packing materials are not allowed, or wooden pallets are forbidden for quarantine reasons. Or what happens when a small container of wine is to be broken up and sent to different markets, each of which has its own tax slip to be applied to the bottle? The company’s solution is a business in Riga, where teams of workers put the correct labels and tax stamps on every bottle by hand, before they are shipped to countries like Poland and Russia. Some Asian customers are very particular about how their wines are handled, so “we operate reefers once a week from France to Asia with expensive wines. You keep everything at the same temperature.” This means that when the www.winebiz.com.au

Transport king: JF Hillebrand managing director Bernd Jordan says his company has offices from Australia and New Zealand to the key ports across the Northern Hemisphere.

wines pass over the equator or into tropical zones, they won’t be affected. “It’s a good solution as long as the price of the wine can afford this kind of treatment.” And if it can’t? “We can advise that the cargo can be routed another way,” he says. “Maybe it will take longer, but it’s safer.” The company has a worldwide temperature database, with more than a century’s worth of data in it. “We know, on average, how the temperature will influence a container on its way to its final destination.” The key to getting wine to where it needs to be often lies in knowing about the forms that have to be completed. “We can take care of the operations, and we can make sure it’s shipped safely and reliably, but if a certain piece of paper June 2014 – Issue 605

Meet wine’s ultimate mover and shaker isn’t there, we can’t overrule the local authorities,” says Jordan. The solution, he says, is for customers – particularly those new to the market – to talk about it in advance. “We have customers who do great business for years in certain trades, and then they come up with a new opportunity and we help them to understand how other markets might be different.”

IN PRACTICE So how does dealing with a logistics company work in practice? Say you’re a small boutique winery in Australia or New Zealand and you’ve just won your first export contract. But the volume is very small. What do you do? “The first question we ask is who your importer is,” says Jordan. “We definitely know them, because we know all the market players.” One option is for the winery to consolidate its wines with others leaving the country. They don’t all need to be going to the same final destination – the shipment might arrive, for example, at Rotterdam, where it will be broken up and sent to its final market. If the first wines prove to be a big hit, and larger quantities are ordered – say, by a UK supermarket that wants to promote this interesting new winery from Down Under – “then we would look at another transport mode, which could be by air or sea or a combination of both.” And then if that promotion goes well and it looks like the winery will have bursts of sales in the future, “we could offer to build up a buffer warehouse in the UK. We do buffer stocks for customers, so that if a few containers don’t arrive on time, we can deliver from that warehouse.” Jordan says the reason the company can be in virtually all places at once, is because instead of owning the ships and trucks, they are tapped into the world’s transport system.

CORRECTIVE ACTION The key to making the complex system work is tracking. As soon as wine is handled at any point, the operator records the transaction. “We’re not scanning like it’s a package,” says Jordan. “We’re scanning the different parts of the journey.” June 2014 – Issue 605

Hillebrand doing the job Down Under ALTHOUGH Australia only produces 4 per cent of the world’s wine production it is the fourth-largest wine exporter globally. And JF Hillebrand Australia has offices in Sydney and Adelaide and warehousing facilities in Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney to make sure that flow of wine gets safely from Point A to B. Its Australian manager Joe Marsili says Sydney is the head office and covers areas north of the Hunter Valley, southern NSW and northern Victoria. Adelaide focuses on the Mount Lofty Ranges, Fleurieu and Barossa regions, providing easy access to the Limestone Coast, the Peninsulas and the Far North. “Expertise also expands to all Victorian, Western Australian and Tasmanian wineries,” Marsili says. “JF Hillebrand Australia has more than 60 staff and we are well positioned and equipped to deal with both exports from, and imports to, Australia,” he says. “In addition, the Sydney office handles exports to the UK/European markets, as well as all imports into Australia. Adelaide handles exports from Australia to the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and New Zealand. Marsili says Australian winemakers have broken away from old wine-making conventions and established a reputation for a fresh, innovative approach – using the latest technology in grapegrowing and winemaking. “Today Australia is the 10th largest producer of wines globally but is ranked fourth in terms of exporting. JF Hillebrand New Zealand manager Peter Byrne says the company has warehouses in Christchurch, Blenheim and Auckland. “Far and away the bulk of New Zealand’s export business is with the UK, Australia and the US – and it is a growing business,” Byrne says. Contact: Australia: Joe Marsili P: 61 2 9556 4900 or 61 8 8352 0200 E: sydney@hillebrandgroup.com

Say there’s a wine being exported to an important trade tasting in Chicago, but for some reason it missed its departure from Rotterdam – maybe the captain decided the weather was too stormy to take on extra cargo, so left it behind. “We get a non-conformance report and know that we missed the boat. We now take corrective action.” There is also what appears to be a soccer field full of cases of popular sparkling wine on the upper level. So what does Jordan himself drink? “I like wine, but I am not a fine wine specialist,” he says. Maybe not, but he appears to know more about wine than almost anybody else in the world: Who’s making what, where their www.winebiz.com.au

New Zealand: Peter Byrne P: 64 9 361 5668 E: auckland@jfhillebrand.com

export markets are, who their customers are, and when their wine is on promotion. All this invaluable market intelligence stays firmly inside the company. “We treat everyone fairly. The supplier is important to us, even though he’s not our customer, so we help. Next time he might be the one importing, so if we help them to improve as a team, we become a respected partner in the business.” So perhaps it’s not surprising that he doesn’t name the brands of wine he particularly likes. He’s keeping it fair. This story first appeared in Meininger’s Wine Business International. Grapegrower & Winemaker

news

Red hot in hot pink – and on a roll A lot of the cognoscenti might have sneered when this wine unknown launched onto the scene from the backblocks of rural NSW with an audacious website plastered with hot pink and declaring itself to be fabulous. Well, as it turns out, so far that’s exactly what it’s been. FROM out of the Byron Bay hinterland, where she runs one of the Australian wine industry’s hottest new websites, three kids, a small herd of Angus beef cattle and a pecan orchard Jane Thomson must scare the crap out of the laidback locals in hippy central. This girl is wired. And wired for high voltage. God help the poor morning coffee crowd at the Sydney café where she parked herself for 30 minutes on the phone with Grapegrower & Winemaker because she let rip at around 90 decibels per second. She was hot. How hot? Well her The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society turns two this month after launching with a fanfare of hot pink and high heels. And is it all working? It seems so. Thomson has just arrived back in Australia after ricocheting around the cellar doors and wineries of Europe. Where she had landed on May 1 as a fully-paid guest at the invitation of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles.

So clearly she is making some very big ripples in the pond of wine’s movers and shakers. Not just Australia, mind, but the world. The former psychologist – “not a shrink, that’s a psychiatrist” she corrects – still obviously knows her way around the minds, and hearts, of slightly more than 50 per cent of the Australian population. There might even be a dollop of the statistician in there as well because Thomson can also rattle off data about women actually buying more wine than men and what her target market (which has a nice age spread across the mid 20s to mid 50s) likes to get from her website. Hidden in that former professional background are also a few years dabbling in the evil arts of PR and marketing. But Thomson has been able to display to the world what she believes is her ultimate incarnation as a hot mama who “is an enthusiastic consumer of wine” (it should be noted Thomson bridled at the description ‘hot mama’ until it was pointed out she is, in fact, a mother, and right now her business

is hot). Perhaps a key to her success is she is a tangible BFF for all her cyber gal pals (the majority of whom she says, in reality, are tertiary educated women – but

She rocks up to all sorts of events, soirees and swim-throughs organised by The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society and its winery partners

Now hear this: Jane Thomson speaking at one of her wine events where she stages gatherings of, mostly, likeminded women who are flocking to her website and her innovative approach to the industry.

18 Grapegrower & Winemaker

www.winebiz.com.au

June 2014 – Issue 605

with a very go-get-’em youthful outlook) because she rocks up to all sorts of events, soirees and swim-throughs organised by The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society and its winery partners. Which brings us to a key point of why she is such a perfect fit with her market. March saw another sell-out event, this one in Sydney, but “April is too crowded with short weeks, school holidays and busy mothers so we didn’t have an event then”. Thomson might be all about market empathy, but she is also all about quality. It is, she says, a cornerstone of what The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society is all about. Right down to hiring a professional photographer to cover events. No relying on out-of-focus selfies where too often you get a better shot of someone’s septum than what’s really taking place. “Yes, alright, of course I am a fan of Ab Fab, so although the idea for the name came from somewhere between my ears there might have been some influence,” she laughs. “But one of the things I think we do get right is we talk to our readers. “We ask them what they want and plenty of them tell us, so we are continually evolving, fine-tuning and using the feedback to build a better site.” We, however, might be something of a misnomer. Because, by and large, we is she. Thomson does employ a couple of sortof fulltime people, and runs a string of occasional contributors. But when push comes to shove it is still she, not we, who does a hell of a lot of writing – and runs the website. Being a lean, mean webbing machine gives her the power to react fast to any change in trends, or new opportunities she sees. But as any small business owners knows, the working week really means the working week, not the working five days – plus public holidays. “I do have to force myself to literally switch off,” Thomson admits. “Believe it or not I do have another life, and with three kids and a husband working in project food manufacturing there are more demands on my time than just the Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society,” she says. “Everyone wants a life balance; it’s just that some of us have to force ourselves to do it.” As a bit of background, wine was not just an enthusiasm, or even epiphany, for Thomson. It is all to do with DNA. Her father Duncan is a Hunter Valley vigneron, and has been for a long time. Thomson herself has also spent a couple of years running her own cooking school in a Hunter Valley cellar door. “Dad’s is a micro business but he loves June 2014 – Issue 605

What does digital do for you? 1.As a digital start-up which has blended online and public events, what do you see as the balance to keep The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society on a growth curve. Events are an essential part of our business because there’s nothing like real-life contact to create engagement and a sense of community. But our strategy has been to keep our events rare. We run them only once or twice a year in any given location so as to maintain the buzz and excitement and maximise the positive impact for the wine brand we’re partnering with.

2. Do you see digital as a visual medium or written or if both, to what degree The written word is visual, and so for that reason alone the digital world is a visual one. But it has now matured and is absolutely saturated with content vying for your attention. Therefore, the easier it is on the eye, the more likely you are to read/watch/engage with it. It’s for this reason that pictures and video content perform so well – they’re easy to look at amidst the saturation. But even the layout of the written word – like the breakup of paragraphs, call out text, use of bolded words etc – can have a huge impact when it comes to standing out from the crowd and retaining reader attention. Words are visual too.

3. How do you utilise the traffic on your site for future growth We encourage easy, free and no-fuss membership through incentives (but we don’t push too hard – there’s nothing worse than endless pop-up screens blocking your access) and we examine analytics regularly to see what content is popular and what we need to create more of to draw more traffic. At the end of the day though it’s quality traffic we want – not quantity. People are obsessed with high traffic or fan numbers. You are much better off having 100 hugely engaged readers/fans/members living in the right location (i.e. Australia) who are eager to hear what you have to say, are influenced by what they read/watch and respond accordingly, than 100,000 visitors a month from all over the world who might browse for a few seconds and then shoot through.

4. How have you been able to engineer your site to best identify and approach your target market The site is designed to be a clean, easy to navigate interface with overtly feminine colours and imagery – and lots of pink of course.

5. Anything else digital you might like to add. Digital, as with any other medium, is only as good as the message it conveys. Content that entertains, engages or helps the reader in some way will always be welcome.

it, and so do I. He was Heartland Wines but had a debate over who owned the name with a South Australian operation. They were bigger so now he is Camp Rd Estate. But if dad started the family affiliation, junior has taken it to a whole new level. “The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society is a marketing and advertising platform to connect the wine industry and women. Before us there wasn’t one and I think the results speak for themselves.” Well they don’t actually speak but her site is splattered with wine women from every facet of the industry and photo wraps of events filled with some of the happiest souls you will ever see. And everyone one of them seems to be loving it. While Thomson might sometimes feel a smidgin strained and drained keeping up with the pace she has set, it isn’t showing. www.winebiz.com.au

When our 30 minutes were up she was off to round up the kids from their grandmother who had been lending a domestic hand while the dynamo they simply call ‘mum’ was on the road. I just wasn’t quick enough to get in a question about the daily weight gain of her cattle before she was gone in a cloud of background chatter and high-powered “thanks for calling, we must do this again”. Which is not going to be as easy as it sounds because the interview had already been postponed because of more pressing, unexpected matters. The only thing it seems which cannot be postponed is Thomson and her The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society. Contact: Jane Thomson P: 0413 682 377 E: hello@fabulousladieswinesociety.com Grapegrower & Winemaker

news

Women in wine: Forging ahead or falling Jeremy Galbreath at the Curtin Graduate School of Business takes a long hard look at the link between one of history’s most culturally significant products and the role women are – or aren’t – playing in its progression. WINE, as a consumable product, is approximately 8000 years old, is culturally significant around the world, has a strong impact on national reputation for wineproducing countries, and represents a multi-billion dollar global industry. However, the wine industry has historically been very patriarchal, one dominated by men (Bryant and Garnham 2014; Gilbert 2011; Ting 2013). As such, little is known about how many women actually work in the industry, nor what roles they might play. To advance knowledge, I undertook a study that examined women in CEO, winemaking, viticulture, and marketing roles in Australian wine firms, over the period 2007-2013. These are critical roles because they relate directly to the strategy, production and sales of wine products.

BACKGROUND AND SOME CURRENT STATISTICS In recent study, Gilbert (2011) examines 3200 wineries based in California to determine the gender of winemakers. The study classifies the wineries into eight wine regions: Mendocino/Lake

At a glance: •T he wine industry has historically been patriarchal and as such, little is known about how many women actually work in the industry, nor what roles they might play. • There is some evidence to suggest women are potentially making inroads. In the two oldest schools for winemakers, the proportion of women enrolling in oenology programs is on the rise. • Some progress is being made, overall, in CEO and marketing positions, while women in winemaker and viticulturist roles appear to be declining.

County, Napa Valley, Sonoma/Marin, Sierra Foothills, Central Valley, North Central Coast, South Central Coast, and Southern California. The findings suggest 9.8 per cent of California wineries have women winemakers, with a higher percentage of those found in the state’s premier wine regions. In a follow up study, Gilbert and Gilbert (2012) compare the quality of wine produced from the earlier sample of Gilbert (2011) by comparing men versus women winemakers listed in Opus Vino, a global ratings guide that identifies the highest quality wines. The study of 450 wineries, using a matched-pair analysis (men versus women winemakers), finds that women winemakers are more likely than men winemakers to be listed in the Opus Vino quality wine guide. In the Australian context, Ting (2013) suggests there is a scarcity of knowledge about women in the wine industry. However, there is some evidence to suggest that women are potentially making some inroads. For example, Ting (2013) reports in

the two oldest schools for winemakers, the proportion of women enrolling in oenology programs is on the rise. From around 13 per cent in the 1980s, women enrolment in oenology at the University of Adelaide is now at 30 per cent. At the Charles Sturt Wagga Wagga campus, women enrolment in oenology is now around 27 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent from 1976 to 1984. In other schools, results are also encouraging. At the University of Melbourne, enrolments are equal to men at 50 per cent. Ting (2013) further notes that while some women appear to be reaching top leadership roles in small wineries in Australia, there is a noticeable lack of women in upper echelon positions at larger firms. This is confirmed by Byrant and Garnham (2014). In their study, Bryant and Garnham (2014) seek to challenge a perception that women in the traditionally patriarchal wine industry are no longer subject to structural constraints based on gender. Interviewing 16 women working

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June 2014 – Issue 605

behind? in one of the largest wine producers in Australia, they find that within the corporation, a male-dominated hierarchy exists, particularly in upper-level positions. The interviewees expressed views that within the organisation, the ideal worker is constituted as masculine. This includes, for example, the need to work long hours, to demonstrate commitment to the organisation ahead of social or family responsibilities, cultural norms such as golf days and watching football, and required physical strength for heavy lifting and using machinery. Ultimately, this led the researchers to conclude that: …the majority of roles [within the corporation] are occupied by men, work roles are shaped by assumptions about gender that position men higher in the organisational hierarchy, masculine benchmarks for skills and experience to achieve promotion into higher levels requires women to ‘match’ their careers to those of men to be competitive, and masculine culture, norms and value practices are embedded in the everyday practices and processes of the organisation. Within this organisation the ideal labouring body is therefore constituted ‘male’, where

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work and worker identity are shaped by masculine norms.

THE STUDY Data was collected from the database version of the annual Winetitles Wine Industry Directory (e.g., Winetitles 2013), for the years 2007-2013. All data were coded appropriately (see below) and entered into a popular statistical software package for analysis. Where a firm had a woman who served in multiple roles, only cases where different women served in each role were

counted. Hence, in 2007, 2145 wineries were included for analysis, in 2008, 2298 wineries, in 2009, 2319 wineries, in 2010 it was 2419 wineries, in 2011, 2476 wineries, in 2012, 2532 wineries, and last year there were 2574 wineries. To capture top roles, a series of dichotomous variables were calculated. Thus, to capture gender diversity, for each CEO, winemaker, viticulturist, and marketer, women in these roles were coded 1, 0 otherwise (but only where women in the roles were different to avoid double counting as noted above).

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

news Where names that can be common across men and women (e.g. Chris, Jamie, Sam) or where gender was not obvious, websites were consulted for visual inspection and/or firms were called for confirmation. To make state comparisons across the roles, each state was given its own unique identifier. States include NSW, Queensland, SA, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. These states were chosen as they represent 99.8 per cent of total Australian wine production. The study also accounts for firm age, firm size, and export orientation, as inertia and other factors can impact the level of representation of women in top roles (Bryant and Garnham 2014). For firm age, categorical variables were established where 1 = 10 years old or less, 2 = 11-20 years old, 3= 21-30 years old, 4 = 31-40 years old, and 5 = 41-50 years old, and 6 = 51 year old or more. For sise, number of cases produced was used, where 1 = 1 to 2,499 cases, 2 = 2,500 to 19,999 cases, 3 = 20,000 to 99,999 cases, 4 = 100,00 to 1,499,99 cases, and 5 = over 1,500,000 cases. For export orientation, firms where coded on the basis of their percentage of export sales, where 1 = do not export, 2 = 1-25 percent, 3 = 26-50 percent, 4 = 51-75 percent, and 5 = 76-100 percent. Data for these variables was collected from company websites and the Winetitles databases.

Table 1: Descriptive statistics Percent of women by role Australia (Overall)

Growth Rates*

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Averages

Women CEOs

12.1

11.8

12.2

12.6

13.1

13.2

14.0

12.7

2.24

Women winemakers

9.6

8.8

8.1

8.9

8.8

-1.04 -1.47

Women viticulturists

10.7

10.3

10.0

9.3

10.3

9.9

9.6

10.0

Women marketers

49.8

55.7

53.9

54.9

52.7

53.4

54.1

53.5

1.23

Number of firms

2,145

2,298

2,319

2,419

2,476

2,532

2,574

2,395

2.86

13.4

12.9

12.6

13.9

13.2

14.3

16.1

13.8

2.88%

7.9

8.9

8.5

9.3

10.2

9.8

9.5

9.2

2.89%

New South Wales Women CEOs Women winemakers Women viticulturists

12.7

11.2

10.4

9.2

10.4

10.5

10.7

-2.25%

Women marketers

43.4

60.7

53.3

60.4

59.1

61.2

58.3

56.6

4.90%

Number of firms

432

452

443

467

474

487

461

1.82%

Queensland Women CEOs

16.7

14.0

13.3

15.6

14.4

12.9

14.6

-3.25%

Women winemakers

3.9

4.1

6.9

4.0

3.1

3.3

4.2

-2.20%

Women viticulturists

6.1

6.0

10.8

10.2

12.2

10.4

8.6

9.2

5.85%

Women marketers

25.0

53.8

60.0

57.7

53.8

52.2

56.5

51.3

18.00%

Number of firms

109

107

106

111

106

102

107

-092%

Women CEOs

10.3

10.7

10.9

12.4

12.3

13.2

11.5

4.02%

Women winemakers

9.9

9.5

9.8

10.1

8.8

9.4

11.1

9.8

1.73%

Women viticulturists

9.4

9.7

8.8

7.9

9.3

8.8

7.3

8.7

-3.19%

Women marketers

48.0

48.7

49.6

49.4

48.2

49.4

50.0

49.0

0.59%

Number of firms

564

607

619

648

667

697

705

644

3.57%

South Australia

Tasmania Women CEOs

17.7

14.6

14.4

15.1

14.4

15.2

15.9

15.3

-1.45%

Women winemakers

10.0

10.3

10.0

7.1

5.7

6.7

9.4

8.5

-0.86%

Women viticulturists

12.1

10.8

10.7

11.4

7.8

10.3

6.7

10.0

-6.38%

Women marketers

44.4

61.9

60.9

60.0

52.0

50.0

58.3

55.4

4.72%

104

112

115

6.00%

Women CEOs

11.6

11.3

12.6

13.0

13.2

12.6

13.5

12.5

2.34%

Women winemakers

8.6

7.0

6.7

6.5

6.1

6.0

7.5

6.9

-1.83% 0.70%

Number of firms Victoria

RESULTS Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. The descriptives suggest a few interesting patterns. First, although the wine industry in Australia has demonstrated growth in the number of firms (albeit modest growth at 2.86 per cent), women in the leadership roles under study have not kept pace, with women CEOs the closest at a 2.24 per cent growth rate for the 2007-2013 period. Second, the representation of women in marketing roles, across all states, is clearly at the highest level. The 2007-2013 average across all firms and all states for a woman in the marketing role is 53.5 per cent (with a growth rate of 1.23 per cent). Third, women in the CEO role have the second highest representation at 12.7 per cent. Fourth, in the prestigious winemaker role, only 8.8 per cent are women across the reporting period. This is less than, although close to, the 9.8 per cent of women winemakers in California (Gilbert 2011). Lastly, overall, women in the winemaker role actually have declined since 2007 (-1.04 per cent growth). This is perhaps most evident in Western Australia, where there has been a 6.15 per cent decline of women winemakers. Conversely, NSW demonstrates the highest growth of women winemakers at 2.89 per cent. These figures need to be

22 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Women viticulturists

12.3

13.0

12.4

12.7

13.7

12.8

12.9

12.8

Women marketers

55.4

56.5

55.6

53.6

51.0

51.8

54.1

54.0

-0.34

Number of firms

627

686

698

723

738

749

776

714

3.39%

Women CEOs

11.0

11.4

12.0

11.4

12.8

13.6

13.5

12.2

3.25%

Women winemakers

15.1

17.1

12.9

11.4

10.0

9.8

8.6

12.1

-6.15%

Western Australia

Women viticulturists

8.1

6.5

4.8

5.2

6.1

-3.53%

Women marketers

60.0

61.7

58.5

56.5

55.6

55.7

58.1

-1.02%

Number of firms

332

356

361

372

382

394

389

369

2.45%

*calculated using straightline growth rates

considered with respect to the fact that the rate of women entering Australia’s oenology and viticulture programs is much greater in the last 10-20 years, suggesting the difficulty for women of translating a formal education into higher ranking roles in the wine industry. To explore that data further, I conducted a test to see if women in the studied roles was less or greater than their predicted representation in such roles, which is around 15 per cent (Heimoff 2007; Kauffman 2009). Using chi-square tests, with the exception of women in the marketing role, the actual percentage of women in all other roles was significantly less from the 15 per cent predicted rate (Table 2). There is also a belief as women strive to make inroads into fields, industries, www.winebiz.com.au

or roles historically unavailable to them they seek to achieve “exceptional” or “elite” status. I therefore also tested the proposition as to whether or not there is greater representation of women in the roles studied in SA, given it is one of the most acclaimed and famous wine-producing regions in Australia, if not the world. Using chi-square tests (Table 3), relative to NSW, SA has a lower proportion of women CEOs (X² = 7.93, p = 0.005), lower percentages of women viticulturists (X² = 5.63, p = 0.018), and a lower percentage of women marketers (X² = 17.27, p = 0.000). Compared to Queensland, South Australia has a lower representation of women CEOs (X² = 5.62, p = 0.018) and higher proportion of women winemakers (X² = 22.25, p = 0.000). With respect to Tasmania, South Australia has lower June 2014 – Issue 605

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Table 2: Actual versus predicted percentage of women by role (2007-2013)

Table 3: South Australia versus other states (2007-2013)

Actual

Predicted

X²

df significance

SA%

NSW%

X²

Women CEOs

12.7

15%

65.20

1 0.000*

Women CEOs

11.5

13.8

7.93

df significance 1 0.005*

Women winemakers

8.8

15%

429.92

1 0.000*

Women winemakers

9.8

9.2

0.69

1 0.406

Women viticulturists

10.0

15%

224.51

1 0.000*

Women viticulturists

8.7

10.7

5.63

1 0.018*

Women marketers

53.5

15%

5379.98

1 0.000*

Women marketers

49.0

58.0

17.27

1 0.000*

*Statistically significant

percentages of women CEOs (X² = 7.36, p = 0.007) and a marginally lower percentage of women marketers (X² = 2.78, p = 0.096). As for Victoria, South Australia has a higher proportion of women winemakers (X² = 23.03, p = 0.000), lower percentage of women viticulturists (X² = 27.48, p = 0.000), and fewer women marketers (X² = 5.29, p = 0.021). Finally, regarding Western Australia, South Australia has a lower proportion of women winemakers (X² = 7.53, p = 0.006), more women viticulturists (X² = 11.54, p = 0.001), and a lower percentage of women marketers (X² = 15.31, p = 0.000). These results are mixed. While there is not strong evidence for the argument that women in the roles studied are always greater in South Australia than other states, there is some support that this is the case, depending on the state comparison and the role. Lastly, there is an argument that as women attempt to enter the wine industry they are likely to seek out positions in firms where there is a woman leader, particularly in the top role (i.e. CEO). This is because anxiety can be reduced, self-esteem increased, and a sense of belonging and self-enhancement can be achieved through gender likeness and identification. Second, top-level decisions makers, such as CEOs, can reserve attractive or prestigious positions for members of the same sex. To test the likelihood that firms with women CEOs also have women in winemaker, viticulturist, and marketing roles, chi-square tests were used (Table 4).

SA%

QLD%

X²

Women CEOs

11.5

14.6

5.62

df significance

Women winemakers

9.8

4.2

22.25

1 0.000*

Women viticulturists

8.7

9.2

0.13

1 0.716

Women marketers

49.0

51.3

0.84

1 0.360

SA%

TAS%

X²

Women CEOs

11.5

15.3

7.36

1 0.007*

Women winemakers

9.8

8.5

1.17

1 0.280

1 0.018*

df significance

Women viticulturists

8.7

10.0

0.80

1 0.371

Women marketers

49.0

55.4

2.78

1 0.096*

SA%

VIC%

X²

Women CEOs

11.5

12.5

2.03

df significance 1 0.154

Women winemakers

9.8

6.9

23.03

1 0.000*

Women viticulturists

8.7

12.8

27.48

1 0.000*

Women marketers

49.0

54.0

5.29

1 0.021*

SA%

WA%

X²

Women CEOs

11.5

12.2

0.70

df significance 1 0.404

Women winemakers

9.8

12.1

7.53

1 0.006*

Women viticulturists

8.7

6.1

11.54

1 0.001*

Women marketers

49.0

58.1

15.31

1 0.000*

*Statistically significant

Returning to Adelaide July 2015 WISA presents

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June 2014 – Issue 605

In all cases, firms with women CEOs tend to have women winemakers (X² = 444.47, p = 0.000), women viticulturists (X² = 538.22, p = 0.000), and women marketers (X² = 48.77, p = 0.000). Across each individual year, for each role, the results are all statistically significant. Because inertia and other factors can impact on the representation rates of women in top roles, supplemental tests explore women in the specified roles by firm age, size, and export orientation (Table 5). With respect to firm age, with the exception of women marketers (X² = 4.38, p = 0.496), women appear to have greater representation in younger firms. As for firm size, confirming Ting’s (2013) observation, women in top roles tend to be in smaller firms, particularly those producing less than 20,000 cases annually. In all roles, the difference between women in smaller versus larger firms is statistically significant (woman CEO, X² = 140.06, p = 0.000; woman winemaker, X² = 52.47, p = 0.000; woman viticulturist, X² = 179.42, p = 0.000; woman marketer, X² = 130.45, p = 0.000). Regarding export orientation, the Table 4: L ikelihood of women in other roles where CEO is a woman

Likelihood of firms with women CEOs (vs men CEOs) having women winemakers Likelihood of firms with women CEOs (vs men CEOs) having women viticulturists Likelihood of firms with women CEOs (vs men CEOs) having women marketers *Statistically significant

June 2014 – Issue 605

X²

df significance

444.47

1 0.000*

538.22

48.77

1 0.000*

dominated field. Working paper, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California.

pattern generally holds the same. There appears to be more women across all roles in wine firms that export less product.

Gilbert, L.A. and Gilbert, J.C. (2012) Evidence of women winemakers’ success in a male-dominated field. Working paper, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California.

AHEAD OR BEHIND?

Ting, I. (2013) Women in wine are pushing open the cellar door. Retrieved 18 April, 2013, at http://www. theage.com.au/action/printArticle?id=4186716.

In conclusion, are women in the wine industry in Australia forging ahead or falling behind? It depends. Some progress is being made is some roles, while in others there is decline. This appears dependent upon location and the age and size of the business. Contact: Jeremy Galbreath. P: 61 8 9266 3568. E: Jeremy.Galbreath@gsb.curtin.edu.au.

Winetitles. (2013) The Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory (31st ed). Prospect East, South Australia: Winetitles.

About the author:

Jeremy Galbreath is a Senior Research Fellow/Associate Professor at Curtin University’s Graduate School of Business. He conducts research in the wine industry and teaches strategy, entrepreneurship, and international business competitiveness in the MBA program.

References:

Bryant, L. and Garnham, B. (2014) The embodiment of women in wine: gender inequality and gendered inscriptions of the working body in a corporate wine organisation. Gender, Work & Organisation, in press. Gilbert, L.A. (2011) California women winemakers, their accomplishments, and their progress in a male-

Jeremy is also a member of the technical committee, Wines of Western Australia, and serves as an external advisor to the start-up company, Vine Collective (www. vinecollective.com.au).

Table 5: Comparisons of women in roles by age, size, and export orientation of the firm (2007-2013) Firm Age (In years)

-10 yrs

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

51+

X²

df significance

Women CEOs

28.1%

45.2%

14.3%

8.8%

1.8%

42.69

5 0.000*

Women winemakers

28.2%

35.6%

17.7%

9.7%

2.3%

6.5%

27.20

5 0.000*

Women viticulturists

24.6%

47.5%

15.4%

9.2%

1.5%

1.7%

50.11

5 0.000*

Women marketers

24.5%

40.0%

16.0%

9.9%

3.1%

6.5%

4.35

5 0.496

Firm Size (Cases Procuced)

12,499

2,50019,999

20,00099,000

Women CEOs Women winemakers

66.0%

27.2%

54.2%

32.3%

Women viticulturists

69.6%

Women marketers

39.5%

Firm Export Orientation (% product exported)

100,0001,499,999

1.5 Million +

X²

df significance

5.5%

1.3%

0.0%

140.06

4 0.000*

7.2%

5.0%

1.3%

52.47

4 0.000*

24.1%

5.5%

0.9%

0.0%

179.42

4 0.000*

42.0%

13.1%

4.3%

1.0%

130.45

4 0.000* df significance

No Exports

1-25%

Women CEOs

23.7%

53.9%

Women winemakers

19.5%

51.9%

Women viticulturists

28.5%

52.6%

8.7%

Women marketers

16.0%

50.0%

17.3%

26-50%

51-75%

76% +

X²

11.5%

7.0%

3.8%

60.85

4 0.000*

18.7%

6.4%

3.5%

14.84

4 0.005*

5.1%

105.05

4 0.000*

9.4%

7.3%

63.30

4 0.000*

*calculated using straightline growth rates

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

news REGIONAL ROUNDUP

South Australia: It goes around the clock Sommeliers, buyers and media get a taste for SA wines with a story

Official opening: Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and Tourism Leon Bignell opening the event.

LAST month the SA Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) hosted a state winemaker reception for 19 international sommeliers, wine buyers and press from China, Hong Kong, Japan, the US,

Canada and the UK. The event brought together more than 20 local winemakers who showcased their best production, including Jacob’s Creek, Cape Jaffa Wines and Hahndorf Hill Winery among others. It not only put SA’s famous and alternative wine styles in the limelight but also strongly focused on the state’s fresh, local food. A grazing table was provided by Jordan Jeavon and his team from The Happy Motel (of Lola’s Pergola fame) and catered for 50 guests including Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and Tourism minister Leon Bignell who officially opened the event. SAWIA chief executive Brian Smedley

said when stories were linked to a wine and place of origin they left a lasting and memorable impression which was what the event aimed to show the guests. “This event continues our theme of establishing our point of difference and demonstrating outstanding capabilities and diversity of our state,” he said. Grapegrower & Winemaker was on location at the SAWIA reception held in Adelaide’s CBD and photos can be found at www.facebook.com/ grapegrower.winemaker. Contact: Marcia Burnett P: 61 8 8222 9271 E: marcia@winesa.asn.au

Inaugural 2014 Langhorne Creek Wine Show officially born LANGHORNE Creek Grape and Wine Inc. has cut the ribbon on its inaugural Langhorne Creek Wine Show after 10 years serving its apprenticeship with the Langhorne Creek Wine Showcase. The judging took place from April 29-30 with senior judges Nigel Dolan, Iain Riggs and Nick Ryan joined by two associate judges. The winning wines were featured at the 2014 Winemakers’ Luncheon in early May and all wines from the show were later made available to the public for tasting at the Langhorne Creek oval. The show’s results exceeded expectations with 31 of the 198 regional wines judged receiving gold medals. Lake Breeze Wines was a stand-out performer and received producer of the year after collecting five of the eight trophies on

offer at the luncheon. It was awarded the Geek Pty Ltd champion wine of show with its 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon and scored trophies for its 2012 Reserve Chardonnay (best sparkling wine, white wine or rosé), 2012 Winemaker’s Selection (best Shiraz) and 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (best museum or fortified wine). Other award winners included: • Metala Wines 2012 Shiraz Cabernet: best blended red wine • Wolf Blass Wines 2012 Gold Label Langhorne Creek Malbec: best red or white from alternative or other variety • Wolf Blass Wines 2012 Black Label Cabernet Shiraz: best wine from a multiregional blend. Langhorne Creek Winemakers’ committee chair Ben Potts congratulated

Winners are grinners: Jon Paior of Geek Pty Ltd with champion wine of the show winner Greg Follett of Lake Breeze Wines.

the region’s winemakers and said the results were a source of great pride for the Langhorne Creek wine region. Contact: Langhorne Creek Grape and Wine Inc. P: 61 8 85373362 E: info@langhornecreek.com

See it, make it, drink it, eat it – all at Ngeringa Vineyards

For the love of biodynamics: Ngeringa Vineyards owners Janet and Erinn Klein gave people from Tasting Australia a taste of their commitment to a sustainable production system.

IT rained, it poured and it even hailed, but the vineyard tour and wine masterclass still went ahead despite the boggy ground and ice-cold air at Ngeringa Vineyards in

26 Grapegrower & Winemaker

the Adelaide Hills. A group of 15 wine lovers participated in the event as part of Tasting Australia which saw owners Erinn and Janet Klein talk about their love for biodynamic wines and their vineyards situated on the immediate foothills of the Mount Barker summit.Participants had the opportunity to look at the vines up close, learn about the practice of biodynamic viticulture and indulge in a masterclass to taste a selection of Ngeringa wines including back vintage and barrel samples. “Our vineyards are the essence of our wine and the love of what we do and www.winebiz.com.au

biodynamics is the path along which we allow their character to shine,” Klein said. “Respect for the life force of the vines and their natural condition lends itself to capturing fruit with vitality and integrity resulting in wines that reflect their origins from Ngeringa.” The second part of Ngeringa Vineyards’ day-long program included a luncheon event under a marquee overlooking the Adelaide Hills. Contact: Ngeringa Vineyards P: 61 8 8398 2867 E: wine@ngeringa.com June 2014 – Issue 605

This month Stephanie Timotheou looks at the latest happenings across SA – from its Far North to way down to the Lower South-East. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but the SA wine industry is proving it’s not far behind with celebrations, festivals, workshops and more.

Planning for the unplanned – that’s a neat trick THE Wine Industry Suppliers’ Association (WISA) together with MGA Insurance hosted a disaster planning seminar for a small group of wine industry professionals. According to MGA senior insurance broker Phil Keenihan who spoke at the seminar, 70 per cent of businesses don’t survive because they don’t plan for the unexpected. He said while most of it was “common sense”, a disaster plan acted as a living, breathing document that should be revised every six months to ensure a business was kept up-to-date with what was happening around it – environmentally and economically. “If there’s a plan in place everyone feels more comfortable even if it’s completely wrong,” Keenihan said. During his presentation Keenihan outlined the main points to consider, including: • The importance of disaster planning: why we do it and how it helps • The basics of setting up a plan • Risks and preventions: reviewing your business and possibilities • Responding to a disaster: on and off the premises • Critical company functions: identifying and minimising reliance • The recovery process: who can help and how He said while most industri es don’t support each other when a disaster hits, the wine industry and businesses within that tend to work together which was a major advantage. “The wine industry is a good industry, the winery next door won’t steal your clients, they will support you in a difficult situation so remember to always ask your competitor for help,” Kennihan said.

June 2014 – Issue 605

Avoiding disaster: MGA senior insurance broker Phil Keenihan gets down to business at the WISA disaster planning seminar.

The seminar was concluded with a tour of the Bridgestone Leukaemia Foundation Patient Village and a barbecue to thank participants for their attendance. Contact: Phil Keenihan P: 61 8 8291 2300 E: phil.keenihan@mga.com Wine Industry Suppliers’ Australia (WISA) P: 61 0409 783 221 E: eo@wisa.org.au

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

J U N E 2 014

People in research: Dr Justin Cohen “Then instead of returning to the US, to work in corporate management for a hotel group as planned, I accepted a scholarship to undertake a PhD in wine marketing. “It’s where I first connected with Professor Larry Lockshin (Pro Vice Chancellor for Strategic Coordination andA Head of Marketing at University of South Australia) and his research group.” After completing his PhD, Dr Cohen moved to Europe to work in the Master Vintage program, which is an EU-funded Master of Science program (MSC) for oenology, viticulture and wine business.

Dr Justin Cohen, Research Fellow, Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science

Beginning with a childhood spent at Cape Cod in the United States to a career that spans Europe, Australia and now Asia, for Research Fellow Dr Justin Cohen it’s been a journey inspired by great food and wine experiences. As Research Fellow at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, based at the University of South Australia, Dr Cohen’s work currently centres around the management and execution of numerous China-focussed GWRDC-funded projects being undertaken by the Institute. “My focus is wine marketing, but I do research more broadly in the areas of retailing, online advertising and tourism,” Dr Cohen said. “I also teach branding at the post-graduate level and I travel to China and more broadly in Asia for wine and other Ehrenberg-Bass business.” US born, his early jobs as a teenager were working in restaurants and hotels in Cape Cod. “It’s where I first developed a passion for food and wine, and then I came to Australia to undertake my MBA with Le Cordon Bleu,” he said.

Responsible for the wine marketing component and research supervision, Dr Cohen said that after two exciting years of delivering education and conducting research across numerous European markets he was ready for the next challenge - at the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, a specialised retailing centre at Monash University. “I focussed my energy on commercial research and strategy implementation for property groups, retailers and brands, helping them better understand their business environment, as well as consumer behaviour in an omni-channel context.” Throughout his academic career, Dr Cohen said he’s had two collaborative constants – Professor Larry Lockshin and Dr Armando Corsi. “I have a long working relationship with Larry, and I met Armando as a PhD student. For years we interacted virtually and seemed to continually swap places, when I was in Adelaide he would go to Europe and vice versa,” he said. “We have very similar research interests and passions for food and wine and over the years we developed a great collaborative relationship.” When the opportunity to return to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and to work alongside Larry and Armando arose, Dr

Cohen said he happily made the jump. Dr Cohen continues to work closely with Larry and Armando, particularly on the current China projects. “We’re a great team. My focus is particularly managerial, it’s my job to solve problems and come up with ways to overcome hurdles that crop up with such projects. “Working in emerging markets like China now is really exciting, because we are getting past people just espousing their thoughts and feelings. Our EBI team is actually doing the research in country. We can make arguments and claims about market dynamics founded in data and not just conjecture.”

“Working in emerging markets like China now is really exciting.” Dr Cohen is also enjoying the growing interest and research competition in wine marketing, saying it can only benefit industry and academia. “It’s particularly great that we are starting to see more collaboration between marketers and sensory scientists,” he said. “It’s important. I think the more competition in this space the better it will be for industry and academia as it will force us all to improve. “The GWRDC is doing a great job of bringing us all together arranging seminars in wine regions and sharing our reports, but it is important we all continue to strive harder to interact with each other. “We need relevance in our research and listening to the needs and problems of the Australian wine industry can help us prioritise topics and allocation of our resources to turn the problems of today into opportunities for tomorrow.”

Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, Ground Floor, Industry House cnr Botanic & Hackney Roads Adelaide SA 5000 PO Box 610 Kent Town SA 5071 | T: 08 8273 0500 | F: 08 8373 6608 | E: gwrdc@gwrdc.com.au | W: www.gwrdc.com.au

Winery processes and efficiency focus of new projects Saving time, money and energy from the vineyard to the bottle is the focus of three new research projects tackling the complex area of process efficiency in the wine industry. Adelaide-based business and engineering consultancy, 2xe, is undertaking the three projects, which have been funded by the GWRDC, as part of its key investment priorities in the GWRDC Strategic RD&E Plan 2012-17. 2xe founder and chief executive Nick Palousis said the company has worked closely with the South Australian Wine Industry Association, individual wineries and State Government on similar process efficiency projects. “It’s the first time we’ve worked with the GWRDC, but the three projects are in a field and industry our team are very familiar and enthusiastic about. We’re also very confident there is some giant steps forward in this area.” The three projects, already underway, are: •

Life-cycle cost analysis of wine processing to identify major opportunities for process efficiency improvements.

•

A broad review of potentially beneficial techniques and technologies

•

A simple guide to LEAN for the wine industry

Mr Palousis said the ‘gate-to-gate’ life-cycle project is the largest of the three projects and will be carried out over 18 months, with data compiled from 14 wineries. “It’s more than just itemising the costs. We will break down the cycle to look at which activities drive costs, the relationship between activities and costs, labour costs, existing vs new processes and so on,” he said. “The primary objective is to identify opportunities to optimise a winery’s cost structure through process improvements. “That includes developing some benchmarks and modelling scenarios to help compare performance, as well as uncover ‘hot-spots’ in the production cycle that can be targeted to improve the overall cost-efficiency of a winery.” The second project, Mr Palousis said, is a six-month review of beneficial techniques and technology looking at the wider food and beverage industry. “The report, which will be finished in June, will offer a look at how other similar industries are using process efficiency techniques and technology – and if there is potential for them to be used by the wine industry,” he said. The third project, the LEAN guide for wineries, Mr Palousis described as the “really cool” project.

2xe founder and chief executive, Nick Palousis

Though still relatively new as a concept, more and more industries are taking up the LEAN manufacturing principals, Mr Palousis said, originally developed by the automotive industry. “Several of the large wineries in Australia are already working at implementing LEAN strategies in their business – but we believe with a specific winery focussed guide and extension strategy to accelerate uptake, there will be benefits for all small to large wineries.”

R&D helps Australian consumers enjoy better wines Australian consumers – and their international counterparts – can enjoy more flavourful and higher quality wines because of the sector’s and government’s strong commitment to research and development (R&D). Each year, Australian grapegrowers and winemakers pay R&D levies that are matched by the Commonwealth Government and invested by the GWRDC in research, development and extension (RD&E). GWRDC’s key areas of investment include grapevine and yeast breeding, biosecurity, vineyard profitability, process efficiency and consumer insights. These investments deliver impressive returns – the latest cost-benefit analysis of

GWRDC-funded research found that, for every $100 invested, the Australian wine sector will receive $740 benefit over the next 30 years by crafting better wines. The seven GWRDC projects included in the analysis were undertaken by the Australian Wine Research Institute and University of Adelaide. The projects looked at breeding new yeasts with improved performance that will allow winemakers to enhance natural fruity or savoury flavours in their wines and to better manage challenging ferments. “The analysis confirmed that GWRDC investment in this portfolio of projects will deliver positive returns with an estimated net present value (NPV) to stakeholders of more than $475 million over the next 30

years,” said GWRDC Executive Director Dr Stuart Thomson. “The benefits of the research and development corporation-model, where industry and government funds are leveraged to deliver improved competiveness and innovation are obvious from this CBA. “Australian and international consumers benefit from the R&D investment through more appealing and interesting wines,” he said. The analysis was undertaken by an independent agricultural and resource economic analyst group. For more information, please contact Dr Liz Waters, liz@gwrdc.com.au, 08 8273 0500.

WA workshops wrap up regional mulch/compost trial The outcomes from a two-year mulch and compost trial in Margaret River and Swan Valley were presented at two regional Western Australia workshops in May. Water and nutrient efficiency, as well as soil health insights specific to the two regions are among the key results from the trial, which saw two demonstration sites established, in the Swan Valley and Margaret Valley. Funded as part of the GWRDC Regional Program, the trial sites set up three rows of mulch, three rows of compost and control rows, using products commercially available and applied at the recommended rate (banded to around 60cm, at a depth of around 6cm). Regional Program coordinator and Perth Region NRM Sustainable Agriculture Manager Keith Pekin said the two workshops had Jim Campbell-Clause deliver a presentation on the composts/ mulches project outcomes and Dr Lyn Abbott, soil health professor from the

University of Western Australia discussing soil mesofauna as key indicators of soil health. “Lyn’s presentation provided the opportunity for local producers to bring in soil samples for Lyn to magnify and display on the screen while discussing the health and functions of the mesofauna in the samples provided,” Mr Pekin said.

The new “assessing soil quality and interpreting soil test results” information sheet can be downloaded from the Wines of WA website: www.winewa.asn.au (Industry menu).

“Jim’s presentation was also aimed at providing producers with a better understanding of “assessing soil quality and interpreting soil test results.” This presentation provided a summary of the new GWRDC-funded information sheet, developed by Tony Proffitt. In addition, AWRI senior viticulturist Mardi Longbottom and Nigel Todd, from the Perth Region NRM, gave short presentations on the vineyard nitrogen management and nitrous oxide emissions project outcomes – from the research also undertaken at the two trial sites.

Around 80 growers attended the mulch and compost trial workshops in Margaret River in 2013.

Boosting sales and brand loyalty with cellar doors and wine clubs Wine club membership and cellar door visits are effective methods in boosting sales, brand awareness and building loyalty in Australian wineries.

“The average wine club member buys almost seven bottles of wine when visiting a cellar door and spends almost $65 more per visit than the non-club member.

A national study found that wine club members are the most profitable of all Australian cellar door visitors in relation to purchasing incidence, number of bottles of wine brought and total spend.

“This demonstrates the importance of increasing a winery’s wine club membership to boost cellar door sales and further build brand knowledge,” he said.

It also confirmed that Australians love visiting cellar doors and are likely to make a return visit within 12 months following their positive experience of the wine, scenery and local food. The University of South Australia and Charles Sturt University study, funded by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC), is examining how cellar doors at Australian wineries influence consumers’ wine-buying behaviours. “Almost 79 per cent of wine club members purchase wine at the cellar door to take home, compared with 64 per cent of non-club members,” said Professor Johan Bruwer, University of South Australia study leader.

According to Professor Bruwer, researchers found visitors rate their overall experience to the cellar door as overwhelmingly positive, increasing their willingness to try, purchase and re-purchase wine. “The majority of visitors (53 per cent) indicated that they will visit the same cellar door again within the next 12 months and, given that only 40 per cent of the cohort had visited the cellar door before, this is a positive indicator of a growing base of loyal customers. “Visitors said that the most important factors for their enjoyment at the winery were the wine (87 per cent), scenery/ natural environment (78 per cent) and local food (58 per cent). “It is also interesting to note that 75 per cent of visitors spend money at the cellar

door and the wine they buy is mostly for athome consumption,” Prof Bruwer said. The study also found most cellar door visitors were Australian, with only 6 per cent of cellar door visitors from overseas. “Not only are most of the visitors local, they are also influenced to attend wineries by their own local knowledge and knowledge of the winery brand, with 46 per cent of those surveyed saying wordof-mouth recommendation or informal sources influenced their choice of winery to visit,” said Prof Bruwer. “Interestingly almost 60 per cent of all visitors are first-timers to that particular cellar door, offering real opportunities to impress consumers.” The 3,600 cellar door visitors surveyed were mostly regular wine drinkers who drank red (49 per cent), white (35 per cent), and sparkling wine (10 per cent). In its first stage, the inter-institutional research project covers 79 wineries in 15 wine regions in all six states. The interim report for this project is available on the GWRDC website under Resources - Consumers.

PhD begins the search for stone fruit aroma compounds separating and identifying hundreds of aroma compounds in Chardonnay wine.

The search for the compounds responsible for stone fruit aromas in some white wines is underway, with the project taking the Adelaide researcher from Tasmania to Bordeaux.

“A group of very interested winemakers in Tasmania assisted us tremendously by being involved in a Chardonnay tasting to select Tasmanian wines that were considered to have high or low levels of the ‘stone fruit’ attribute,” she said.

Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) senior scientist Tracey Siebert is undertaking the search as part of a new GWRDC project, with a particular focus on identifying the compounds responsible for the apricot or other stone fruit aroma in Viognier and Chardonnay.

“Interestingly, the group of winemakers were able to see a distinct difference between ‘white stone fruit’, described as a fresh fruit character, and ‘peach’, as a sweeter, more cooked character.”

“We’re full steam ahead and have already completed a preliminary study on a small set of Chardonnay, Viognier and botrytised Semillon wine involving the GC-sniff unit at the AWRI,” Ms Siebert said. “GC-sniffing, with assessors evaluating aromas emerging as they are separated from the end of a gas chromatograph column, gives a great deal of data about different compounds and how they’re contributing to a wine’s aroma. “Wading through the data has given good information on whether compounds found in apricot or peach might be important, as well as clues regarding other compounds. It’s produced some good leads for us to now follow.” In conjunction with the project another project has been set up in collaboration with the University of Tasmania (UTas) and

The next phase of the project will involve a full descriptive sensory analysis using a trained sensory panel and a comprehensive suite of aroma compound analyses on a larger set of Chardonnay and Viognier wines from Australia and France. A new PhD project being undertaken at the AWRI is searching for the compounds responsible for stone fruit aroma in Chardonnay and Viognier

the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) to extend the investigation of the varietal ‘stone fruit’ character. With the support of Assoc Prof Robert Shellie (UTas) and Caroline Claye (TIA), Ms Siebert said, the project was using comprehensive two dimensional gas chromatography (GCGC) and had developed an analytical method for

“The wines selected for the sensory study will have a broad range of ‘apricot’ or ‘stone fruit’ aroma intensities,” she said, and sensory analysis will be conducted at the AWRI and at the University of Bordeaux II. “I will be working with Prof. Philippe Darriet’s team in Bordeaux and while I’m there I will gain experience in a trace analysis technique that they have successfully used to identify unknown wine aroma compounds.”

On 1 July 2014, the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC) will merge with the Wine Australia Corporation, forming a new entity – The Australian Grape and Wine Authority. The GWRDC team will continue to work with the Australian grape and wine sector to ensure its research, development and extension needs continue to be supported during and after the merger. The Australian Grape and Wine Authority will remain committed to extending research outcomes to industry and R&D@Work will continue to be published as a bimonthly spread in Grapegrower and Winemaker magazine. Final reports now available: WAC 1202

The opportunities for Australian wine in the on-line channel in the United Kingdom

GWT 1215

Developing culture independent analysis techniques and skills to analyse wild yeast fermentation in red and white wines

GWR Ph0903

Investigating the role of the regulatory gene VvMYBA1 in flavour and aroma using transgenic grapevines

GWT 1302

Attendance & presentation at “Yeasts: Products, Discovery 2013” (YPD2013) conference, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand, November 2013

GWT 1308

Improving quality of wine maturation products through real-time analysis of oak wood volatiles using ProtonTransfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry

GWT 1211

Warming effects on grape organic acid metabolism

grapegrowing grapegrowing

Esca symptoms in Vitis vinifera The influence of climate and pedo-climatic conditions and rootstock/cultivar combination Two Italian research groups (Department of Agricultural, Food and Agri-Environmental Sciences, of Pisa University and Institute of Life Sciences of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa) investigate the different susceptibility to esca disease of several cultivars of grapevine in relation to climatic and environmental conditions and rootstock/cultivar combination. VITIS vinifera L. is strongly affected by esca, a multiple fungal syndrome causing serious economic problems for grapevine cultivation. Esca is a grapevine trunk disease occurring in adult plants aged 10 years or more and can manifest itself in two ways: a slow evolving form recognisable by visible foliar symptoms (chronic esca) or an apoplectic form (acute esca) that kills the plants within a few days. A peculiar characteristic of esca is the discontinuous expression of chronic symptoms in diseased plants from year

Table 1. This study was carried out in a grapevine experimental field of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (University of Pisa) located in the Tuscan coastal area (altitude 6 m, 43°02 N, 10°36 E). Cultivars

Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Trebbiano Toscano and Chardonnay

Rootstocks

Cultivar was grafted on 1103 Paulsen (1103P), Kober 5BB (K5BB) and own rooted Vines were grafted or left not grafted in 1980 and planted in 1981.

Training

High free cordon; 3.0 x 1.0 m distance

Soil

Uniform across the experimental plot (42 per cent sand, 37 per cent silt and 21 per cent clay, pH 8).

Number of vines

from 264 to 196, and the rate of mortality for each cultivar was calculated

to year (SURICO et al. 2000) and thus it is not possible to know when a plant becomes infected. Esca incidence may be influenced by: •

Pedo-climatic factors (rainfall, air temperature, vineyard slope, soil type, and sun exposure).

•

Different susceptibility of cultivars.

Some studies classify Cabernet Sauvignon as a susceptible cultivar because of the high percentage of symptomatic vines observed in different climatic conditions and generally in mature vineyards. In contrast, Chardonnay has been classified as less susceptible to esca (ANDREINI et al. 2009, ANDREINI et al. 2013). The different susceptibility to esca among cultivars also appears to be affected by the rootstock combination (MARCHI 2001). In the past 10 years the Italian areas planted with Kober 5BB (V. riparia X V. berlandieri) were reduced in favour of 1103 Paulsen (V. rupestris X V. berlandieri), a rootstock tolerant to drought conditions and poor soils. Currently the 1103 Paulsen occupies about 30 per cent of winegrowing areas in relation to changes in vineyard management (in particular an increase in dense systems with more than 5000 vines per hectare) and to climatic changes – which are mainly a higher frequency of drought seasons. Despite the key role of rootstocks in conferring agronomical traits to cultivars (i.e. vigor and tolerance to biotic or abiotic stress), studies on the relationship between rootstock and esca disease are still rare.

DISCONTINUOUS EXPRESSION OF ESCA SYMPTOMS Generally the symptoms appeared during fruit set (Stage 71 of BBCH) with a significant increase when the berries developed colour (Stage 81-83 of BBCH). However esca incidence can increase up to the end of veraison stage. During the six year period (2004-2009) the percentage of vines that showed esca symptoms in alternating years was similar among cultivars. The cultivars differed in whether the vines showed esca symptoms for only one year or for consecutive years. Chardonnay was characterised by more than 60 per cent of vines showing symptoms for only one year, while vines of Cabernet Sauvignon generally showed esca disease in consecutive years (about 50 per cent). Only Cabernet Sauvignon vines showed esca symptoms for five and six consecutive years (25 per cent). Chardonnay and Trebbiano Toscano showed a low percentage (about 10 per cent) of symptomatic plants for 2-4 consecutive years. Table 2: Number of vines present at the start of trials (2004), and at the end of 2008 and 2009. Mortality rate (per cent) of Chardonnay (CH), Cabernet Sauvignon (CB), Trebbiano Toscano (TR), Sangiovese (SG) was determined for two periods: 2004 -2008 and 2008 – 2009.

2004 Esca incidence observations

Esca incidence parameters

from fruit set: (Stage 71: young fruits begin to swell) to harvest time (Stage 89: berries ripe). Phenological stages by BBCH scale - incidence: percentage of symptomatic vines observed each year; - cumulative incidence: total percentage of incidences recorded during the previous years.

32 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Mortality rate (per cent)

Number of vines 2008

2009

2004-08

2008-09

10.0

29.6

11.4

7.7

6.7

11.9

4.7

18.5

Total

264

243

196

8.0*

19.3*

* Mean of mortality rate of cultivars

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Death sentence: Vine leaves showing apoplectic esca, which means the plant will be dead within a few days.

EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON ESCA INCIDENCE From 2004 to 2009 the experimental site was characterised, on average, by annual precipitation of 880±187mm, mainly concentrated during the autumnwinter season (data from ARSIA) and by hot summers with an average minimum and maximum temperature of 15.7C±0.6 and 28.3C±0.6, respectively. In particular, 2009 was characterised by a strong decrease in rainfall during the fruit growth period (June - August), when only 26mm of precipitation was recorded. At vineyard level the coefficient of determination (R2) indicated 64 per cent of variation in esca incidence was accounted for by variation in rainfall from June to August (during phenological stages 71- 83). The maximum temperature from June August was also not correlated with esca appearance. Results from the soil analysis showed

the physical characteristics, and the parameters of soil microbial activity, were homogeneous across the vineyard and were ranged within an interval of values considered sufficient for normal development of the plants. As a consequence a relationship between soil characteristics and esca fluctuation in the vineyard was not found.

SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CULTIVARS TO ESCA At the end of the six-year period the examined cultivars showed significant differences in esca susceptibility based on expression of symptoms: high in Cabernet Sauvignon, moderate in Sangiovese and Trebbiano Toscano and low in Chardonnay. The cumulative incidence reached 70 per cent in Cabernet Sauvignon and in Trebbiano Toscano, 58 per cent in Sangiovese and 36 per cent in Chardonnay. By 2008 the mortality rate was below 10

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June 2014 – Issue 605

per cent, but it reached 19.3 per cent during the last year of observation (Table 2). This increase in mortality in 2009 was due to a three to four fold increase in mortality of Chardonnay and Sangiovese vines compared to previous years.

EFFECT OF GRAFTING PROCESS ON ESCA INCIDENCE The own rooted vines allowed us to observe the genotypic characteristics of Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Trebbiano Toscano. A significant correlation between the percentage of symptomatic vines and the mortality rate was found in Chardonnay and Sangiovese. Chardonnay and Sangiovese own rooted showed the lowest incidence of symptomatic vines (<20 per cent) and also the lowest mortality rate. In contrast, Trebbiano Toscano own rooted was characterised by both the highest esca symptoms appearance (44 per cent) and highest mortality (72 per cent).

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grapegrowing Interestingly, Cabernet Sauvignon own rooted showed a different behaviour: a low incidence of esca appearance (25 per cent) corresponded to a high rate of vine mortality (66 per cent). In general grafted vines did not display an evident tolerance to esca disease:

grafted Sangiovese and Chardonnay vines showed a markedly higher percentage of symptomatic vines and mortality rate compared to the own rooted vines. Grafted Cabernet Sauvignon and Trebbiano Toscano vines also showed a high percentage of symptomatic vines (75 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively), however, in these cultivars mortality was moderately low in comparison to the own rooted vines and did not exceed 34 per cent.

THE INFLUENCE OF ROOTSTOCKS ON THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CULTIVARS The statistical analysis showed both 1103P and K5BB significantly influenced esca symptoms appearance, but not mortality rates. Both rootstocks were associated with an increase in esca incidence in Sangiovese and especially in Cabernet Sauvignon. In the case of Chardonnay the vines grafted on 1103P and K5BB showed a moderate increase in symptoms incidence that did not exceed 35 per cent and, as a consequence, a high percentage of non-symptomatic vines was found. Among the cultivars grafted only Trebbiano Toscano showed a lower percentage of mortality and of symptomatic vines in comparison to own rooted vines. In fact, in Trebbiano Toscano there was a markedly low percentage of dead vines (< 6 per cent) with both rootstocks and the percentage of non-symptomatic vines was high (44 per cent on 1103P and 32 per cent on K5BB) in comparison to own rooted vines (20 per cent). Fig. 1: Symptoms of esca: a) chronic (light green or chlorotic leaves, rounded or irregular spots between the veins or along the leaf margins); b) acute (quick decline of whole plant starting with leaf roll).

DISCUSSION Due to the very high variability of symptom expression in our study we were not able to find clear correlations

Fig. 2: Percentages of symptomatic vines determined in relation to the number of years during which esca symptoms appeared between 2004 and 2009. Chardonnay (CH), Cabernet Sauvignon (CB), Trebbiano Toscano (TR) and Sangiovese (SG).

34 Grapegrower & Winemaker

between climatic conditions and esca expression. In this study the susceptibility of cultivars to esca appeared higher on grafted vines, and only Trebbiano Toscano showed a similar percentage of symptomatic vines in both grafted and own rooted vines. ANDOLFI et al. (2011) report symptoms of Petri disease (young esca) were more severe in grafted than in self-rooted cuttings. BORGO et al. (2008) observed vigorous cultivars such as Sauvignon and Dindarella, characterised by a higher trunk diameter, were more affected by esca disease compared to those with a lower development of the trunk. In our vineyard generally the own rooted vines were less vigorous than the grafted vines (Scalabrelli G. personal communication) and also showed lower incidence of esca. A possible explanation could be the own rooted vines avoid the phases of grafting during which aerial contamination by fungal spores can occur on weakened tissues caused by the grafting itself (HOFSTETTER et al. 2012). Despite 1103P rootstock being more vigorous and drought resistant than K5BB, it was not possible to distinguish different influences of these rootstocks on the examined cultivars in relation to esca symptom expression. A relationship between rootstocks and esca susceptibility was therefore excluded. In relation to the high incidence of esca symptoms appearance, Cabernet Sauvignon was confirmed as a genotype susceptible to esca disease, whereas Sangiovese and especially Chardonnay were found to be less susceptible, particularly when own rooted. Trebbiano toscano appears to have intermediate susceptibility among

Fig. 3: Mean percentage of symptomatic vines (incidence) from 2004 to 2009 (n) recorded each year on Cabernet Sauvignon (CB), Trebbiano Toscano (TR), Sangiovese (SG), Chardonnay (CH). The percentages of cumulative incidence (¨) observed in 2009 are reported. Asterisk denote statistically significant differences in cumulative incidence between the cultivars (X² =21.40, by P < 0.001).

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grapegrowing

Fig. 4: Percentage of esca symptoms incidence (a) and mortality rate (b) in own rooted (¨) and grafted (n) vines of Cabernet Sauvignon (CB), Trebbiano Toscano (TR), Sangiovese (SG), Chardonnay (CH).Values are calculated on the total number of symptomatic and dead vines recorded from 2004 to 2009. Differences in esca appearance between the cultivars are statistically significant (X² =11.04, by P < 0.025). Differences in mortality rate between the cultivars are statistically significant (X² =8.95, by P < 0.05).

the examined cultivars. Interestingly, the observed rates of mortality were not in accordance with the esca symptoms incidence. Cabernet Sauvignon grafted showed a low percentage of dead vines, while Sangiovese and Chardonnay were characterised by a very high mortality rate. These features are in accordance with LIMINANA et al. (2009), who showed necrosis in grapevine wood was not always associated with foliar symptoms, but positively related with grapevine mortality. In our environmental conditions Sangiovese and Chardonnay could be infected by esca without showing the symptoms (hidden esca) for at least four years and only later might show esca symptoms. Based on the high mortality rate recorded during the last year of our survey we may infer after long asymptomatic periods the most frequent symptom to appear may be apoplectic stroke. Due to the complexity of esca disease the evaluation of cultivar susceptibility is very difficult, particularly because it was not possible to know when infection started and several environmental factors appear to modify the appearance of symptoms. Due to this complexity we suggest further experimental trials under field conditions for a minimum five-year period will be necessary to obtain an effective methodology for early detection. Actually, despite different levels of susceptibility to the pathogens observed among genotypes, none were truly resistant (ESKALEN et al. 2001, BILLONES-BAAIJENS et al. 2013).

Fig. 5: Percentage of symptomatic (n) non symptomatic (¨) and dead (n) vines own rooted (OR) and grafted on 1103Paulsen (P) and Kober 5BB (K). Cultivars: Cabernet Sauvignon (CB), Trebbiano Toscano (TR), Sangiovese (SG), Chardonnay (CH). Values represent the situation at the end of 2009. Differences in numbers of symptomatic vines (own rooted and grafted) between rootstock combinations are significant for: X²= 12.81, P<0.005 in CB; X²= 8.78, P<0.025 in TR; X²= 9.78, P<0.010 in SG; X²= 6.37, P<0.050 in CH. Differences in numbers of dead vines (own rooted and grafted) between rootstock combinations are not significant for: X²= 0.80, P<0.5 in CB; X²= 4.01, P<0.1 in TR; X²= 4.40, P<0.1 in SG; X²= 1.05, P<0.5 in CH.

The authors gratefully acknowledge ARSIA-Toscana for climatic data provision.

References:

ANDOLFI, A.; MUGNAI, L.; LUQUE, J.; SURICO, G.; CIMMINO, A.; EVIDENTE, A.; 2011: Toxins 3, 1569-1605. ANDREINI, L.; CARUSO, G.; BERTOLLA, C.; SCALABRELLI, G.; VITI, R.; GUCCI, R.; 2009: S. Afr. J. Enol. Vitic. 30, 142-147.

Contact: Lucia Andreini e-mail: frutticola@yahoo.it

ANDREINI, L.; GUARINO, L; VITI, R.; SCALABRELLI, G.; 2013: Vitis 52, 33-40.

Acknowledgements:

BORGO, M.; BELLOTTO, D.; DAL CORTIVO, G.L.; ZANZOTTO, A.; TOSI E.; MARCHESINI E.; 2008: Atti Giornate Fitopatologiche 2, 223-230.

BILLONES-BAAIJENS, R.; JONES, E.E.; RIDGWAY, H.J.; JASPERS, M.V.; 2013: Australasian Plant Pathology 10.1007/s13313-013-0228-9

Research study commissioned from ARSIA-Toscana (Regional Agency for Development and Innovation in Agriculture and Forest) by fourteen administrative Regions and one autonomous province, and financed with funds provided by the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry Policy to implement the inter-Regional Project “Grapevine Esca: research and experiment in the nursery and in the field for prevention and cure” (MESVIT).

36 Grapegrower & Winemaker

ESKALEN, A.; GUBLER, W.D.; KHAN, A.; 2001: Phytopathologia Mediterranea 40, S433–S438. HOFSTETTER, V.; BUYCK, B.; CROLL, D.; VIRET, O.; COULOUX, A.; GINDRO, K.; 2012: Fungal Diversity 54, 51-67. MARCHI, G.; 2001: Phytopathologia Mediterranea 40, 27–36. SURICO, G.; MARCHI, G.; BRACCINI, P.; MUGNAI, L.; 2000: Phytopathologia Mediterranea 39, 190–205.

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Yield of Shiraz in response to warming and late pruning balance. Delayed pruning is seen in a risk management context whereby rotation of pruning dates is necessary to spread harvest, manage potential yield penalties and the depletion of vine carbohydrate reserves. The viability of delayed pruning partially depends on the maintenance of fruit yield. Here we report the yield of late-pruned Shiraz in two trials in the Barossa Valley.

Researchers Victor O Sadras, Martin M Moran and Paul R Petrie assess the changing face of the grapevine industry in the face of global warming and in a series of trials looking at the potential to use delayed pruning to partially counteract undesirable warming effects.

Trial 1

BAROSSA Shiraz and Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon illustrate wine identities that underpin both the history and the future of the industry. Warming challenges these identities by (1) promoting early harvest, (2) reducing the gap between maturities of different varieties thus “compressing” harvest, and (3) disrupting the balance between sugar, flavour and colour in fruit. For example, Paul Petrie showed that the gap between maturity of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon at McLaren Vale has been compressed from 21 to 9 days in the last 20 years. Sadras and Moran showed that warming disrupts the sugar/anthocyanin balance in Shiraz and Cabernet Franc (Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research 18:115–122). We are currently engaged in a project funded by the Grape and Wine R&D Corporation, where delayed pruning is tested as a practice to spread harvest and partially restore fruit

The first trial was conducted at SARDI’s Nuriootpa vineyard. We combined two temperature regimes (control, elevated temperature) and three pruning dates (conventional in mid-winter, late pruning at budburst, and 2-leaves expanded); Figure 1 illustrates the combination of pruning and heating treatments. We wanted to see if delayed pruning can partially cancel warming effects. Heating was implemented with open top chambers described before (European Journal of Agronomy 31:250-258). Fruit was harvested at an average sugar concentration of 26.4 oBrix in controls (unheated, winter pruning); the remaining treatments were harvested at an average 24.7 oBrix. Harvest date was 11-13 March with no evident difference between treatments. Table 1 presents yield and its components. Late pruning did not alter fruit yield, irrespective of temperature regime. Elevated temperature increased yield by 62% in relation to controls. The

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main reason was the larger number of bunches in heated vines compared with controls. Bunches were slightly heavier in heated vines with marginally higher number of berries per bunch. The lower yield in controls is the likely result of cooler conditions early in the season.

Trial 2 The second trial was conducted at a commercial vineyard in the Marananga subregion of the Barossa Valley. We wanted to test the applicability of late pruning at commercial scale. Fruit was harvested at an average sugar concentration of 25.9 oBrix. Harvest date was 5 March in the winter pruning treatment, and was delayed to 11 March in vines pruned at budburst and 17 March in vines pruned at 2-3 leaf stage. Table 2 presents yield and its components. There was no difference in yield for the different pruning times in Shiraz vines. This was the result of a reduction in bunch number compensated by heavier bunches, heavier berries, more berries per bunch or a combination.

Conclusions from 2014 season Delayed pruning had a minor effect on harvest date in Trial 1. In Trial 2, pruning at budburst delayed harvest by 6 days and pruning at 2-3 leaves delayed harvest by 12 days in relation to winter pruning. Both experiments involved Shiraz in the Barossa, hence the difference in responses highlight small-scale influences. Delaying pruning to budburst or 2-3 expanded leaves did not affect vine yield in comparison to standard winter pruning in two trials in 2014. In Trial 2, late pruning reduced bunch number but heavier bunches and berries compensated this reduction, leading to similar yield June 2014 – Issue 605

Timing the trim: Shiraz vines with standard winter pruning (right) and pruned at 2-3 unfolded leaves in Nuriootpa, Barossa Valley (left). Pruning time treatments are combined with heating using open-top chambers, which are compared with unheated controls

in all treatments. Interestingly, vines subjected to two successive seasons of late pruning showed no yield reduction. The season was cooler in spring and some episodes of heat stress affected vines later in the season. The large increase in yield in heated vines illustrates the expected yield benefit of future warming in cool seasons. Experiments will be repeated in 2014-15 to assess the interaction between pruning date and seasonal influences. Contact: Victor Sadras P: 61 8 8303 9661 E: Victor.Sadras@sa.gov.au

Acknowledgments: We thank the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for financial support, and Tim Malone, Assistant Manager and his team (Treasury Wine Estatesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Barossa Valley) and Treva Hebberman (SARDI) for support in the field trials and vineyard maintenance. Authors: Victor Sadras and Martin Moran (South Australian Research & Development Institute), and Paul Petrie (Treasury Wine Estates).

Table 1. Yield and yield components of Shiraz in an experiment combining two thermal regimes and three winter pruning times in the Barossa Valley, 2013-14 season. Asterisks indicate significant effects, and NS indicates statistically undetectable effects for temperature and pruning treatments, and the interaction between them. Temperature Control

Pruning treatment

Yield (kg/vine)

Bunches per vine

Bunch wt. (g/bunch)

Berries per bunch

winter

3.6

107 61

budburst

3.7

2-3 leaves

4.9

winter

6.8

111

budburst

5.9

115

2-3 leaves

6.8

Pruning effect:

Interaction effect:

Heated

Temperature effect:

Table 2. Timing of pruning and its impact on yield and yield components of a commercial Shiraz vineyard in the Marananga subregion of the Barossa Valley; 2014 season. Pruning treatments were: winter (control), and late pruning (budburst, 2-3 leaves) applied for the first ti Pruning treatment

Yield

Bunches per vine (kg/vine)

Bunch wt. (g/bunch)

Berry wt. (g/berry)

Berry No

3.4

0.84

1st budburst

3.6

0.92

1st 2-3 leaves

3.8

0.80

2nd budburst

3.4

0.86

2nd 2-3 leaves

2.9

1.10

Pruning effect:

***

winter

June 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 605

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grapegrowing Ask the AWRI

Can you achieve yield control in the vineyard without using bunch thinning? A. Yield control by bunch thinning, usually prior to veraison, is commonly employed by growers in many parts of the world, particularly in cool climates. This is done in the belief that it will improve fruit composition or quality perception and thereby enable the grower to recoup lost revenue through higher grape prices. Manual bunch thinning is an expensive technique, particularly when carried out closer to veraison. Although bunch thinning can improve wine quality, there have been many studies that have failed to demonstrate any improvement. In fact, there are examples where bunch thinning has actually decreased wine quality—due to increased herbaceous character—or decreased consumer rating. If yield control is necessary, recent research has shown that there may be better ways to do it than by bunch thinning. These methods not only result in greater quality improvement but also in lower costs and better control of bunch rot. The first of these methods is early leaf removal in the bunch zone. This is the removal of the six to eight or so basal leaves on fruiting shoots on one occasion between the start of flowering and fruit set. It can be done either manually or mechanically. Since the first research on Sangiovese and Trebbiano, this practice has also been successful with Tempranillo, Semillon, Carignan and Graciano. Yield reduction has typically been in the range 20 to 40% relative to the control. Research has mainly been conducted in cool regions but the practice has also been trialled successfully in warm to hot regions. Yield reduction is a consequence of smaller bunches or fewer bunches or both, depending on variety and location. Decreased bunch

Q. My winemaker insists that I carry out bunch thinning at the start of veraison because she says that it will improve wine quality. This is an expensive and tedious process because it must be done manually. I have tried doing this mechanically but the results have been unsatisfactory. Is there a better way to reduce yield than by bunch thinning?

weight is perhaps the most common response, mainly due to reduced fruit set. This technique works because the basal leaves, prior to flowering, are the most important source of resources for the developing inflorescence. Early defoliation may decrease bud fruitfulness and thus bunch number in following season; however, this is not necessarily a universal response. With red wine-grapes, early leaf removal may result in more intensely coloured wine due to a combination of increased relative skin mass (a result of increased bunch exposure) or increased leaf area to fruit weight and not as a consequence of smaller berries. For white varieties, grape quality (assessed by berry sensory analysis) may also be improved. Bunch compactness decreases (mainly as a result of fewer berries per bunch) and less bunch rot has also been observed. The increased bunch exposure that will result from early leaf removal may need be compensated for by the manipulation of shoots to provide protection of bunches, particularly on

the west side of north-south rows. If vines are sufficiently vigorous, growth of lateral shoots in the bunch zone may provide adequate protection of bunches later in the season (in some experiments, the lateral shoots have not been removed at the time of defoliation although the leaves on lateral shoots were removed, i.e. the tips were retained). Early defoliation generally causes stimulated growth of the rest of canopy resulting in the same total leaf area as the control at harvest. An alternative to leaf removal is the application of an anti-transpirant spray to the whole canopy from the start of flowering. This temporarily reduces photosynthesis in the leaves and thus greatly decreases the supply of photosynthate to the developing inf lorescences. The anti-transpirant used in most research has been Vapor Gard® (a water emulsifiable concentrate of a terpenic polymer known as pinolene) and this is available in Australia. In summary, both early defoliation in the bunch zone and whole canopy antitranspirant spray are techniques that are worthy of trialling in Australian regions, either for yield reduction or for control of bunch rot. For the latter, these practices may produce better results than application of fungicides. Wine quality may be also improved. Furthermore, both techniques can be mechanised. More consistent results have been achieved with mechanical defoliation than with mechanical bunch thinning at bunch closure or early veraison. For further information, please contact the AWRI Viticulture team on viticulture@awri.com.au or by telephone: 08 8313 6600.

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Straggly solution: The healthy vine on the left has been treated with a plant growth regulator while the other is a classic example of a vine “left to its own natural devices”. Unravelling the secrets behind co-ordinated bud burst is now a research priority.

New burst of life for production INTEREST in wine - and its appreciation - is on the rise to the point where some even argue that “wine is the new golf”: It generates employment, pleasure and many hobby connoisseurs ready to argue the merits of colour and bouquet. In recent years, considerable attention focused on flowering and fruiting; few people realise, however, the ability of the vine to spring to new life after winter is one of its most important properties and of critical interest to the winemaker. Scientists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the University of Leeds (UK) have teamed up to explore the process responsible for the ability of the vine to develop buds that not only survive winter but make the rapid transition to new life once the good weather returns. UWA’s Assistant Professor Michael Considine says many grapegrowers agree this property underpins the successful vine and its sustainability. “In nature, the buds burst at different times but the grower requires that all the buds burst within a few days of each other, so the shoots and fruit develop

Nature seems to get it right with budburst but WA researcher Michael Considine says changing weather patterns, particularly in warm winter regions, means we need to start unravelling more of the mysteries of bud transition. together, which is essential to quality wine production and consistency,” he says. “We’ve all seen the state of unmanaged or discarded vineyards. “The coordination of bud burst is a real problem in warm-winter areas, and the prospect of a 2C rise in temperatures in Australian grape regions in the next 20-30 years creates a big challenge for the future of our champion grape and wine industries.” A developed bud at the end of summer houses the embryonic flowers, leaves and fruiting bodies. During autumn, dormancy is reinforced as these organs go into survival mode and slow down growth and metabolism during winter. “Amazingly, a t ruly dormant

(endodormant) bud will not burst even it’s moved to warm, sunny conditions,” Considine says. “It stays like this throughout winter, and then all of a sudden, within days, it sprouts back to life.” The vine has evolved to use the winter conditions to “sense” the duration of winter and know when it’s “safe” to resume growth, with minimal risk of frost. It has an internal clock that is calibrated by “chilling hours” – typically, time at temperatures below 7-10C, although even this term is poorly understood. These traits are not unique to grape – many temperate perennial fruit and forest trees have the same patterns, including Rosaceae fruit and Kiwifruit. Being able to awaken after a long winter sleep poses many challenges/ problems for the embryo that are still poorly understood, including the need to handle oxygen. Remember, this happens within a few days – from a completely enclosed bud, to a small green shoot. “For a bud to make the transition to air can be a rude awakening,

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VINE TALK

At a glance: •

•

The ability of the vine to spring to new life after winter is one of its most important properties and of critical interest to the winemaker. The grower requires that all the buds burst within a few days of each other, so the shoots and fruit develop together, which is essential to quality wine production and consistency. The prospect of a 2C rise in temperatures in Australian grape regions in the next 20-30 years creates a big challenge for the future of our grape and wine industries.

because handling oxygen metabolism is tricky for all living organisms,” says Prof Christine Foyer, Dr Considine’s UK partner, who is also a Winthrop Research Professor at UWA. “Oxygen can even be toxic and all organisms that exist in air have developed the ability to use oxygen for respiration while protecting themselves against the potentially harmful side effects of oxygen chemistry,” she says. It’s interesting to remember our atmosphere didn’t always have much oxygen. Just search for the “Great Oxygenation Event” in your web browser. You may even have done an experiment in school chemistry that combined amounts of hydrogen and oxygen – with explosive consequences. In fact, all explosives involve a reaction with oxygen. “While that isn’t going to spontaneously happen in a bud – or in you for that matter – the reactivity of oxygen does play important roles in living cells,” Considine adds. “Using oxygen can create reactive molecules called free radicals that have the potential to cause damage,” he says. “All living cells have not only harnessed oxygen chemistry but also use it to their advantage in defence and the ability to react to environmental change. “Quite how this is done is still a mystery and one that continues to engage the interest of researchers worldwide. “Our research investigates how the bud handles oxygen to make this transition from the dormant state to the vigorously growing vine, with the aim of gaining an insight in how the bud awakens rapidly and is able to breathe oxygen without harm. “This is essential information that can be used to help the grower achieve synchronous bud burst.” Considine, Foyer and the joint team have already demonstrated the enclosed bud is hypoxic, that is the level of oxygen is far below the outside air. Crucially, oxygen radicals accumulate within hours of warming following a winter chill. This burst of oxygen radicals quickly disappears, suggesting that the antioxidant defences are activated. More importantly, this finding suggests that the oxygen radicals might be the wake-up signal, and that the antioxidants limit the time that the signal is present. “We were able to really push this research ahead by teaming up. One of our PhD students, Karlia Meitha (UWA), was fortunate enough to receive a GWRDC travel scholarship to visit Professor Foyer in Leeds and spend four months there laboriously developing and carrying out some of these assays,” Considine says. “Other assays were done back at UWA, but again in partnership with people studying oxygen in roots – who have really pioneered the technology to measure oxygen and hypoxia in dense tissues.” June 2014 – Issue 605

Labels often recommend the use of adjuvants to improve a crop protection product’s effectiveness. Adjuvants come in many different forms and can cause confusion when deciding the correct adjuvant to use with a particular product.

It’s made even more difficult by the fact that manufacturers can combine any number of adjuvants into a single packaged product, so it may be hard for you to determine if the product truly matches what the label requires. So let’s start by understanding the basics of adjuvants. An adjuvant is quite simply something that, when added to a product or spray solution, enhances the effectiveness of the active ingredient. Adjuvants may be packaged and formulated with the product or they may be added to the spray solution as a tank mix. Fitting within this broader group of adjuvants are the surfactants. Surfactants are used to increase dispersing, spreading, wetting, or other properties of the liquids. The easiest way for you to remember this is by remembering the words surface active agent, which comes together as ‘surfactant’ when abbreviated. Surfactant molecules are comprised of two parts: a strong polar group that is attracted to water, and a non-polar group that is attracted to non-aqueous materials, such as oil or even a solid surface. The surfactant molecules position themselves between the surfaces. They lower the surface tension of the liquid, allowing easier spreading. They can also lower the interfacial tension between two liquids, or between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents and dispersants. There are many different types of surfactants, with non-ionic surfactants being the most common in agricultural spraying. It should also be noted that whilst surfactants make up a large class of agricultural spray adjuvants, not all adjuvants are surfactants. Spray modifiers are other adjuvants that modify the spray solution in the tank or on the target and they largely consist of spreaders and stickers. Spreaders are usually non-ionic surfactants and increase the surface area of the spray droplets. Stickers cause the spray droplets to adhere or stick to the target to decrease run-off or wash-off during a rainfall. Bravo Weather Stick Fungicide, for example, has a particularly well-researched and effective in-built sticker. Stickers generally include a thickening agent that increases the spray solution viscosity, which may also reduce spray drift. Anti-foaming agents are another type of adjuvant. They assist with reducing foaming in the tank during agitation and spraying, while buffering agents are used to increase the solubility and dispersion of a product when used with extremely acidic or alkaline water. Companies like Syngenta have the resources to conduct extensive research to determine how to achieve the most consistent performance from products, thus label recommendations should be followed.

Vine Talk is compiled by Scott Mathew, Technical Lead, Syngenta scott.mathew@syngenta.com 0428225597

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grapegrowing Meitha says her trip to Leeds was more than an academic challenge because she had to take her whole family, including her four-year-old daughter. But she says working in different u niversit y env i ron ment, u nder Professor Foyer’s leadership, with her supervisor (Dr Considine) also visiting “really made it such a rewarding experience”. “And just recently Professor Foyer visited us, and we all sat down to look at the data and start writing the publication,” Meitha, who is now back in Perth and continuing the second year of her PhD, says. The team also has another young and exciting PhD student, Yazhini Velappan, who is also enrolled at UWA

with Dr Considine. She too has a great story to tell, and was awarded a GWRDC PhD top-up scholarship in 2013. Velappan completed her Masters of Science at the University of Leeds under the supervision of Professor Foyer, studying aspects of reactive oxygen and the cell division cycle. Dr Considine and Professor Foyer saw a great opportunity for her to work alongside Meitha on bud dormancy, and now she is taking some of the approaches she learned during her MSc to study the cell cycle in dormant buds. “We now plan annual exchanges as we steadily grow our research into bud dormancy and development in grapevine,” Velappan says. Dr Considine says “it’s really great the students participate and benefit

from this”. “Ultimately though, it is the vineyard and winery that matters and we’re all firmly grounded on that,” he says. Contact: Asst/Prof Michael Considine P: 61 8 6488 1783 E: michael.considine@uwa.edu.au

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Life cycle: This bud burst profile, which first appeared in Antioxidants and Redox Signaling gives a time lapse view of bud burst in a grapevine.

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Climate change and transforming the industry Aysha Fleming and Anne-Maree Dowd are researching ways for the Australian wine industry to adapt to a changing climate.

Image courtesy of Yalumba

At a glance: •

•

CSIRO has been working on a project to uncover what social and economic conditions and processes drive wineries to make significant, transformative shifts. During the three years of the study there have been many changes on individual farms, and across all aspects of wineries with multiple, overlapping reasons for the changes. The availability of water for crop irrigation, government regulations, consumer demand and extreme weather events were listed as areas of concern.

AUSTRALIAN primary industries like the wine industry are vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate as it impacts wine production, grape quality, harvest and storage logistics, and even consumer marketing. But clever management practice can help the wine industry minimise these impacts as well as take advantage of new opportunities provided by climatic conditions, such as the potential for grape growing in new regions or introducing new varieties to existing locations. This research project examines what social and economic conditions and processes drive wineries to make significant, transformative shifts in their business practices. Transformative shifts include relocating vineyards, changing industry, or significantly changing the business structure, such as initiating a tourism venture. From 2010-2013 we conducted interviews with decisionmakers from CEOs to heads of department in the winemaking June 2014 – Issue 605

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grapegrowing and vineyard operations. Yalumba and Orlando Pernod-Ricard were our main research partners, with additional interviews from Brown Brothers and Shaw and Smith wineries. We also ran a survey with 50 grapegrowers supplying grapes to our main research partner wineries. The aim of the interviews was to understand how people change their operational practices and what knowledge, skills, and support are required for people to transform to new practices.

Our interviews and surveys gathered information about: • Recent changes • Reasons for changes • Perspectives on climate change • Preparations for climate change • Key drivers of change and areas of concern We found many changes occur on individual grower’s farms, and across all aspects of the wineries. Similarly, there were multiple, overlapping

reasons for the changes. Many were related to larger scale factors such as market changes or economic fluctuations and motivated, at least in part, by climate change. These ranged from environmental management changes that mostly involved adjustments and refinements to existing practices; to longer-term planning for changes to product packaging; to broader, businesswide decisions that involved more fundamental changes to vineyard locations.

Table1: Changes occurring in response to climate change Environmental Management

Longer term planning

Business-wide decisions

Life cycle analysis

Developing varieties targeted to expected climate

Cost cutting

Waste management

Sourcing grapes from new locations

Expand/reduce product offerings

Carbon sequestration

Changing current varieties

Change transport

Irrigation management

Increasing flexibility in contracts

Change supply chain

Sharing equipment

New product designs to environmental specifications

Company restructures

Research into improving environmental practices

Reducing heat exposure in harvesting, pressing, storage and transport of grapes and wine

Expand/reduce vineyard ownership

Licenses, awards, accreditations, greenhouse programs

Developing strategies to educate the consumer about environmental and climate aspects

Revegetation, increased mulching etc.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

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Although climate change was an accepted reality in the majority of winery interviewees, it was not by itself a key driver for change. Instead, it was interrelated with many other drivers. About half of the participants felt incremental changes to existing systems would not be sufficient to adapt the wine industry to future climate change and therefore, that transformation of some sort would be required. Our project found a number of key characteristics involved in transformation.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS THAT SUPPORT TRANSFORMATION • Higher levels of agency were involved in transformational change (agency includes higher levels of belief in ability to change, optimism, feeling able to act). • A higher level of risk taking and more positive attitude to risk in transformation (risk is seen as normal, desirable and exciting). • Networks of information and social networks are important.

• Personal life stage affects ability to transform. • Access to flexible capital and a personal motivation to change (as well as an immediate one) help drive transformation.

June 2014 – Issue 605

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• Leadership is necessary to help drive change.

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grapegrowing • Champions and innovators spread information and motivation to change. • Timing of decisions is important for successful change and transformational changes need to be strategically planned within the broader social context of economic, social and political considerations involved in incremental changes.

Climate change will continue to impact the wine industry into the future and preparations made now will help the industry to adapt successfully.

• Strong attachment to occupation. • Supply chain position and the interaction of people along the chain. We found when multiple drivers of change (e.g. economic, social or other environmental needs) could be addressed in unison, transformations were more likely to be successful. Developing new ma rkets for present or novel grape varieties is one such example of an action which incorporated climate change with other economic goals. To improve general environmental sustainability, an action involved changing packaging and transport options to reduce weights and distances products were shipped. Actions including social goals were to adapt the style of wine through blending to maintain the familiarity, f lavour and alcohol profile of the product for the customer. We identified a number of specific factors related to growers’ ability to transform, such as feeling able to change, social networks and attitudes to change. Occupational attachment (how attached someone is to their work) and place attachment (how attached someone is to their region) were found to be related to capacity to transform. Strong attachment to place might hinder t ra nsformations such as relocation, but support transformations such as changing enterprise. Strong attachment to occupation, on the other hand, was more likely to result in the opposite response, a preference for relocation, rather than changing industry. We fou nd t hat perspect ives about climate change were different depending on individual positions in

the supply chain, business objectives and lifestyle considerations. In comparing across companies and case studies, we found that the context of decisions and risks are also important, but differ from company to company. Ot her key concerns included economic considerations such as the oversupply of grapes, international exchange rates (i.e. the strong Australian dollar), job opportunities and security, and international competition. The availability of water for crop irrigation, government regulations, consumer demand and extreme weather event were also cited. There were some notable differences between the concerns of the winery staff and the grapegrowers. In the interviews, winery staff nominated issues relating to marketing and consumer power as being key challenges for the industry more often than members of the grower group.

HIGH CAPACITY WITHIN THE INDUSTRY TO CHANGE Winery representatives reported that the global financial crisis and potential increases in the level of taxation on wine were also a concern. There is a high capacity to change in the industry, with many growers confident they have options for change and good access to information. Similarly, at the winery level there is a high awareness of change options and capacity to change. While there was generally a positive sense of belonging to the wine industry, stress over financial resources put some strain on the level of trust between growers and wineries. When financial prospects improved, general positivity and trust also

improved. The wine industry is seemingly well placed to respond to future climate change compared to other industries, because of their capacity to change and their interest in improving current practices and increasing options. To improve the industry’s ability to transform as required, efforts towards stabilising the indust ry’s supply and demand, improving marketing and communication feedback loops and creating greater transparency in grower and winery relationships may be important. Preparations made now will help the industry to adapt successfully to climate change into the future. Adaptation options va ry f rom company to company and across individual growers, They can be incremental or t ra nsfor mat ional depending on specific circumstances. Our research shows a set of characteristics that help to support major transformational changes and if required, attention to enhancing these may help the industry in the future. Building information networks, supporting climate champions to spread their messages of innovation, examining diffusion of change along supply chain networks and building partnerships along supply chains, as well as developing longer term strategies with the possibility for transformation are all potential ways that the industry can proactively take steps now to open up the potential for successful transformation in the future. Contact: Aysha Fleming P: 61 3 6232 5252 E: Aysha.Fleming@csiro.au.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Linking grape measurement to wine sensory outcomes A program between CSIRO and the University of Adelaide is working towards objective measures of quality in grapes and the research team of Paul Boss, Emily Nicholson, Sue Maffei, Simon Robinson, Susan Bastian, Jun Niimi and David Jeffery are well into testing and validating the effectiveness of these potential markers of sensory outcomes across a broader range of commercial Cabernet Sauvignon grape samples.

At a glance: •

• VOLATILE a nd semi-volatile compounds in wine are predominantly responsible for the flavour and aroma sensed by consumers. While these compounds have multiple origins during winemaking, the major raw material in this process is the grapes. There is also a growing body of evidence that grape composition has a significant impact on wine sensory attributes. The most distinctive example of this is demonstrated by the ability of different grape varieties to produce wines with different sensory characteristics. This is due to genetic differences that determine the biochemical composition of fruit at harvest. However, there are also effects of vintage, region, vineyard variation and vineyard management that influence

June 2014 – Issue 605

wine flavour and aroma (e.g. Bramley et al. 2011, Forde et al. 2011, Robinson et al. 2011, Robinson et al. 2012). The profound influence that grape composition has on wine style not only necessitates effective grading and streaming of fruit, but also provides the potential to manage wine flavour and aroma more effectively in the vineyard. Objective measures of fruit flavour potential and a means of predicting wine sensory attributes from grape composition will improve our ability to efficiently grow grapes to suit desired wine styles. This will allow for refined decisions about harvest timing as well as batching and streaming of fruit to consistently produce desired wine styles. More importantly, it will provide tools to optimise grape flavour potential and assess quality in the vineyard and

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•

There is a growing body of evidence that grape composition has a significant impact on wine sensory attributes. Objective measures of fruit flavour potential and a means of predicting wine sensory attributes from grape composition will improve efficiently growing grapes to suit desired wine styles. More importantly, it will provide tools to optimise grape flavour potential and assess quality in the vineyard, delivering grapes with a desired chemical profile to make wines of a specified flavour profile.

deliver the means of producing grapes with a desired chemical profile that can be used to make wines of a specified flavour profile. This article provides an update on a

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grapegrowing new collaborative project between CSIRO and the University of Adelaide that aims to identify important links between berry measures and wine sensory outcomes.

RESEARCH AIMS Previous research has identified a number of grape and wine components that are potential markers for quality and wine sensory attributes of red wines (Forde et al. 2011). We have also shown that grape composition can greatly influence the levels of fermentation-derived volatiles in wine (Dennis et al. 2012, Keyzers and Boss 2010). This project will advance the previous work by testing and validating the effectiveness of these potential markers of sensory outcomes across a broader range of commercial Cabernet Sauvignon grape samples. We also aim to further investigate a number of other candidate grape compounds, genes and physical characteristics to determine whether measurements of these grape parameters can be applied as a robust objective measure of grape flavour potential in red varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon. Extending on this, we will determine if these indicator compounds can be adapted for use in a white variety, namely Chardonnay. Finally, we wish to develop tools to evaluate the flux of grape metabolites through pathways in the fruit that lead to the production of important wine flavour and aroma compounds and to understand the timing of their production in fruit development. The rapid development of new technologies to measure gene expression and proteins, and the decreasing cost of

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these analyses, provides the potential for novel approaches to measure grape and wine quality once the key pathways in grapes have been identified. While the project is designed to run for three years across a number of sites to encompass a broad range of styles and perceived qualities, it is possible to have a preliminary look at the data gathered from the first vintage.

THE FIRST VINTAGE RESULTS – 2013 Overall we collected nine Cabernet Sauvignon samples from the Riverland, four from Coonawarra and two each from McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek, Wrattonbully, Eden Valley, Barossa Valley and Clare Valley for a total of 25 parcels. The target range for total soluble solids of the grape parcels was 23°-25°Brix and most fell within this range, although this was determined in each case by commercial harvest considerations. Each vineyard was randomly sampled to obtain a 50kg parcel for small scale winemaking undertaken by WIC Winemaking Services on the Waite Campus in Adelaide. A controlled methodology was used to reduce the variables in the study to those concerning grape composition and not winemaking practices. Each wine was allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation to assist the sensory studies. Much of the data from the first vintage of the project has been collected. Measures included targeted and non-targeted grape volatile profiles as well as the anthocyanin, flavonol and amino acid composition of the fruit. The small lot wines have been assessed for their volatile composition and sensory characteristics. Figure 1 shows a summary of the wine sensory findings in the form of a PCA biplot. The first observation that is most apparent is the samples tend to be grouped based on the region of origin. This is another demonstration of the importance of regionality in determining Cabernet Sauvignon wine sensory properties. Differences in samples by separation on the horizontal axis explain just over half of the variation seen amongst the sensory attributes of the wine. This separation is driven mainly by the mouthfeel attributes tannin quantity, tannin quality and wine body, the aroma and palate attributes dark fruit and dried fruit, and phenolic aftertaste. Samples on the right hand side of the plot (i.e. from Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra and Wrattonbully) tended to be more associated with these attributes.

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Figure 1 - PCA biplot of 25 different Cabernet Sauvignon wine samples from eight sites (coloured) across South Australia and the associated sensory attributes. The table lists the attributes corresponding to the abbreviations and the colours that represent the wine growing regions in the biplot.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

There is some separation of samples from the same region on this axis (e.g. Barossa Valley and Riverland), but in general the samples from the same region are not discriminated. This is also true for the second principal component which explains approximately 14 per cent of the variation and is represented by the vertical axis. This principal component allows some discrimination amongst Riverland samples and one of the Coonawarra samples from the others taken from that region, but in general those from the same region are close together on the plot. The major sensory characters driving the separation on the vertical axis are alcohol intensity, bitterness and acid taste, and pepper palate at the top of the plot and dark fruit aroma and palate towards the bottom of the plot. In summary, a full descriptive analysis of the wines has shown that the panel was able to discriminate the 2013 samples based mainly on region of origin and there are several sensory measures that allow us to discriminate the wines. We have also measured a host of grape parameters we plan to test as predictors of sensory outcomes. The easiest way to visualise the ability of these measures to discriminate the different grape parcels is to again plot them using a principal components analysis approach (Figure 2). Once more, many of the wines are located in a similar area of the plot, especially on the horizontal axis, although this isn’t as clear as that seen in the sensory analysis. The separation on the horizontal axis is driven by differences in the concentration of a number of volatile aldehydes in the grapes (right hand side) and benzyl alcohol (left hand side). This separation also seems to be influenced by °Brix, berry weight and bunch weight. The second principle component begins to discriminate some of the samples obtained from the same region as they begin to be separated by the factors that influence this component. These are namely the amount of ethyl acetate and hexanoic acid in the fruit (top of the plot) and the concentration of (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol produced in the grapes. While it is encouraging to see some of our targeted measures enable us to distinguish the parcels of fruit, the next step is to test to see if they can in turn predict differences in the sensory properties of the corresponding wines.

Figure 2 - PCA biplot of 25 different Cabernet Sauvignon wine samples from eight sites (coloured) across South Australia and examples of some of the associated grape parameters measured in the fruit. The colour codes and region abbreviations are the same as for Figure 1.

FUTURE WORK A second vintage involving another 25 Cabernet Sauvignon samples from throughout SA has just been completed. Berry sensory analysis has been conducted on fresh fruit which will compliment other fruit measures that will be undertaken in the next few months. This will further increase our sample size to allow relationships between fruit measures and wine sensory outcomes to become more apparent. The next stage of the project will involve using multivariate statistics to look for relationships amongst the data sets. Interestingly, simple fruit parameters demonstrate the large effect of vintage on grapes and suggest that we will have a range of fruit compositions and wine styles in our dataset. For example, a comparison of the average bunch size at harvest amongst the vineyards sampled in both years shows that there were major differences seen between the years with bunch sizes being much smaller in 2014 than in 2013 (Figure 3A). This is not entirely driven by changes in berry size (Figure 3B), which was only markedly different in approximately half of the sites sampled in both years. A third vintage will increase our total sample size to 75 which will give us increased statistical power to test all the datasets for grape berry predictors of wine sensory attributes . June 2014 – Issue 605

Figure 3 - Average bunch weight (A) and berry weight (B) of a selection of bunches and fruit randomly sampled from each site in 2013 and 2014. Error bar is ± standard error. The region abbreviations are the same as for Figure 1.

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grapegrowing CONCLUSION In recent years there has been an increase in our knowledge of grape components that contribute to wine flavour and aroma, especially those associated with varietal characters (Robinson et al. 2014). The challenge is to fill the gap in our understanding about how compounds in the grape berries contribute to the nonvarietal flavour and aroma characteristics of the wine. This has meant there are no objective measurements of grape quality, as it relates to flavour and aroma, that growers and wineries can easily use to assess their product. This also means there are no measures which can be used to develop strategies to manage flavour and aroma in the grapes. The recognition that ester production can be linked to grape composition and not simply yeast metabolism (Dennis et al. 2012, Keyzers and Boss 2010) is an important step in developing means to measure and manipulate non-varietal characters in the vineyard. The flavour and aroma of wines depends on the composition of the grapes used to produce the wine. Understanding these links will allow the development of objective measures of fruit quality by being able to predict wine sensory outcomes from grape composition. The first vintage of this study has shown the major driver of differences in the sensory attributes is the region of origin. Measures of grape volatile components also allow us to discriminate samples based not only on region but also chemical composition. Linking the wine sensory data to the grape measures offers great potential for us to develop models to allow the prediction of wine sensory

properties from grape composition. Such measures will aid in the streaming of fruit and harvest scheduling to allow the consistent production of wine styles suited to consumer groups. Into the future, the ability to measure flavour potential in grapes will allow the development of strategies to optimise this quality attribute in the vineyard and ultimately lead to the production of grapes with a specific wine style in mind.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Andrew Weekes and Nicole Pitman of CCW, Dan Newson, Brooke Howell and Louisa Rose of Yalumba and Paul Petrie, Angus Davidson, Amy Richards and Catherine Cox-Kidman of Treasury Wine Estates for organising access to vineyards and grape samples. This research was supported financially by CSIRO, the University of Adelaide and the grape growers and winemakers of Australia through their investment body, the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, with matching funding from the Australian Government. CSIRO and the University of Adelaide are members of the Wine Innovation Cluster (www. wineinnovationcluster.com) Adelaide, SA.

References:

Bramley RGV, Ouzman J, Boss PK (2011) Variation in vine vigour, grape yield and vineyard soils and topography as an indicator of variation in the chemical composition of grapes, wine and wine sensory attributes. Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research 17: 217-229. Dennis EG, Keyzers RA, Kalua CM, Maffei SM, Nicholson, EL, Boss PK (2012) Grape contribution to wine aroma. Production of hexyl acetate, octyl acetate and benzyl acetate during yeast fermentation is dependent upon precursors in the must. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 60: 2638-2646. Forde C, Cox A, Williams E, Boss PK (2011) Associations between the sensory attributes and volatile profiles of

Cabernet Sauvignon wine and the volatile composition of the grapes used for their production. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 59: 2573–2583. Keyzers RA, Boss PK (2010) Changes in volatile production in fermentations made from musts with increasing grape content. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 58: 1153-1164. Robinson AL, Adams DO, Boss PK, Heymann, H, Solomon PS, Trengove RD (2012) The influence of geographic origin on the sensory characteristics and wine composition of Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Australia. American Journal of Enology and Viticulture 63: 467-476. Robinson AL, Boss PK, Heymann, H, Solomon PS, Trengove RD (2011) Influence of yeast strain, canopy management, and site on the volatile composition and sensory attributes of Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Western Australia. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 59: 3273–3284. Robinson AL, Boss PK, Solomon PS, Trengove Heymann H, Ebeler SE (2014) Origins of grape wine aroma: Part 1. Chemical components viticultural impacts. American Journal of Enology Viticulture 65: 1-24.

RD, and and and

About the authors: Paul Boss, Emily Nicholson, Sue Maffei and Simon Robinson (CSIRO Plant Industry¹), Susan Bastian, Jun Niimi and David Jeffery (The University of Adelaide²) ¹ CSIRO Plant Industry, PO Box 350, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia ² School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Campus, The University of Adelaide, PMB 1, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia Contact: Paul Boss CSIRO Plant Industry P: 61 6 8303 8614 E: paul.boss@csiro.au University of Adelaide Susan Bastian P: 61 8 8313 6647 E: susan.bastian@adelaide.edu.au David Jeffery P: 61 8 8313 6649 E: david.jeffery@adelaide.edu.au

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June 2014 – Issue 605

The right choice the first time is a vital first step for your big-ticket equipment There are horses for courses so viticulturist Ben Rose says to make sure you pick a winner for your vineyard you need to really understand why, and even if, you need some of those big ticket items right now

At a glance: •

• WINTER is a great time to take stock of your vineyard equipment and determine what’s been working, what may not have been used Vineyard for some time and to determine if there is a Equipment better way to do things. As with all operations in the vineyard, economics should be the first factor in deciding what been working. The economics of an operation is not just the monetary cost, but the time cost and the frustration factor along the way. For example, spending valuable time and money repairing, say, an old slasher, where the deck has worn thin, may only provide a short-term stopgap to the problem. In this case there is little point in replacing worn bearings, seals and gearboxes, if in a couple of years the whole slasher may need to be replaced. Firstly look at the major jobs you undertake in the vineyard and the equipment you use to do it. Spraying, slashing and weed control are the main tasks in most vineyards. Each of these has a specific piece of equipment required and generally requires a decent tractor on which to attach the implement. Other tasks during the year may include pre-pruning, mulching and sweeping, trimming and mechanical harvesting. Depending on your management practices and your business requirements each task will dictate if you need to own your own machinery or if contracting may be a better option (if that is an available option). More and more vineyards are doing away with owning their own machinery, particularly the big ticket times, and moving to a contractor base model. Even where a business owns its own machinery, more machinery operators are being employed under contract, as skilled operators are very hard to find. A tractor is generally required and most people consider having a sprayer a necessity as often when your vineyard needs to be sprayed, so does everyone else’s – it is a time-critical task that can lead to severe financial impact if not undertaken as required, when required. A reliable contractor however, should have done the numbers and generally will not take on more clients than their machinery can spray during peak demand. With their reputation on the line, these contractors will often run their machinery 24 hours per day if prevailing weather conditions require it. Having a tractor and sprayer, with the value of the tractor generally being similar to the sprayer, will then suggest having a slasher is a marginal on-cost, providing someone is there to use it. A similar case can be mounted for weed control, generally under vine spraying. Consider the time/cost of slashing the vineyard, and then the time/cost of spraying weeds – these two tasks can be combined June 2014 – Issue 605

•

The economics of an operation is not just the monetary cost, but the time cost and the frustration factor along the way. Don’t spend valuable time and money purchasing and/ or repairing old equipment as it may only provide a shortterm stopgap to the problem. Depending on your management practices and your business requirements each task will dictate if you need to own your own machinery or if contracting may be a better option.

by mounting a spray tank and spray nozzles on the slasher, and a very large time/cost can be saved. Most managers realise owning their own pre-pruner does not make economic sense – so why not? Pre-pruning is not a timecritical task in the vineyard, and the charge by contractors does not warrant the costs of ownership. A similar argument can be made for mulching and sweeping if required, however many business are turning away from owning both a slasher and a mulcher and opting for one or

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grapegrowing the other; even though they both have specific tasks they can do the other task to an adequate standard depending on the requirements. Trimming should be considered on a case-by-case basis, but I consider this to be a time critical task, similar to spraying. Based on the number of trimmings required during a season and whether a contractor can undertake the task when you require it, will determine if you need your own trimmer. If you do, look for one that will operate from your tractor’s hydraulics (providing the hydraulic flow from your tractor is sufficient to drive it), rather than operate under a hydraulic “power pack” that runs from the PTO of the tractor. This will allow you to trim mid-season and slash at the same time, again optimising the efficiency of the operation. It is also possible, if required to trim, slash and spray the weeds under vine if you’re set up is done well. I remember seeing an owner operator in the mid 1990s utilising front and rear three-point linkage and PTOs undertaking trimming and slashing on the front three point linkage and foliar spraying on the rear, I do not remember if he was weed spraying too, but that would be the multi-tasking ultimate in operations and concentration. Mechanical harvesting is also a point worth pondering. There are many older mechanical harvesters available for a reasonable price but the purchase price is only part of the story. The on-cost of ownership is very high and the holding cost of spare parts to get you going quickly is also very high. Most contracts hold the main parts in stock and employ or have access to skilled mechanics so if they experience a breakdown they will often be going again within an hour or two, which means the grapes may still make the

winery time slot. Maintenance and breakdowns aside, there is also the operation of harvesters to consider – do you and/or your staff have the skills or desire to operate a harvester or will they do more damage to the vineyard than the operational cost of the picking? I have often seen managers expected to operate a mechanical harvester at nights and then undertake operational tasks such as irrigation during the day – this obviously increases operator fatigue and can result in accidents leading to damage to the vineyard, the harvester and in the worst cases in injuries to staff. Owners often put in the extra hours, sometimes to their detriment, but they must be mindful of the time and fatigue

management of managers and staff. In considering machinery for the vineyard, there is no prescriptive formula, it is a matter of working out what works for you in your situation, but as many pieces of machinery were purchased during the viticultural “boom” and are now aging and the cost of replacement prolongs the inevitable, it is worth the time to investigate every option and make an informed decision for the future profitability of your operation. Contact: Ben Rose P: 61 (0)418 836 773 E: ben@performanceviticulture.com.au

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grapegrowing

Pastro machinery is right on target PASTRO Custom Ag (PCA) specialises in vineyard and orchard sprayers, fertiliser spreaders, trimmers and de-suckering units. John Pastro says his company’s machines are “built strong to last”, with great attention to detail, high-quality workmanship and materials. “We custom design, manufacture and modify agricultural machinery and equipment to suit customer’s individual needs and pride ourselves on high quality products, services and expert advice,” Pastro says. “PCA is heading to the Riverland field days in September and taking some of our cutting-edge units with us for customers to see firsthand,” he says. “Such as the Panther canopy manager/ fungicide sprayer with its hydraulically driven axial fans, which is a refined technology for vineyard fungicide spraying. “Suitable for larger canopies and using a combination of turbulent air and high pressure water output its robust chassis and boom design gives you maximum performance and minimal downtime. “This machine comes standard with an on-board hydraulic power pack with various tank sizes and boom configurations to suit specific needs. You can also choose from a single or double axel unit giving increased stability.” Pastro says PCA has also revisited the older technology of high pressure water rate spraying. And as a result is offering a canopy manager/fungicide sprayer with

Cop that sucker: The Panther vineyard de-suckering unit provides high cost savings per vine, with one client reporting a 70 per cent cut in costs.

hydraulic nozzles which has proven over the years to be a standout machine in a situation of high disease pressure in areas such as the Riverina. “The Panther undervine weedicide sprayer with its new terracing boom is suitable for all size vineyards,” Pastro adds. “The ‘Rolls-Royce’ of the undervine sprayers it can be customised to suit any customer requirement,” he says. “Made to last by using only the highest quality components and hardware its strength, durability and overall features really set it apart.” The PCA 6-cubic-metre vineyard fertiliser spreader has been specifically designed to spread all types of fertiliser and manure below the skirting height of orchard trees and grapevines, resulting in reduced fruit damage. This unit is strong, reliable, and durable and includes standard features such as

4-10 cubic metre capacity, hydraulic drive, hydraulic open/close door, conveyor belt on heavy duty bed rollers, single or dualaxle configuration with floatation tyres standard, on/off in-cab controls and a heavy duty frame. “Our Panther vineyard de-suckering sprayer will be fitted with the new Rowtrack system that has been developed in conjunction with this sprayer,” Pastro says. “It will be launched at the Riverland Field Days this year and we believe it allows this unit to be the most advanced and efficient de-suckering sprayer on the market,” he says. “This sprayer is suitable for all size vineyards. It easily reaches 8km/h for de-suckering.” PCA specially designed the spray shields for minimal to zero drift management, using high quality suppressant. The unit is available with a range of options including front or rear mount varying boom sizes, hydraulic width adjustment to suit various row widths 2.4-3.6m, varying boom height or terrace kits and shield that can be cut to size (500mm-2.4m available). The Panther vineyard de-suckering unit provides high cost savings per vine. “One vineyard manager told us he has estimated the PCA De-sucking unit reduced his costs by as much as 70 per cent,” Pastro added. Contact: John Pastro P: 61 2 6964 3888 E: sales@pastro.com.au

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June 2014 – Issue 605

fendt.com.au Fendt 200 Series 70 – 110 hp

Efficiency starts here … … and finishes with big savings. The investment that pays off! Not only is the Fendt 200 Series the first tractor in its class to feature a Vario continuously variable transmission (CVT), it also has the unique design of a flat cab floor for unsurpassed operator comfort. All this adds up to one efficient tractor that will save you money in downtime and fuel costs. Features: • Vario continuously variable transmission • Flat cab floor for extra leg room and comfort • Load-sensing hydraulics • AGCO POWER 3 cylinder common-rail, water-cooled engines • Five models to choose from: 70 hp–110 hp • Choice between standard, narrow, wide and low varieties Once again, Fendt is leading the way with the outstanding Vario 200 series.

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grapegrowing

Boxing smart with new ERO VSL HD barrel pruner BARREL pruning or winter pruning is a task that must be completed on every vineyard every year. But it is also a task that can be time consuming and frustrating. Many traditional machines are slow, difficult to operate, expensive to maintain, require multiple passes and produce results which are less than acceptable. FMR Group, together with ERO GmbH of Germany, hopes it has solved those issues with the latest VSL HD Barrel Pruner. FMR managing director Chris Clifford says the VSL HD is designed specifically for Australian vineyards, having been tested and developed here over the past three years. The end results, he says, is “a machine robust enough to handle large vineyards, rough terrain and an intensive work rate”. “The VSL HD is capable of spur pruning or complete box pruning – and in a single pass,” Clifford says. “High speed box cutting saws operate in conjunction with the horizontal barrels to produce a ‘box cut’ in single pass while processing canes simultaneously,” he says. “The modular barrels units can be set up to suit the canopy size or style and are simple to modify. Its high-speed saws are mounted on their own independent suspension system which allows them to closely follow the cordon and provide a clean box cut result. “While the breakaway system is standard to protect the machine from any damage in the event of an impact.” The pruning head pivots on its own bi-directional suspension system with gas shock absorbers to allow the machine to accurately follow canopy contour without damage. Clifford says operator comfort is a standard feature with the ERO electronic joystick controller which allows fast, simple and intuitive control of all machine functions. Which he says includes hydraulic height and width adjustment as well as mast angle to ensure fast and accurate positioning of the barrel pruner.

58 Grapegrower & Winemaker

One out of the barrel: The ERO VSL HD barrel pruner showing the technology behind its ability to handle “large vineyards, rough terrain and an intensive work rate”

“The VSL HD will operate on most standard vineyard tractors without requiring a dedicated hydraulic power pack,” Clifford adds. “Being completely hydraulically driven, the VSL HD provides reliability and very low downtime for maintenance,” he says. “Mounted on the new XHD mast system, the VSL HD is the perfect example of premium quality German engineering together with the innovative approach needed to customise the machine to the needs of the Australian grapegrower. “With these features along with the established reputation of excellence the ERO brand has throughout Australasia and we anticipate the VSL HD will be in www.winebiz.com.au

demand in Australian vineyards.” The VSL HD joins the VSL Barrel pruner which utilises the same modular construction and can be specified in multiple configurations to suit every winter pruning task from simple ‘topping’ for cane pruning to full spur pruning. Pricing begins at approximately $A30,000. FMR Group, based in Mount Barker on the eastern outskirts of Adelaide, has the VSL HD, along with the standard VSL Barrel pruner available for immediate delivery. Contact: FMR Group P: 1800 269 773 E: info@fmrgroup.net.au June 2014 – Issue 605

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grapegrowing

Mini ute provides versatility for vineyards Beaut new ute: The Polaris UTE 570 HD has been built from the ground up for the Australian and New Zealand agriculture industries – making it a first in the local market. POLARIS has made Down Under history by releasing the first ATV designed from the ground up specifically for the Australian and New Zealand markets. And fittingly, this new model will carry the iconic moniker of UTE. Fitting says Polaris Australasian managing director, Peter Alexander because it was in Victoria back in the early 1930s the concept of the Aussie “ute” as we know it today was born. But he says now it’s time for the next generation of UTE. “The Polaris UTE 570 HD – a model which combines the chassis of the Sportsman range with a utility-styled tipping rear dump box – was designed as a direct result of our increased focus on the Asia Pacific region,” Alexander says. “And a desire to provide customercentric riding and work solutions to

unique markets such as Australia and New Zealand,” he says. “During late 2012 senior Polaris management and engineers visited Australia and New Zealand, spending countless hours with dealers and end users researching the usage of ATVs in local conditions – from vineyards and orchards to broadacre farms. “With the express intention of developing products and product improvements specifically for our market and the Polaris UTE is the first complete product we have seen developed as a result of this visit.” Alexander says Polaris will consider releasing this new model in other global markets over time based on demand and usage, but now the model is currently only available in Australia and New Zealand.

He says the design and features of Polaris UTE have been “cultivated specifically to withstand the challenging conditions and climate in Australia and New Zealand, and offer customers greater utility and work capacity in a market so agriculturally dominated”. “We believe this is an enormous leap forward for ATV development,” Alexander says. “This is a product that not only offers utility and versatility, but also heavy duty features designed specifically to withstand the rigors of our market. “Polaris UTE offers the utility and capabilities of the traditional farm ute, combined with the nimbleness and agility of an ATV. Powered by the same 567cc, fuel injected engine as the recently released Sportsman 570, Polaris UTE lives up to its name boasting a rear tipping box with 180kg capacity, including tilt tray functionality for the ultimate convenience when dumping heavy loads. Contact: www.polarisindustries.com.au or www.polaris.co.nz.

Here’s a new look from New Holland DON’T be misled by its compact size says New Holland – the new T4 PowerStar range offers versatility, power, and efficiency and effectiveness. With its well thought out design encouraging operators to be more productive while being comfortable on the job. The completely new T4 PowerStar range of highly versatile, fuelefficient tractors has been designed with farming comfort in mind – offering excellent visibility, manoeuvrability and the acclaimed ergonomic design which is a signature New Holland feature. A New Holland spokesman says the entirely new ca b design optimises job efficiency and accuracy through industry-leading levels of visibility. W “With the instrument cluster, moving in conjunction with the fully tiltable steering column, and wide-opening glass doors, operators will benefit from unobstructed views of their work area and can move in and out of the cab with ease,” the spokesman said. “The roof hatch, engineered to give a perfect view of loaders at full extension, can also be opened fully or partially to suit the operator’s needs,” he said. “The deluxe air suspension seat, fitted as standard equipment, further enhances operator comfort with 15-degrees of swivel, reducing neck and back strain when using rear-mounted equipment. “This, combined with our signature sloping nose, guarantees unobstructed 360-degree visibility.” The T4 PowerStar’s 12x12 transmission comes standard with a

60 Grapegrower & Winemaker

hydraulic power shuttle allowing operators to shift from forward to reverse without clutching, or the need for electro-hydraulics. The spokesman said the shuttle lever is conveniently positioned on the steering column for quick, fingertip manoeuvring. “You can operate the power shuttle while holding the steering wheel, making it perfect for performing precision loader work,” he said. “Equipped with a hydraulic shuttle transmission, T4 Powerstar tractors give you higher performance at an affordable price. “Tackle specialised applications by adding the 20 x 12 creeper option for speeds as slow as 109 metres per hour.” Contact: Andrew Barrie Product manager under 100hp P: 61 2 9673 7777 E: andrew.barrie@newholland.com

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June 2014 – Issue 605

perfection in the vineyard FMR R-SeRieS Recycling SpRayeR • Proven savings and performance with over 120 sprayers working throughout Australasia • Patented Spray Recycling System to reduce spray chemical usage up to 40% per annum through the drift recovery and recycling process • Tangential fans provide excellent coverage in a wide variety of canopies • Heavy duty chassis & boom frame with a proven record in reliability and durability • BRAVO 300S auto rate controller which constantly monitors ground speed, system pressure and liquid flow to deliver pre-set application rate and record job data and recycling rate achieved

FMR V-SeRieS VineyaRd SpRayeR • Tangential fans with 10 roll-over nozzle-bodies provide an even ‘curtain’ of air from top to bottom of delivery zone for penetration and even deposition throughout canopy • Hydraulic drive system allows the sprayer to be operated entirely from tractor hydraulics rather than a PTO shaft • Galvanised boom with hydraulic folding arms • Heavy duty chassis & boom frame with a proven record in reliability and durability • BRAVO 180S auto rate controller which constantly monitors ground speed, system pressure and liquid flow to deliver pre-set application rate

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grapegrowing

Soil health workshops for WA growers A major soil health trial based in WA is now in its final year and its outcome could provide valuable information for vineyard owners and managers about improving their production through the introduction of mulch and/or compost. WA’s large compost and mulch trial has entered its second and final year, with critical regionally-focused water and nutrient efficiency results expected. Funded as part of the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC) regional program, the trial includes two demonstration sites, in the Swan Valley and Margaret River, where three rows of mulch, three rows of compost and control rows have been established. Regional program coordinator and Perth region NRM sustainable agriculture manager Keith Pekin said the products used are commercially available, meet AS 4454 and have been applied at the recommended rates (banded to around 60cm, at a depth of around 6cm). “We have utilised MEA, telemetry based monitoring equipment, which measures the soil moisture at different points along the trial rows, at depths of 15cm and 25cm, while also recording soil temperature and rainfall,” Pekin said. “At this point in time vine and crop yield data has not been fully analysed though it is safe to say that for the first season, both the mulch and compost had clear potential to reduce applied water use by around 20 per cent and moderate soil temperature,” he said. “For the second season, the mulch was still quite visible and offered the same potential to reduce applied water.” As part of the program for season one, two workshops were held last May with around 80 regional growers attending. Pekin said Tony Proffitt, from AHA Viticulture, delivered a great presentation on the utilisation of composts and mulches in relation to soil (see Grapegrower & Winemaker Issue 604, Page 40). This was followed by an informative presentation on nitrogen management and nitrous oxide emissions in the vineyard by Dr Mardi Longbottom from the Australian Wine and Research Institute (AWRI) and a site visit to local compost and mulch suppliers to round off the event. An information sheet was developed for the workshops and can be downloaded from the Wines of Western Australia website.

Big job: Tony Proffitt told a WA soil health workshop that specialised equipment is typically used when producing large amounts of compost.

This info sheet was developed to complement the Managing grapevine nutrition and soil health publication which was also funded through the regional program. More workshops were delivered at Margaret River on May 13 and in the Swan Valley on May 15. “This year, we had Jim Campbell-Clause delivering a presentation on the composts/mulches project outcomes and Dr Lyn Abbott, soil health professor at the University Western Australia, delivering a presentation on soil microbes,” he said. “Lyn’s presentation will provide the opportunity for local producers to bring in soil samples for Lyn to magnify and display on the screen while discussing the health and functions of the microbes in the samples provided. “These workshops will include a presentation aimed at providing producers with a better understanding of assessing soil quality and interpreting soil test results and will have an information sheet for release at this workshop that has been developed by Tony Proffitt.” In addition to these presentations, Mardi Longbottom and Nigel Todd (Perth Region NRM) will be delivering a short presentation on the vineyard nitrogen management and nitrous oxide emissions project outcomes. Also, as part of the previous Regional Program, there were two winery focussed workshops, delivered by AWRI’s Karl Forsyth and Simon Nordestgaard. These workshops provided producers with information that would enable them to improve their winery wastewater management and winery energy use. Contact: GWRDC. P: 61 8 8273 0500 E: gwrdc@gwrdc.com.au

Soil & Water ManageMent WJB Consulting Soil and Water reSourCe ManageMent 62 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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Contact: Wendy Meech M: 0428 877558 E: wjb.consulting@bigpond.com www.winebiz.com.au

June 2014 – Issue 605

winemaking

UC Davis experimental super winery has opened its doors for business UC Davis has built the winery of the future, and Lance Cutler writes in US Wine Business Monthly that under the guidance of Australian Roger Boulton is offering its state-of-the-art equipment, along with top flight researchers, to winemakers interested in exploring the intricacies of making wine. FOR more than three decades, Roger Boulton had a dream: a state-of-the-art research facility specifically designed to analyse any winemaking or viticultural variable. He dreamed of a facility that could carry out precise and accurate experiments by testing in small lots and in triplicate. He wanted a place so advanced it would attract the best and the brightest researchers and bring in the grant money necessary to fund the projects. He wanted a place that would serve as an exhibit hall for the wine industry with the most advanced instrumentation, a place that was so energy and water efficient it would only leave the smallestJune 2014 – Issue 605

possible carbon footprint and serve as a paradigm for the future. Of course, if you asked Boulton – the brilliant, enigmatic professor and chemical engineer, Stephen Sinclair Scott-endowed Chair in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California at Davis – he would likely say: “It wasn’t a dream really. It simply needed to be done”. His Australian accent and cadence would flavor his speech as he would tell you the wine industry should have funded the venture years ago, but it wouldn’t, in spite of repeated appeals; so Boulton and the team at UC Davis secured private funding and went ahead with the project. www.winebiz.com.au

BUILDING THE DREAM Beginning three years ago, Boulton’s dream became reality. There is still no formal name for the building that houses both the winery and the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory. It is known simply as the Teaching and Research Winery, but it is the first LEED Platinum winery in the world and the highest scoring LEED Platinum building at any major university. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and Platinum is its highest certification.) The building is energy and water positive, using rooftop photovoltaic panels and collected rainwater. Six collection tanks capture rain from the entire Robert Mondavi Institute complex to provide the annual water supply for the winery. The building houses advanced commercial systems for reverse osmosis filtration of rainwater and uses a Cogenra solar hot water system, along with a solar-powered icemaker for the cold Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking

Another system sequesters carbon dioxide produced during fermentation and converts it into calcium carbonate. Plans call for the eventual production of hydrogen on-site to operate a hydrogen fuel cell for nighttime energy needs. “The building is designed so that each of these systems can be removed and replaced with a newer model, making it an evolving test-bed and demonstration site,” Boulton explained. Driving force: THe men behind the creation of the most advanced winery in the US, Roger Boulton and TJ Rodgers.

water system. All hot and cold water for temperature control of fermentation and general winery operations is made and stored in the building. In the winery, cleaning protocols are based on potassium hydroxide and potassium bisulfate buffers, with added hydrogen peroxide. This eliminates any sodium, chlorine, ozone or organic compounds, enabling the recovery of all cleaning solutions by nano-filtration. Using these membranes allows for 90 per cent recovery of all water, no matter the usage. The winery uses less than one-fifth the normal water requirement for most wineries. The building itself is a passive structure capable of maintaining temperatures below 26.6C even during a heat event of five consecutive 38C days. The walls have R-values of 60 and the roof clocks in at an R-value of 75 (the R-value is the capacity of an insulating material to resist heat flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the insulating power). The slab floor can be cooled or heated by the winery’s process water system.

64 Grapegrower & Winemaker

FUNDING AND DESIGN The adjacent $3.5 million Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery building, made possible by a $3 million contribution from Jess Jackson and his wife Barbara Banke of Jackson Family Wines, is the newest piece of a visionary project that began in 2001 when Robert Mondavi gave the Viticulture and Enology Department what eventually turned into a $20 million gift. That gift was enhanced with $50 million in state bond and university money to design and construct the $70 million complex that became known as the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. In all, more than 150 individuals, alumni, corporate friends and foundations have contributed to the new facility. David Block, the current department chair, and Jim Wolpert (who was department chair at the time) worked with architects and served on the building committee to design a space that would fit the needs of the Viticulture and Enology Department. Design for the first three Mondavi Institute buildings took place from 2003 to 2005, and construction started in late 2005 with completion in September 2008. An additional $5 million from the www.winebiz.com.au

original Mondavi gift, along with another $11.5 million raised from private donors, was earmarked to construct another building that houses the Teaching and Research Winery and the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory. The goal was to design a winery that would be the most advanced in the world while keeping within a strict budget. Block drew plans that were close to the finished design. A large room for fermentation led to smaller rooms with constant temperature and humidity control, allowing for barrel and closure studies. The plans included high-density bottle storage for research wines, a room to hold clean-in-place equipment, a control room, classrooms, offices and a special collection room to hold commercial wines and impress visitors to the facility. Thanks to a gift from Jerry Lohr, the builders were able to make the fermentation room much larger than the original design. At the beginning of this design phase, Boulton started pushing the idea of making the building the most sustainable winery in the world. He worked hard to convince the other people from the university the extra expense of achieving LEED Platinum certification would be worth the money. Boulton was the leading force on the LEED Platinum design features and, along with Block, worked on the winery designs and engineering calculations. Brenneman worked with the architects and construction team on final design throughout the project. Construction for the Winery, Brewery and Food Science building started in fall of 2009, and by July 2010 the winery was up and running. According to Block the Jackson Sustainable Winery Building was Roger Boulton’s idea. He developed the idea and secured the funding with the university’s development team. Three teams again entered this competition, and the winning design went to Siegel & Strain Architects/Pankow Builders. Chik again took the lead in working with the design team on detailed plans and during construction with Roger, giving constant input and guidance for his vision.” Construction on the Jackson Building started in fall 2012 and was completed in March 2013. Brenneman became the manager of the teaching winery and noted there is a big difference between using the winery for teaching enology students how to make wine and using the winery as a research facility. “Teaching students has to be practical,” he explained. “Students need June 2014 – Issue 605

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winemaking

Fingertip control: With the wireless system, they are now able to control, study and accurately measure any variable that they want. Credit: Scott Summers

to learn how to hook up hoses, run pumps and operate equipment. They need to understand the nuts and bolts of the industry. “The research side is all about precision and understanding the variables. I need to understand what researchers are looking to discover and then help them use the equipment at hand to make those discoveries.”

THE WINERY OF THE FUTURE With Brenneman in charge of operations, Boulton led the way on getting equipment. He contacted TJ Rodgers at Cypress Semiconductor Corporation and, with input from Brenneman and Block, they teamed up to design and build the remarkable fermenters for the research winery. Rodgers’ involvement reads like a fairy tale. He had a passion for red Burgundy, but he knew nothing about winemaking. Undaunted, he decided to plant a Pinot Noir vineyard.

Out of the blue, he called Boulton to question him about a research paper he had written. Boulton was generous with his time and knowledge and eventually put Rodgers in contact with UC Davis graduates, who helped Rodgers learn how to make wine. Now, along with his wife Valeta Massey, he operates Clos de la Tech Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains where he specialises in Pinot Noir. “When I had the opportunity to help the school that helped me, I took it,” explained Rodgers. Rodgers repaid that opportunity to help to the tune of $2.5 million, creating the first wireless fermentation system. Another $1 million went into creating the 200-litre electro-polished, stainless steel fermenters that are individually equipped with automated, wireless temperature control. A built-in system handles pumpovers, and precise sensors monitor fermentation progress, reading Brix down to 0.25 degrees.

Individual control: The electro-polished, stainless steel fermenters are individually equipped with automated, wireless temperature control. Photo: Scott Summers

Data f rom each fermenter is transmitted wirelessly to a computer control room in 15-minute intervals and automatically graphed on the monitors. Boulton can even access the data from his smartphone. “This radically new fermentation system is unlike anything available at the moment to commercial or research wineries,” Boulton said. “TJ’s donation gives UC Davis a wine research ability capacity that has no equal. It equips us, for the first time, to perform reproducible fermentations with precise temperature control and uniform mixing, which is critically important for consistently producing reliable research conclusions for quality wines.” Rodgers has a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He is the founder, president and chief executive officer of San Jose, Californiabased Cypress Semiconductor. Not only did Rodgers invent, design and fabricate the new fermentation

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66 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Water harvesting: Six rainwater collection tanks capture rain at the Robert Mondavi Institute, providing the annual water supply for the winery. Photo: Scott Summers

system, he helped install it with a team of engineers from Cypress Semiconductor. Then they spent time teaching students and faculty how to use the system correctly. Rodgers and his team have also upgraded the system each of the three years it has been in use. The key to viable research lies in

controlling variables. If you can’t isolate and measure individual variables to study, then you can’t really be sure our particular variable is the one causing whatever you see happening. With 152 research fermenters, each fitted with the wireless system, the UC Davis winery can process up to 50 separate grape lots at a time, in

triplicate. They are now able to control, study and accurately measure any variable that they want. “These fermenters we now use for teaching and research will one day become an essential component at every commercial winery,” Boulton said. “They will play an essential role in helping us understand, in a way never before possible, how all viticulture, grape cultivars, climate, vineyard sites and practices are critically linked to research on wine flavor and chemistry.” These fermenters won’t be available in commercial sizes to wineries for some time. Until then, Boulton hopes to provide a contracted research winemaking service. He has the ambitious goal of acquiring enough research contracts to bring in $20 million of annual funding. Faculty and graduate students would work with growers and winemakers to design research projects that test any specific factor the client wants studied. The experiments are carried out in triplicate to ensure accurate results. Fermentation data is collected every 15 minutes, and participating companies can even access the information on their computers or smartphones.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking Fees would be determined by the complexity of the research provided.

SOPHISTICATED RESEARCH FOR ALL The research winery can work with individual winemakers on any subject, providing precise testing and analysis. Samples can be picked using specific parameters. Variables can be isolated for study. Experiments can be controlled with precision. Each of the research fermenters holds about one-third of a barrel of wine. Since experiments are run in triplicate, there will be one full barrel of each wine when the research is finished. Boulton is also working with the Alcoholic Beverage Control to make returning that barrel of wine to the participating winery a reality. The possibilities are staggering. This year they are charting the differences between machine-harvested fruit and hand-picked fruit, with an added test to see the difference between hand sorting and mechanical sorting. A not her ex per i ment t rac k s pump-overs and how they influence temperature in the fermenters. The goal is to learn how specific phenolics are extracted and whether the temperature in the juice or the cap is the critical factor. Not only is resea rch being conducted on phenolic extraction during fermentation, but they are also researching phenolic extraction during cold soak as well as during extended maceration. While every winemaker has an idea about what happens during a cold soak or an extended maceration, there really is no current study on how phenolic extraction occurs under these conditions. Boulton sees all of the information gleaned from future research projects as providing indispensable knowledge that affects the way everyone grows grapes and makes wine. The state-of-the-art technology is already up and running at UC Davis. The next problem is to interest enough

growers and winemakers to fund the research, which, in turn, would attract the best and brightest researchers. One of those star researchers was Fernando Buscema. Buscema worked as director of research and development for the famous Catena Zapata Winery in Argentina. That winery financed his year in graduate studies at UC Davis. Upon his return to Argentina, they appointed him winemaker for the prestigious Caro Winery, the joint venture between Lafite Rothschild and Catena Zapata. Buscema was one of the first researchers to use the new winery and fermentation system for a unique Malbec study. “It is the winery of the future,” he said. “You have to go there with an open mind. It challenges everything you know about making wine in a sustainable way.”

CONCLUSION Challenging everything you know is a powerful way to learn. In the end, UC Davis is an institution of higher learning. For decades it has attracted some of the most dedicated and knowledgeable people to its departments of Viticulture and Enology. From Albert Winkler to Andy Walker, from Maynard Amerine and Harold Olmo, to Vern Singleton and Ralph Kunkee, the two departments have a long history of exZcellence. There are plenty of bright, talented professors at UC Davis today, and Roger Boulton is certainly one of them. As Dave Ramey, winemaker at Ramey Wine Cellars, said: “Since I first arrived at Davis in 1976, Roger has been the Department’s dynamo. It’s no surprise to me that he spearheaded the university’s new winery and roped me into contributing, too.” In effect, UC Davis imagined the winery of the future, and it’s already up and running today. It presents different ways to think about how wine is made and then provides us with accurate ways to test those theories. It provides a model to show how wineries of the future will conserve water, control CO2 emissions, handle

heating and cooling in an efficient manner and reduce the use of harmful chemicals and waste. It is quite astonishing to realise this winery of the future, which over time may change most of the things we take for granted in the current wine industry, was created by a small group of visionary professors, faculty and students. Their vision was neither shared nor supported by the very industry it purports to help. Instead, the project was funded entirely through private donations, and most of those monies were donated during a time of economic meltdown for our country. It may be time for the wine industry to get on board, to thank the people at UC Davis whose imaginative, farsighted vision created something truly remarkable and to support them with the necessary money required to continue research. The hard work has been done. Now is the time for the industry to get involved with major funding. Those grapegrowers and winemakers who take advantage of the research facility by initiating research contracts stand to get a major head start on the rest of the wine industry. If knowledge is power, then power is simply acquired by affixing your name to a research contract and telling them what you want to learn.

About the author: Lance Cutler has been a working winemaker in California’s Sonoma County for 35 years. He has been a contributing editor for the US Wine Business Monthly, where this article first appeared, for more than 10 years. Cutler is also the author of four books, including The Tequila Lover’s Guide to Mexico.

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Wolf’s Blonde Shiraz is really a woman of the world Clare Dry – or ‘Blonde Shiraz’ to her work buddies – grew up on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, and with no background in wine. But when she tied the knot with her viticulturist husband she also found love in the wine industry. Stephanie Timotheou caught up with Blonde Shiraz as she spilled the wine on life as a young winemaker with huge potential. CLARE Dry might only be 29 but the winemaker whose first vintage was as a teenager now has 10 under her belt – here and abroad. Two on Mornington Peninsula, one in the Pfalz region of Germany and seven in the Barossa with her current employer Wolf Blass Wines. And as a woman who had no background in the wine industry, she’s proving to be quite a vintage performer herself. While her twin sister and two other siblings followed their mother into the legal profession, Dry opted for the great outdoors over computers and contracts. “Dad and I joke that we are the only ‘normal’ ones in the family,” she said. “I have married into the industry though. Both my husband and father-in-law are viticulturists.” Her first taste of the industry was at the age of 16 – an age when most teenage girls are more interested in boys, make-up and fashion. But the only thing on Dry’s mind was getting down and dirty in a winery.

THE WORKING WOMAN She was lucky enough to grow up in a wine producing region and stumbled into the industry through high school work experience. She was always interested in horticulture and science and jumped at the opportunity to work at local vineyard and winery Red Hill Estate as part of her school curriculum. “The enthusiasm that Tyson (viticulturist), Michael (winemaker) and the rest of the crew had for their jobs was infectious and I was hooked straight away,” she said. “They seemed to have a great lifestyle, lots of fun and they really enjoyed the work they were doing. “I am indebted to this great initial experience for the position I find myself in now.” After her first stint Dry looked for as much work in the industry as she could get to continue expanding her knowledge. Instead of going to the mall or hanging with friends during school holidays, Dry spent her ‘free’ days slaving in vineyards and wineries and eventually cellar doors when she was old enough. After high school she took a gap year and worked a vintage in Mornington Peninsula before really spreading her wings and heading to Germany. But the travel itch just wouldn’t go away. She then moved to SA the following year to begin her winemaking degree at the University of Adelaide. June 2014 – Issue 605

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Blonde Shiraz: Winemaker Clare Dry, 29, says her current goal is to be involved in making a wine that gets the entire industry talking and is remembered for decades.

MOST MEMORABLE VINTAGE While Dry has 10 (going on 11) vintages under her belt, she said 2011 was her most memorable – but not for the greatest reasons. “The high disease levels that characterised the 2011 South Australian vintage were not conducive to making top quality wine and it was really a year where winemakers had to pull every technique out of the bag to produce good and saleable wines for the vintage,” she said. “Because I work for Wolf Blass, I was lucky enough to collaborate with winemakers who had a lot more experience than me and I was able to learn from their expertise and knowledge. “It was invaluable and heaven forbid if we get another vintage like 2011 again, I now have the skills to respond to it.”

solid winemaking skills early in my career.” She said while the older generation of winemakers had been practising winemaking techniques for years, the younger winemakers were more willing to take risks and chase new wine trends and markets. “Currently there are a lot of younger winemakers with their own labels making some really interesting wines that are getting great press and reviews and pushing boundaries,” she said. “This can set the wines made by younger winemakers apart in many ways but you can’t argue with hundreds of years of history and experience.” She said at the end of the day, traditional techniques would always play a heavy role in even the most maverick of winemaking methods.

WINEMAKING TECHNIQUES

ADAPTING TO NEW TECHNOLOGY

As a young ’un Dry was surrounded by experienced and well-regarded winemakers who really taught her a thing or two. She said each person she worked with brought particular insights and expertise in regions, varieties and styles to the job. “During the seven vintages I’ve been with Wolf Blass, I’ve developed my own techniques and style through trial and error but the foundation of how I approach winemaking is grounded in the communal knowledge of a great team of winemakers,” she said. “It has been a fantastic way to establish

While traditional techniques and technology are still very much a part of her day-to-day job, Dry works in a modern winery with access to the latest filtration, winery and analytical equipment. She said the use of crossflow filtration has been revolutionary during the past decade and has eliminated the use of earth and pad filtration. “Wines can now be filtered with very little impact on the final quality and this has had a very positive effect on wines going to bottle,” she said. “We have a fully equipped laboratory that can do all manner of analysis quickly

70 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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and accurately and enables us to make speedy and more accurate decisions when necessary. “I certainly feel lucky having this kind of access to lab analysis as I have worked in plenty of places where SO2 aspiration, pH meters and TA titrations are the only things available to help make decisions.”

GOALS, AMBITIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS Being able to say she “loved” the work she did was enough for Dry. She said her biggest achievement was having a great job in an industry she was passionate about. Aside from that, being a finalist in the Young Winemaker of the Year competition in 2013 was a proud moment. Her current goal was to be involved in making a wine that got the entire industry talking and would be remembered for a long time. If there was one thing Dry had learnt during her 13 years on the job it is to “learn from as many people as possible”. “No one comes into the industry knowing how to make a great wine but it can be learnt,” she says. “The great thing about the wine industry is that on almost all occasions, people are happy to share ideas and techniques and pass on advice – it’s like a big melting pot of collective knowledge.” Contact: Clare Dry P: 61 8 8568 7308 E: clare.dry@tweglobal.com June 2014 – Issue 605

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Four-year research project investigates early influence of oxygen A new four-year research project undertaken by researchers at the Australian Wine Research Institute aims to reveal new insights into the timing and amount of oxygen required to benefit red and white winemaking and prevent reductive odours. Stephanie Timotheou reports. OXYGEN. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all around us and is what helps keep our world going. From breath to breath. Literally. But now it seems oxygen also has a significant role to play in the wine industry and researchers are turning their attention to this vital element. Since last July a team at the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) has been investigating the early influence of oxygen on red and white winemaking. The project, with funding from

The Inert press used for the first round of lab experiments this vintage.

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June 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 605

the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation, is being led by AWRI research scientist Dr Martin Day with small-scale laboratory work by AWRI senior research scientist Dr Simon Schmidt. Dr Day says the science and technique of adding oxygen in the early stages of fermentation is relatively new in wine science terms and is more widely accepted and used in France than Australia. “But since we launched this project we’re finding more people are interested and there seems to be quite a lot of small-scale anecdotal work and positive results coming through from Australian wineries,” he says. “In the beginning, a lot of the work being done by the AWRI in this area was around oxygen ingress during bottling and from closures, but we’ve definitely moved on in the past couple of years. “Over time our own research results were telling us more than 20 per cent of wine faults were related to reductive characters and these weren’t limited to wines sealed under screw cap. “This made us think that lack of oxygen in the early stages of winemaking could be to blame.”

June 2014 – Issue 605

He says the project has taken him down the path of identifying the importance of adding a controlled amount of oxygen during the early stages of winemaking and showed the research team much more work needs to be done to understand the importance of timing and amounts necessary for beneficial results. “We know it’s not a process that works for every wine variety or style but there’s enough knowledge out there to say if used correctly it can reduce reductive odours in wine and can influence certain styles,” Dr Day says. The first stage of experiments were undertaken for the 2014 vintage with Dr Schmidt carrying out small-scale ferments in the lab to reflect the extremes of oxygen exposure during normal white winemaking techniques. The effects of the oxygen exposure will be tested from early stages (pressing) to later post-ferment. “Two pressing techniques will be used – inert and aerobic – and the musts will be subject to two handling methods – reductive and oxidative,” Dr Schmidt says. At the end of the first project, there will be four wines with four different

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stylistic results, reflecting the extreme use of oxygen in this process. “During the next four years, the project will see small-scale ferments first carried out in the lab with a particular focus on timing and amounts of oxygen, and then the same experiments will be matched on a large-scale in participating wineries,” Dr Day says. “At the end we hope we will have a much greater understanding that will enable wineries to use oxygen in a controlled manner to influence their wine styles of choice.” While the project has been running for almost a year, there is still much work to be done before new results are released. The project is expected to reach completion by mid-2017. Contact: Ella Robinson Communications manager, AWRI P: 61 8 8313 8270 E: ella.robinson@awri.com.au Abbey Flanagan Communications coordinator, GWRDC P: 61 8 8273 0500 E: abbey@gwrdc.com.au

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The Visionary – who’s laughing now It might sound like just another premium release from just another winery but for the Taylor family in South Australia’s Clare Valley the creation of The Visionary is just as much a private tribute to their founding father, grandfather and great grandfather.

Taylor Take Three: Mitchell Taylor, the third generation at the helm of Taylors Wines, is in no doubt where the business is going. “At Taylors we don’t just want to produce the best value wines, we want to produce the best wines.”

ONCE UPON A time there was this strange man from the east who was being quietly mocked the length and breadth of the Clare Valley. He had snapped up 185ha at the southern end of the valley in 1969 and incredibly, nay, unbelievably, began planting masses of Cabernet Sauvignon (and a little bit of Shiraz as well). “Doesn’t he know you can’t make good fortified wines out of Cab Sauv?” the

locals joked with each other. Remarkably the 60-something-yearold knew exactly that. He’d just neglected to mention he had a vision about where the wine industry was going – and the role he wanted to play in it. And his vines were going to be the basis of a table wine dynasty that would quickly rise to produce some of the world’s finest wines.

At which point the quiet mocking turned into open derision as the neighbours fell about each other with laughter. The local yokels obviously had no real measure of Bill Taylor, whose business would become Taylors Wines and would grow faster than anyone realised as his vineyards began churning out vintage after vintage of spectacular, awardwinning wines.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

PROVING A POINT Today grandson Mitchell is a significant player in the Australian wine industry and no-one is laughing at the Taylors anymore. While Taylor did not come out and say it, the release of what he describes as the “best wine we have created as a wine family” might also have just the slightest whiff of ‘up yours’ to those who had laughed at the old man who started it all. Labelled The Visionary, Taylor described it as a tribute to the grandfather he learnt so much from and a man who helped revolutionise the Australian wine industry. “Not bad for a Sydney hotelier who knew more about selling beer than making wine,” Taylor said. “The Visionary has only been produced in an extremely limited volume from an exceptional vintage and represents the utmost refinement of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape,” he said. “At the moment it is a one-off from our 2009 vintage but if we ever have a truly exceptional vintage then we will do it again – 2010 might be one, 2011 certainly won’t.” When it comes to his grandfather

Taylor clearly wears his heart on his sleeve. He might now be at the helm of 750ha in the Clare Valley, with contract vineyards in key areas around the state,

Not bad for a Sydney hotelier who knew more about selling beer than making wine but his memories of Bill Taylor are still vivid and still touching. “My grandfather was originally a man from the land and he told me if we were going back to the land then one of the first things we had to do was dig a dam,” he said.

“While the work was being done, digging into that rich terra rossa soil, he unearthed all these fossilised seahorses and turned them into the symbol on our logo – the three seahorses for the three generations there when the business began. “And we’ve still got his dam.”

WINS KEEP COMING Standing on the shoulders of that grand old man, Taylor and the rest of his family circa 2013 have been on a bit of a high apart from releasing The Visionary. Late last year they won the Warren Winiarski Trophy for Cabernet Sauvignon with their 2010 St Andrews vintage at the London International Wine and Spirits competition. The vintage that might just qualify for the next The Visionary. The London event is one of the world’s most prestigious wine competitions and annually pulls 10,000-plus entries from around the globe. Even better it was the second win in eight years, the first in 2005 with the 2001 St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon. “It’s a funny game. With our first vintage in 1973 our Cabernet won gold at every major state show and capped it

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We all thought this was a pretty easy business to be in but I have stood alongside my dad and seen him reduced almost to tears as the chainsaws went through row after row of Cabernet vines all with the Montgomery Medal at the Royal Adelaide,” Taylor said. “We all thought this was a pretty easy business to be in but I have stood alongside my dad and seen him reduced almost to tears as the chainsaws went through row after row of Cabernet vines because we had vintage after vintage we just couldn’t sell. “I think one of the most impressive lessons I learnt from him was his belief that we are in a fashion industry, and tastes can turn pretty fast. “Which is why we have 12 varieties in our vineyards today instead of the original two.”

INDUSTRY MASTERSTROKE In another masterstroke Taylor’s grandfather was one of the first in Clare to plant Chardonnay, in their Promised Land vineyard. “When we, and other Australian winemakers, hit the export market

with Chardonnay we took the world by storm and opened big opportunities into which our reds poured,” Taylor said. These days, however, the storm seems to have run out of puff. Pounded by the sustained surge of the Australian dollar, the emergence of cheap wines from Chile, Argentina and South Africa and what Taylor describes as being wrongly criticised by global media about the quality of Australian wine. Which is why he was a co-founder of Australia’s First Families of Wine, which has brought together 12 wineries representing 1200 years of winemaking experience. “The gatekeepers in certain export markets only wanted us to provide entry-level products,” Taylor said. “But we know Australian wine has a lot of positive stories to tell and that’s what AFFW is doing,” he said.

“We also produced the book Heart and Soul which was a surprise success. With a chapter devoted to each of the 12 members, its first run sold more than 10,000 copies and it has now also been reproduced in Mandarin.” Taylor also said his family knew better than to flog a dead horse – a reflection on his family’s rural roots. “When things went belly up and the dollar was killing us we made a strategic decision to get out of the US market. "Now things are turning we are about to go back, but it will be a considered relaunch with a good distribution partner. “And yes, everyone has China on their lips and while we have been there 15 years with a Chinese partner it has been a slow process to build our brand. “But a recent trip with AFFW was a major success – we had 17 tastings in seven days and attracted great media and industry attention with our premium wines. “China is a very new market, for us and the Chinese, and to succeed there, and anywhere else overseas; we have to get back to the Australian wine story. “AFFW resonates with the Chinese – they respect a culture, a history and family and we offer the lot. “At Taylors we don’t just want to produce the best value wines, we want to produce the best wines.”

Contact: Mitchell Taylor. Phone: 61 2 8585 3519. Email: mitchell@taylorswines.com.au

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Is Bordeaux à la 1855 defensible?* With local debate over the use of the word Orange on wine, and big-stakes barneys seeing minnows dragged to court over the word Mouton because of alleged trademark infringement, Grapegrower & Winemaker invited Victor Ginsburgh from ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles and CORE, Université catholique de Louvain to comment on what is perhaps the most recognised of the old-world appellations and the strength of its 19th century classification.

THOUGH there existed classifications of clarets before 1855, the so-called 1855-classification of red Bordeaux (1) commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce of the town (at the request of Napoléon III) and established by the Union of Brokers is the only one that became famous, especially after 1949 when the words crû classé became institutional and could not be used by other wineries. It has often been said this classification was based on prices, but it was also based on the reputation of wineries, and took two weeks for the Union of Brokers – actually for one of the brokers, Merman, who was the only one to have some knowledge – to establish the list. But he seems to have consulted other people, since in a letter that accompanied the list, the Union claims: “[i]n order to satisfy your wishes, we surrounded ourselves with all possible information, and we have the honor to make known to you by the attached table the result of our investigations. You know as we do, Sirs,

[]

2 1 Presses In

ARE RANKINGS IRRELEVANT? And it still is criticised. Thompson’s and Mutkoski’s (2011) findings — based on ratings by Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate), Stephen Tanzer (International Wine Cellar) and Wine Spectator for vintages from 1970 to 2005 — conclude “more than half of the 61 wines classified growths [in 1855] are misclassified, with some châteaux moving as many as three tiers upward or downward compared to the historical classification.”

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June 2014 – Issue 605

how much this classification is a delicate thing and likely to arouse sensitivities; also it was not our thought to draw up an official state of our great wines, but only to submit for your consideration a work whose elements have been drawn from the best sources” (Markham, 1998, p. 106, cited by Malter, 2012, p. 42). Of course the classification was immediately the subject of criticism, if only because Château Cantemerle had been ignored in the first list and was reintroduced one year later. (2)

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winemaking Mike Steinberger (2005) titles his paper in Slate Magazine “How the most important rankings in wine became irrelevant.” The Liv-ex Bordeaux classification compiled by the British internet and phone-based wine exchange (London International Vintners Exchange) in March 2009, and revised in 2011, mimics the 1855 classification. It finds large (relative) differences between 1855 and 2011: Lynch Bages (a second growth), for instance, gains 38 positions, while Rauzan Gassies (a fifth growth) loses 40 between the two price lists. On the contrary, Landon and Smith (1998) suggest “the empirical evidence indicates consumers consider a longterm reputation for quality to be a better signal of current quality than the more recent quality movements… The 1855 classification [is still] a very successful predictor of quality... after 140 years, the premia accorded [to] wines that were classified in 1855 does not seem to have been dissipated by free-riding.” Kugler and Kugler (2010) reach a similar conclusion for Bordeaux wines sold in Switzerland. Malter (2012, pp. 19 and 134) estimates “quality” differences by regressing the ratings for vintages from 1991 to 2008, published by the Wine Spectator on four grand crûs classés (GCC) dummies and vintage dummies. These are reproduced in Table 1 which shows, for example, the average difference between a First and a Second GCC is equal to 3.35 points. The differences are all significantly different from zero at the one per cent probability level (with the exception of the one between a Fourth and a Fifth GCC), and reproduce the 1855 ranking of wines. The persistent problem in most of such calculations is to define what “quality” means. In a recent paper, Ashton (2013) shows pair-wise correlations among the ratings of six wine critics (3) for some

Table 1. Estimated Differences in Quality of GCC Wines First GCC

Second GCC

Third GCC

Second GCC

3.35

Third GCC

4.84

1.48

Fourth GCC

5.59

2.23

0.76

Fifth GCC

5.90

2.54

1.07

Fourth GCC

0.31

Source: Malter (2012, p. 134)

360 red Bordeaux for vintages from 2004 to 2010 are all positive, and significantly different from zero at the one percent probability level. For GCCs, the mean of these 100 correlation coefficients (4) is equal to r = 0.63, but there is quite some variability across experts (r = 0.46 between Parker and Robinson to r = 0.69 between several other pairs) as well as across vintages (0.57 ≤ r ≤ 0.70). The variability is larger for non-classified wines. Though the rankings are positively correlated, they are far from being identical. On the other extreme, it is worth quoting Hodgson (2009) who looks at more mundane wines, which participated in 13 US competitions evaluated by judges who were also more “mundane” than those cited in footnote 3. For the 375 wines evaluated in five competitions at least, Hodgson (2009, pp. 1 and 8) finds “the probability of winning a Gold medal at one competition is stochastically independent of the probability of receiving a Gold medal at another competition, indicating the likelihood of receiving a Gold medal can be statistically explained by chance alone.”

HOW DOES 1855 FARE? In their study, Ginsburgh, Monzak and Monzak (1992, republished 2013) decided to use prices rather than expert ratings (5) as a dependent variable in regressions meant to check whether the 1855 classification was still up-to-date. They were interested in disentangling

the production technology, and to try to quantify the impact of each of the many inputs (including weather conditions) and steps used in producing wines in the Haut-Médoc region, including GCCs. Their database was constructed by conducting interviews in 102 châteaux on characteristics of the vineyards, technologies used and prices of the vintages still sold by each château in 1990. (6) To our knowledge at the time (the early 1990s), this database was the only one that contained as many details on the winemaking in 102 châteaux. It is probably much easier to find such descriptions nowadays. The results discussed in Ginsburgh, Monzak and Monzak are based on equations in which the logarithm of prices (assumed to represent quality) is regressed on weather conditions (hail, temperature and rain in June to September) as well as physical and technical characteristics (7) of individual châteaux and other dummy variables that pick up coefficients meant to capture “1855 classification rents” (Margaux, Moulis, Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe, and Saint-Julien First, Second, Third to Fifth GCC, and non-classified crûs bourgeois wines). Omitting this last group of variables from the regression equation significantly reduces the fit. (8) Table 2 contains the basic regression coefficients we are interested in here (9) as well as comparative indices with respect to non-classified Moulis wines, whose index is normalised to 100. The wines from Pauillac illustrate differences may be large; the mere fact Mouton-Rothschild, Lafite-Rothschild and Latour are First-Growth makes them able to charge prices that are almost eight times larger than a crû bourgeois from the same region, all other things being equal. First-Growths are more expensive than

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Table 2. Total “Rents” Captured by the Various Châteaux (Young and 10-year-old wines) Appellation

Regression coefficients

Indices (Moulis=100)

Young wine

10 year old

Young wine

10 year old

First-Growth

.93364

1.16004

255

319

Second-Growth

.21028

.43668

123

155

Margaux

Third- to Fifth-Growth

.31784

.54424

137

172

All other

.02868

.25508

103

129

First-Growth

1.62424

2.02284

508

756

Second-Growth

.54900

.94760

173

258

Pauillac

Third- to Fifth-Growth

.07813

.47673

108

161

All other

-.43516

-.03656

96 212

Saint-Estèphe Second-Growth

.68286

.75176

198

Third- to Fifth-Growth

-.09428

-.02538

All other

-.18536

-.11646

Second-Growth

.62186

.94326

186

257

Third- to Fifth-Growth

.35484

.67624

142

197

All other

-.24914

.07226

107

.00000

100

Saint-Julien

Moulis-Listrac All

Source: Ginsburgh, Monzak and Monzak (2013).

Second-Growth, which in turn cost more than Third- to Fifth-Growths and the latter more than Crûs Bourgeois. There is one exception for Margaux, where the order between Second and Thirdto Fifth-Growths is inversed. Otherwise the order is consistent with the 1855 classification, and the one obtained by Malter (2012) reproduced in Table 1. Table 2 also compares the prices of young and 10-year-old wines. Though age has differential effects on the various appellations, the ranking for young and 10-year-old wines is practically the same; obviously due to the fact rents resulting from aging are roughly similar for all wines. There is however an important issue: the 1855 classification is not fully exogenous, since it may partly be explained by characteristics of the vineyards in 1855. To test this, we ran two binomial probit analyses, in which the dichotomous dependent variable takes the value 1 for an 1855 classified wine, and 0 otherwise. In the first analysis we only introduce soil and exposure characteristics that we assumed to be reasonably close to the ones observed in the early 1990. Grape varieties, age of vines, and winemaking techniques are likely to have undergone changes over the 135 years and were only added in a second analysis.

MODEL PREDICTIONS The estimated models are then used to “predict” the 1855 classification. The first model shows that the 1855-endowment (soil and exposures) is able to account for 77 right predictions, on a total of 102 June 2014 – Issue 605

cases (that include non-classified wines). In the second model, this number reaches 91. The results lead to several conclusions. The (assumed) 1855 endowment has, as expected, a high discriminatory power in classifying wines. This power is significantly enhanced when variables describing technological processes as they existed in the early 1990s are introduced. (10) Here one is led to argue that causality is reversed and that châteaux classified in 1855 work harder to maintain their reputation and produce first-class wines. There is of course nothing wrong in behaving like this. As mentioned earlier, the 1855 classification started to be disputed as soon as in 1856. But it has never been officially revised, with the exception of the upgrading of Mouton-Rothschild in 1973. Wine experts, however, feel they need to set their own classification; there are many reasons for which the qualities of the wines as well as the tastes of wine connoisseurs may have changed between 1855 and 1990, and a wine that was thought of being great in 1855 may not be perceived so in 1990, though it did perhaps not change.

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EXPERTS OR HISTORY An interesting question is thus to examine whether contemporary classifications, such as those suggested by Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson and James Suckling are more likely to explain prices than the official 1855 classification. If the experts are right, consumers will (or should) take the information into www.winebiz.com.au

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winemaking account and producers will be able (or forced) to pass on the increase (or the decrease) of quality into prices. Therefore, such new classifications should do better in explaining prices than the supposedly outdated 1855 classification. If the assumption on passing quality into prices is correct, one may simply run the same regression but with new definitions for the classification dummies, and verify which classification leads to the best fit. We performed these computations using two classifications available in the late 1980s or early 1990s: the French classification by Dussert&-Gerber (1898) and the one by Parker (1990). (11) The 1855, Parker’s and Dussert&Gerber’s classifications are presented in column (2) of the Appendix, which also shows whether a wine is present (Y) or not (N) in our and in Parker’ samples. (12) The resulting estimated coefficients for appellations and classifications as well as some summary statistics of the three regressions (the one with the 1855 classification, as well as those with Dussert&Gerber’s and Parker’s classifications) appear in Table 5 of Ginsburgh, Monzak and Monzak (2013)

and are not reproduced here. Suffice to say there is only one “inversion” with respect to the 1855 classification: Third- to Fifth-Ggrowth Margaux are more expensive than Second-Growths; such anomalies appear three times in both Dussert&Gerber’s and Parker’s classifications, implying discrepancies exist between qualities (as defined by Parker or Dussert&Gerber) and prices. The 1855 classification also leads to the best fit (highest R-square) (13); however, while Parker’s performance is quite close to that of the official 1855 classification, Dussert&Gerber’s is much less so. It is thus tempting to conclude that, broadly speaking, the 1855 classification of First- to Fifth-GCCs is still the one that is implicitly accepted by consumers. This does not mean there are no switches between individual wines but that the distinction between the five classes is still acceptable. At the time the Ginsburgh, Monzak and Monzak paper was written (early 1990s), there existed no good econometric techniques to run tests with non-nested models. What the authors did was to compare the 1855 classification with

either Dussert&Gerber’s or Parker’s, by embedding the competing models within a more general model: y = Zγ + X0β 0 + Xαβα + u,

(*)

where Z represents (the vector of) variables common to both the 1855 and the alternative model (weather and winemaking), while X0 and X a represent the 1855 and the alternative classification. They then test whether the alternative classification adds to the older one (or vice-versa), i.e. whether the null hypothesis H0:βα=0 or H'0:β 0 = could be rejected. Such nesting may lead to reject both H0 and H'0, and this is precisely what happens here for both pair-wise comparisons. (14) Therefore, other criteria have to be taken into account, and indeed, the regression coefficients on the classification dummies in model (*) may give indications. When there are only two classes and the two classifications are fully disjoint, it is easy to check that if classification o (resp. a) is the correct one, βα (resp. β 0) will be equal to zero and β0 -βα will be positive (resp. negative). In situations that are less simple (more than two classes and

• Searchable • Easy to use • Wine industry personnel ONLINE PHONEBOOK VISIT www.winebiz.com.au/widonline to Access* *Wine Industry Personnel Phonebook available only to those who have purchased the Wine Industry Directory (purchase includes annual subscription to WID Online) For further information, please contact Kauri AUS Tel: 1800 127 611 AUS Fax: 1800 127 609 Email: winery@kauri.co.nz

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June 2014 – Issue 605

classifications which are not fully disjointed), the sign of β 0 -βα may still help in deciding which classification to choose. The results suggest Saint-Juliens and Third- to FifthGrowth Saint-Estèphes are obviously misclassified in the 1855 classification, or changed between 1855 and 1990. This is corrected both by Parker and Dussert&Gerber; Dussert&Gerber seems also to be doing better by upgrading some Moulis-Listrac wines. We then proceeded as follows: (1) We replaced the 1855 SaintJulien classification and the 1855 Third- to Fifth-Growth Saint-Estèphe classification by Parker’s and kept unchanged the remainder of the 1855 classification; embedding then the rest of Parker’s classification and testing as suggested above makes us accepting the changes suggested by Parker. (2) Alternatively, we adopted D u sser t& G erber’s c la ssi f icat ion for Saint-Julien First and Second Growths, for Saint-Estèphe Third- to Fifth-Growths and for Moulis-Listrac Third- to Fifth-Growths and kept unchanged the remainder of the 1855 classification; embedding then the rest of Dussert&Gerber’s classification and testing as suggested above makes us accepting the changes suggested by Dussert&Gerber. Both Parker and Dussert&Gerber seem thus to be right in correcting the 1855 classification for Saint-Juliens and Third- to Fifth-Growth Saint-Estèphes, mainly by upgrading; Dussert&Gerber also correctly upgrades some wines from Moulis-Listrac. On the other hand, none of them adds much by shifting Pauillac and Margaux wines for which the 1855 classification seems, by and large, still to be holding.

CONCLUSION Weather conditions are, as is often thought, the most important factor that contributes to overall quality in the region (15) though production technologies and the characteristics of the vineyards are far from being negligible in explaining differences across origins. Reputation effects also convey very strong signals, and (almost) all châteaux mention they were classified in 1855. Though First- and Second-Growth wines should have a strong incentive to be more precise by signalling their rank, most of them (16) only mention their grading as Grand Cru Classé en 1855, without the rank. There is little doubt they assume consumers know “who is who,” and probably find it inelegant and superfluous to give details. June 2014 – Issue 605

As in art, where the name of the artist is important (17) the label of a wine is obviously part of its “quality” which is passed on into its price. But why does the 1855 grading provide a perfectly plausible explanation of prices than more recent ratings, which one can assume to reflect in a better way today’s qualities? One may think this to be the consequence of poorly-informed consumers, whose unique information is the label. This is unlikely, however. Consumers of such expensive wines seek for more signals, and these are readily available in well-publicised books and journals. Clearly, consumers believe the 1855 classification does not convey less information than the ratings of wine specialists — maybe because they keep disagreeing — and 1855 looks more “objective.” We are tempted to conclude the 1855 classification still provides the quality signal. Together with the fact that 85 per cent of the variance of (the log of) prices set by 100 among the best châteaux over 10 years can be explained by observable factors, seems to raise questions on the role of wine experts. After all, perhaps their unique contribution is (and should be) to keep producers on their toes. Most wines classified in 1855 seem still to deserve their rank as First- to Fifth-Growth, while some wines from Saint-Julien, Saint-Estèphe and MoulisListrac which were either not classified or poorly ranked in 1855 have been moved up, and rightly so, by recent classifications. This is also in agreement with the earlier suggestion that châteaux classified in 1855 do their best not to move down the ladder.

A U S T R A L I A

Contact: Victor Ginsburgh T: 322 650 3846 E: vginsbur@ulb.ac.be

Footnotes

* I am grateful to Andrew Mole who asked me to comment on a very old paper that I had written in 1992 with co-authors Monzak and Monzak, and that was republished by the Journal of Wine Economics in 2013 (Ginsburgh, Monzak and Monzak, 2013). He gave me the opportunity to revisit some important papers that had been written in the meantime, but I essentially reproduce the results that we computed in 1992. They show the 1855 classification of Red Bordeaux is “still going strong.” 1 Essentially from the Haut-Médoc region, including Haut-Brion from Graves, which we exclude here. 2 Dubignon disappeared, since the château was bought by Château Malescot St Exupery, and Château Mouton-Rothschild was elevated from second to first growth in 1973. 3 Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate), Jancis Robinson www.winebiz.com.au

Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking (JancisRobinson.com), Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve (TAST), James Suckling (Wine Spectator), Steven Spurrier, James Lawther and Beverly Blanning (Decanter) and Olivier Poels, Hélène Durand and Philippe Maurange (Le Revue du Vin de France).

Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Zentrum der Universität Basel, available at http://wwz.unibas.ch/uploads/tx_x4epublication/Parker__Wine_Spectaor_and_Retail_ Prices_August_2010_1.pdf (November 2012).

4 Fifteen possible pair-wise correlations among the six critics times seven years, though five correlations are missing because of incomplete sets of observations.

Landon, Stuart and Constance Smith (1998), Quality expectations, reputation, and price, Southern Economic Journal 64, 628–647. Available at http://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/9774/ (November 2012).

5 Given that quality is hard to define, it is very often replaced by prices that economists consider accounting for (most of) the information contained in a commodity. See Ashenfelter (2010), Ashenfelter, Ashmore and LaLonde (1995), Ashenfelter and Storchmann (2010), Combris, Lecocq and Visser (1997, 2000), Landon and Smith (1998), Shamel and Anderson (2003) and many other.

Levinson, Jerrold (1985), Titles, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 44, 29-39. Liv-Ex Fine Wine Market Blog (2011), available at http://www.blog.liv-ex. com/2011/05/2011-liv-ex-bordeaux-classification.html (November 2012).

6 The data were collected by coauthor Andras Mozak (see columns (3) and (4) in Appendix). He bought wines in many places, and gave me the opportunity to taste the only Château Margaux that I ever had in my life, plus a couple of other great but less prestigious wines.

Malter, Daniel (2012), Essays on high-status fallacies, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Management and Organization, Robert H. Smith School of Business, available at http:// drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/12623/1/Malter_umd_0117E_13003.pdf (November 2012).

7 Type of soil, grape varieties, exposure of vineyards, age of vines, type of picking and selecting, destemming and crushing, heating of the moût, type of fermentation, number of pressings and of rackings, type of barrels, type of filtration, aging in casks, and aging in bottles.

Markham, Dewey (1998), 1855: A History of the Bordeaux Classification, New York, NY: Wiley.

8 The R-square drops from 0.84 to 0.67. An F-test shows that this drop is very significantly different from 0 at a smaller than one percent probability level.

Parker, Robert M. (1990), Les Vins de Bordeaux, Paris: Solar.

9 The interested reader can find the complete results in Table 1 of the Ginsburgh, Monzak and Monzak (2013) paper. Regressions are computed using ordinary least squares.

Parker, Robert M. (1985), Bordeaux, The Definitive Guide for the Wines Produced since 1961, New-York: Simon and Schuster.

Schamel, Gunter and Kym Anderson (2003), Wine Quality and Varietal, Regional and Winery Reputations: Hedonic Prices for Australia and New Zealand, The Economic Record 79 357-69.

10 Obviously, some of these may also have been effective in 1855, such as manual picking.

Steinberger, Mike (2005), Making the list, How the most important rankings in wine became irrelevant, Slate Magazine, June 17 available at http://www.slate.com/articles/ health_and_science/wines_world/2005/06/making_the_list.html (November 2012).

11 Parker’s 1990 classification (French edition) differs slightly from his 1985 classification (American edition). We used the more recent one. The Appendix gives his 1990 classification.

Thompson, Gary and Stephen A. Mutkoski (2011), Reconsidering the 1855 Bordeaux classification of the Medoc and Graves using wine ratings from 1970-2005, Journal of

12 In our regressions, we have four classes: First-Growths, Second-Growths, Third- to Fifth-Growths and All other. With respect to these four classes, there are 32 (resp. 47) differences between Parker’s (resp. Dussert-Gerber’s) and the 1855 classification. There are many more if Third-, Fourth and Fifth-Growths are distinguished. 13 Other criteria, such as Akaike or Schwarz would lead to the same conclusion here, since the number of degrees of freedom is the same in all three cases. See Gourieroux and Monfort (1989, Chapter 22).

Wine Economics 6, 15-36.

Appendix List of Wines and their Classification HC: Better than 1G; 1G: First-Growth; 2G: Second-Growth; 3G: Third-Growth; 4G: FourthGrowth; 5G: Fifth-Growth; BE: Cru Grand Bourgeois Exceptionnel; GB: Cru Grand Bourgeois; CB: Cru Bourgeois; UN: Non-classified.

14 One should note however, that H’0:ß0ß=0 is rejected much more strongly than H0:ßα=0. The 1855 classification is better supported by the price structure than alternative classifications.

Classification Sample

15 See Ashenfelter, Ashmore and LaLonde (1995). 16 Note that first ranked châteaux are more inclined than others to give their rank. Latour (a First-Growth Pauillac), Margaux (the unique First-Growth Margaux) DufortVivens, Rausan-Ségla, Rauzan-Gassies (three out of the five Second-Growth Margaux) and Léoville-Poyferré (one of the 5 Second-Growth Saint-Juliens) mention their rank. With the exception of Ducru-Beaucaillou and Léoville-Las-Cases (2 Second-Growth Saint-Juliens) who mention nothing, all other bottles carry the label “Grand Cru Classé en 1855” only.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Person visited

Margaux Margaux

Mr. Blanchard*

Brane-Cantenac

Mr. Lurton**

Durfort-Vivens

Mr. Lurton**

Lascombes

Mr. Gobinau***

Rausan-Ségla

Mr. Bruzaud***

Rauzan-Gassies

Mr. Quie***

Boyd-Cantenac

Mr. Guillemet***

Cantenac-Brown

Mr. Aymar du Vivier***

Desmirail

Mr. Lurton**

d’Issan

Mr. Cruse***

Ferrière

not visited

Giscours

Mr. Guillemet***

Kirwan

Mr. Demezzo*

Malescot-Saint-Exupéry

Mr. Zuger**

Marquis-d’Alesme-Becker

Mr. Zuger**

Combris, P., S. Lecocq and M. Visser (2000), Estimation of a hedonic equation for Burgundy wine, Applied Economics 32, 961-967.

Palmer

Mr. Bouteiller***

Marquis-de-Terme

Mr. Hugon***

Dussert-Gerber, Patrick (1988), Guide des Vins de France 1989, Paris: Albin Michel.

Pouget

Mr. Guillemet**

Ginsburgh, Victor, Muriel Monzank and Andras Monzak (2013), Red wines of Médoc: Whai is wine tasting worth, Journal of Wine Economics 8, 159-188.

Prieuré-Lichine

Mr. Birades*

Dauzac

Mr. Chatellier***

du Tertre

Mr. Gasqueton***

Bel-Air-Marquis d’Aligre

not visited

Canuet

not visited

d’Angludet

Mr. Sichel***

Labégorce

Mr. Condom**

17 See Grampp (1989) and Levinson (1985).

References

Ashenfelter, Orley (2010), Predicting the Quality and Prices of Bordeaux Wine, Journal of Wine Economics 5, 40-52. Ashenfelter, Orley, David Ashmore and Robert LaLonde (1995), Wine Vintage Quality and the Weather: Bordeaux, Chance, Fall 1995. Ashenfelter, Orley and Karl Storchmann (2010), Measuring the Economic Effect of Global Warming on Viticulture Using Auction, Retail, and Wholesale Prices, Review of Industrial Organization 37, 51- 64. Ashton, Robert (2013), Is there consensus among wine quality ratings of prominent critics? An empirical analysis of red Bordeaux, 2004-2010, Journal of Wine Economics 8, 225-234. Combris, P., S. Lecocq and M. Visser (1997), Estimation of a hedonic price equation for Bordeaux wine: does quality matter?, Economic Journal 107, 390-402.

Gourieroux, Christian and Alain Monfort (1989), Statistique et Modèles Econométriques, Paris: Economica. Grampp, William (1989), Pricing the Priceless. Art, Artists and Economics, New York: Basic Books. Hodgson, R. (2009), An analysis of the concordance among 13 wine competitions, Journal of Wine Economics 4, 1-9. Kugler, Peter and Claudio Kugler (2010), Parker, Wine Spectator and retail prices of Bordeaux wines in Switzerland: Results from panel data 1995-2000,

82 Grapegrower & Winemaker

(1) 1855° (2) Parker: (3) D&G: (4) Our sample: (4) Parker's sample.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Labégorce-Zédé

Mr. Thienpont***

La Gurgue

Mr. Villars***

La Tour-de-Mons

Mr. Clauzel***

Pontac-Lynch

Mr. Bodon***

Siran

Mrs. Miailhe**

Tayac

Mr. Portet***

Lafite-Rothschild

Mr. Le Canu***

Latour

Mr. Hare***

Mouton-Rothschild

Mr. Sionneau***

Pichon-Longueville (de Lalande)

Mr. Godin***

Pichon-Longueville Baron

oenologist

Duhart-Milon-Rothschild

Mr. Huguet****

Batailley

Mr. Valade****

Clerc-Milon

Mr. Sionneau***

Croizet-Bages

refused to answer

Grand-Puy-Ducasse

Mr. Badiera***

Grand-Puy-Lacoste

Mr. Borie**

Haut-Bages-Libéral

Mr. Villars***

Haut-Batailley

Mr. Borie**

Lynch-Bages

oenologist

Lynch-Moussas

Mr. Valade****

Mouton-Baronne-Philippe

Mr. Sionneau***

Pédesclaux

Mr. Jugla**

Pontet-Canet

oenologist

Belle-Rose

Mr. Jugla**

Colombier-Monpelou

Mr. Jugla**

Fonbadet

Mr. Peyronie**

Grand-Duroc-Milon

Mr. Jugla**

La Fleur-Milon

Mr. Gimenez**

La Tour-Pibran

Mr. Jugla**

Les Forts de Latour

not visited

Moulin des Carruades

not visited

Pibran

oenologist

Plantey

Mr. Fournier***

Cos-d’Estournel

refused to answer

Montrose

Mr. Charmolue

Calon-Ségur

Mr. Capbern Gasqueton**

Lafon-Rochet

Mr. Tesseron**

Cos-Labory

Mrs Audoy**

Beau-Site

Mr. Casteja**

Clauzet

Mr. Boisseau**

de Pez

Mr. Dousson**

Haut-Marbuzet

N?***

Houissant

La Commanderie

Mr. Fournier***

Laffite-Carcasset

Le Boscq

Mr. Durand**

Le Crock

Les-Ormes-de-Pez

Leyssac

Meyney

Mr. Payeur****

Pauillac

Saint-Estèphe

For further information, please contact Kauri

° The 1855 classification concerns Growth wines only; Crûs Bourgeois were classified in 1978. * Chef de culture ** Owner of the château. *** Régisseur, director or administrator of the château. **** Maître de chai.

June 2014 – Issue 605

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking List of Wines and their Classification continued Classification cont. Sample

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

Moulin-Riche

Mr. Cuvelier***

Terrey-Gros-Cailloux

N?***

Brillette

Mr. Berthault**

Mr. Villars***

Moulis en Médoc

Person visited

Phélan-Ségur

Mr. Gardinier**

Chasse-Spleen

Pomys

Mr. Arnaud**

Dutruch-Grand-Poujeaux

Mr. Cordonnier**

St-Estèphe

Mr. Arnaud**

Gressier-Grand-Poujeaux

Mr. Marcellus**

Tour-des-Termes

Maucaillou

Mr. Dourthe**

Tronquoy-Lalande

Mrs. Casteja**

Poujeaux (Theil)

Mr. Theil**

Valrose

Listrac en Médoc Clarke

Mr. Bonnin****

Ducru-Beaucaillou

Mr. Borie**

Fonréaud

Mr. Lalande***

Gruaud-Larose

Mr. Pauli***

Fourcas-Dupré

Mr. Pages***

Léoville-Las-Cases

Mr. Depoizier***

Fourcas-Hosten

Mr. Barthe***

Léoville-Poyferré

Mr. Cuvelier***

Lestage

Léoville-Barton

Mr. Raoul***

Lagrange

N?***

Langoa-Barton

Mr. Raoul***

Beychevelle

Mr. Ruelle***

Branaire-Ducru

Mr. Tapie***

Saint-Pierre-Sevestre

Mr. Triaud***

Talbot

Mr. Pujoz***

Du Glana

Mr. Ardiley***

Gloria

Mr. Triaud***

Hortevie

not visited

La Bridaine

not visited

Lalande

Mr. Ardiley***

Saint-Julien

HC: Better than 1G; 1G: First-Growth; 2G: Second-Growth; 3G: Third-Growth; 4G: Fourth-Growth; 5G: Fifth-Growth; BE: Cru Grand Bourgeois Exceptionnel; GB: Cru Grand Bourgeois; CB: Cru Bourgeois; UN: Non-classified.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Grape and wine sustainability program to launch on 1 July Australian grapegrowers and winemakers will gain knowledge and skills to adapt their businesses to a changing climate, thanks to a comprehensive new program being delivered by the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI). The program, which launches at a half-day event at the National Wine Centre on 1 July, will deliver tailored practical resources and face-to-face workshops focused on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon storage and the Carbon Farming Initiative. The launch event will feature presentations from experts across a range of climate-related topics, including Professor Will Steffen from the Climate Council and Darren Ray from the Bureau of Meteorology. Several leading industry practitioners, who are embracing climate adaptation as part of their business strategy, will also share their experiences. In preparation for delivering the new program, the project team of two viticulturists and two oenologists from the AWRI (Mardi Longbottom, Marcel Essling, Geoff Cowey and Matt Holdstock) has been busy keeping up-to-date with changing government policy, and building new relationships with extension providers in other industries across Australia. This has allowed them to assemble a range of accurate and current resources which will be available online and also presented through a series of 34 workshops starting later this year. The project team has also engaged with regional associations in the Limestone Coast, Western Australia, Hunter Valley, Victoria and the Adelaide Hills to assist them in identifying regional environmental priorities. In the Limestone Coast, the program is supporting a Soil Stewardship Program to develop a strategic plan for future soil management across the Limestone Coast. Another key activity of the program is the re-launch of Australian Wine Carbon Calculator in a user-friendly web-based format. The project team is working closely with the Winemakersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Federation of Australia to deliver a functional and user-friendly tool that will assist wine industry businesses to understand their environmental footprint and demonstrate their environmental credentials. This project is funded by the Federal Department of Agriculture through the Extension and Outreach program. For more information, or to register for the launch contact viticulture@awri.com.au. Contact: Mardi Longbottom P: 61 8 8313 6600 E: mardi.longbottom@awri.com June 2014 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 605

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The Marlborough-based business caters to a select winemaking clientele ranging from 15 tonnes up to 6500 tonnes with capacity complemented by a second winery in North Canterbury. Installing three new Della Toffola V presses NZ Wineries hoped each one would hold about 25 tonnes per cycle – and they managed to squeeze in 35 tonnes. NZ Wineries is running 21 other presses, which includes two 50-hectolitre red presses and 19, 80-hectolitre white presses. The big advantage of the upgrade was it incorporated the units displaced by the new presses into other fruit streams. The majority of the crush at the Marlborough plant is local Sauvignon Blanc but it also receives grapes from Nelson and Pinot Noir from Central Otago. The new presses ended up doing half the intake of white fruit.

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NZ Wineries is a growth business and the trick is balancing the investment between demand and capacity so when the business looked to upgrade it turned to Della Toffola and got a lot more than it bargained for.

June 2014 – Issue 605

WHEN you are running 24 presses and crushing big tonnages of grapes every year as a contract processor the key is all about Crushing & getting the best-possible job done in the fastest-possible time. Pressing For the harvest just completed NZ Wineries ran its three new Della Toffola presses for the first time – and they managed about half the total throughput. Now that’s efficiency and NZ Wineries general manager Alistair McIntosh says the new big-ticket items far and away exceeded their expectations. McIntosh says the Marlborough-based business caters to a select winemaking clientele ranging from 15 tonnes up to 6500 tonnes with capacity complemented by a second winery in North Canterbury. With his first vintage at the helm of the new machinery under his belt McIntosh says they based their intake capacity around each press holding 25 tonnes of fruit. “But each one handled up to 35 tonnes without any problem and although we factored in a press cycle of three hours the Della Toffola V presses took barely 90 minutes,” McIntosh says. “That’s pretty impressive when you compare this to our existing presses, which hold only hold 10 tonnes and have a press cycle of three hours,” he says. “NZ Wineries is running 21 other presses, which includes two 50-hectolitre red presses and 19, 80-hectolitre white presses. “The other big advantage of the upgrade is we didn’t sell

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We thought that if they only performed as other bag presses do that would be fine. But if they worked as had suggested then we had a lot to gain the three units that were displaced, rather we incorporated them into other fruit streams.” McIntosh says they had heard good things about Della Toffola from another winery in Marlborough which had been using them “so we decided to give them a go”. He says their thinking was that if they matched the performance of the superseded units they had nothing to lose. “We thought that if they only performed as other bag presses do that would be fine. But if they worked as had suggested then we had a lot to gain,” McIntosh says. “And the price negotiated was also very attractive even though we were limited with space because the new units had to be engineered into the area vacated by the three 10-tonne presses,” he says. The majority of the intake we crush at the Marlborough plant is local Sauvignon Blanc but we also receive grapes from Nelson and Pinot Noir from Central Otago.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

“These three new presses ended up doing half our intake of white fruit. “The only limit we now face is the hopper size but it still works nicely at 480 tonnes per day across the three presses. “Typically that meant we had 90 minutes to fill 30 tonnes into the press and from full to empty was another 90 minutes so five cycles per press per day is easily achievable.” McIntosh says with the new system of a central membrane and the unit’s drainage/free run quality the amount of juice extracted is high. He says typically it has shown to be about 20 litres per tonne higher than their other 10-tonne bag presses. “The juice is very quick to be released as the press acts as a pre-drainer while filling, which is also why we are able to get so much fruit into the press,” McIntosh added. “These new presses also lend themselves to very juicy fruit, which is perfect for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc,” he says. “Also the new technology, such as the touch screens, makes a significant difference for operators as running the press is nice and simple.” As good as the results have been McIntosh doubts it is the start of a major upgrade of the system at NZ Wineries. “Right now this is probably a one-off as our Marlborough site is at maximum production and all the gear we use there is sized accordingly,” he says. “But if we were to upgrade, or develop again, I would certainly consider these presses.” Contact: Alistair McIntosh Phone: 64 3 578 5070 Email: alistair.mcintosh@nzwineries.co.nz

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Hypac’s success is more than just hype HYPAC might have started life as a successful marine equipment business. But when its previous owner visited Rockford Wines and was encouraged to turn its engineering nous to the challenges of basket presses it did. The trick, says managing director Vivian Watson, was to develop a modern approach to the traditional method of basket pressing. Which the brains trust at Hypac promptly did and the rest, as they say, was history. Today Rockford Wines has two Hypac basket presses. But it is not on its lonesome. Hypac’s traditional presses, circa 21st century, are being used at wineries in WA, SA and Victoria. And New Zealand. Oh, yes, and there are a few in Spain – and most recently in the US. Not a bad outcome for just shooting the breeze over a red with a mate. With the previous owner retired, Watson, who joined the company in 2000 as its administration manager, is making sure the message that began with that first press sent to Rockford is being heard loud and clear. “It’s not just that we build a more robust press than many of those on the market, one of our most popular features is that ours is so easy to use,” Watson says. “Our target market has been the smaller premium wineries, where the owners are very hands on, but because we have adhered to the keep-it-simple strategy our presses are proving just as successful with the bigger players where there is a much higher turnover of staff with seasonal workers and backpackers,” she says. “For example, we have just retrofitted one of our presses at Lehmanns with an electrical interface over the hydraulic controls which provide better control and less chance of operator error occurring. “Particularly with casual staff, this upgrade makes the unit incredibly safe. You could switch it on, set the timer to go off in four hours and go home knowing the job is done. “There is no need for a degree in electronics to program the machine. It is simple and safe and we plan to introduce some of those features in future models.” With a capacity of 2.3 to 8.5 tonnes Watson says the other great attraction for winemakers is the ability of the Hypac press to manage small batches and premium lots. That’s what the machine is used for at Lehmanns and is its main role at most wineries. Hypac basket presses and destemmers

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are now being manufactured in the USA by Precision Technology for the North American market. “Our US plant which will have two more presses ready in time for the next harvest,” Watson says. “Having a plant – it is at Roanoke in Virginia – gives us a really good foothold in such a big market,” she says. “And it overcomes the issues of freight and time delay. “The other big attraction is our sales and after-sales support. The Americans, for example, are finding there is very little of that for machinery coming out of the EU,” she says. “But in Australasia and now the US we are right there is the unlikely event something should go wrong. “Also, for our customers, we contact them before vintage and then go out and assess and service their press. It has got to the point we are now being asked to service competitor presses because that service is just not available from others. “A lot of our customers also like the fact that our hydraulics are away from the press so in the unlikely event there

is an oil leakage it doesn’t go in with the grapes.” Hypac launched its first de-stemmer last year and Watson says it already has something new on the drawing board for 2015. It has also just launched a dedicated winery website at hypacwineryequipment. com. Watson says it now allows for an allwinery site instead of it being mixed with the marine side of the business. “Now we have the basket press and the de-stemmers, which can process 1-3 tonnes per hour in an all-stainless-steel construction for easy cleaning, and with more products on the way it was the obvious way to go,” Watson adds. With machinery designed here, made from all Australian materials and installed and backed up by a local team it looks like full steam ahead for the marine business that is sailing previously uncharted waters. Contact: Vivian Watson P: 61 8 8333 0222. E: vivian.watson@hypac.com.au.

Pressing demand: Hypac has gone from marine equipment to having one of the hottest basket presses on the market. www.winebiz.com.au

June 2014 – Issue 605

sales & marketing Preventing those awkward spills Move over screwcaps, tetra-paks and glass stoppers, there’s a new wine closure in town. It’s the wine condom, designed to stop unwanted spills and stains before they happen. Meininger’s editor Felicity Carter talks to one of the inventors A MOTHER-AND-SON team from Texas have pioneered a new approach to wine closures: the wine condom. In the year since inspiration struck, they‘ve been busy raising funds and forging joint ventures – and dealing with the kind of international attention the big closure companies dream of. “We’re just crazy thrilled by the attention it’s getting,” says inventor Laura Bartlett.

DEALING WITH LEFTOVERS A year ago, Bartlett was at a neighbour’s place for dinner and the neighbour told her to take the leftover wine home. “She lost the cork and to seal it from that short trip from her house to my kitchen, she put plastic wrap and rubber bands around it,” says Bartlett. “I was talking to my son in the kitchen about it.” And that’s when the idea of putting a condom over the bottle to protect the remnants hit them. What Bartlett and her 21-year-old son Mitchell Strahan have since created is a rubber sealant that’s rolled down the neck of an open bottle. This means a partially-consumed bottle can be carried from one place to another without spillage. They don’t claim the condom will preserve the wine or prevent oxidation. “It’s an excellent wine stopper,” says Bartlett. “We’ve been able to turn the bottle upside down without spillage.” Bartlett says her son has already found a rubber manufacturer to make the item. “One of the challenges for rolled rubber products is that it’s nearly impossible to find something that’s not oiled or powdered,” says Bartlett. She envisages the wine condom as a promotional item, with wineries and restaurants able to print their logos on it. Bartlett says it will allow customers to take unfinished bottles of wine home – which could encourage them to order whole bottles, rather than wine by the glass. “We see that hotel chains and cruise lines would be good partners,” she says. “We also see there are some licensing opportunities with global brewers. The condom fits beer bottles, so it can be used for wine or beer.” To raise the start-up funds, Strahan started a campaign on kickstarter.com, the crowd-funding site where entrepreneurs present their ideas to the public and ask for funding, usually in exchange for a product sample. Strahan was seeking $7500, but by the time the offer closed in February, had raised $9,285. “Obviously we need to fulfil those orders,” says Bartlett. “That will be our first task, and then after that the next order of business is investigating and pursuing those partnerships that we already have in mind.” Bartlett says that if she’d had any idea of the interest the wine condom would generate, she would not have limited deliveries to the US. “It was a rookie error,” she says. “We’ve had enquiries from Western Australia, from Britain, and from a winery in southern Spain.” June 2014 – Issue 605

It just rolls on: Typical that it takes a Texan to come up with a new slant on spilling wine from half full bottles you might take home from a restaurant or friend’s place – but that’s what the wine condom does. Inset: The almost-discrete packaging for the new product.

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sales & marketing RAPID IMPLEMENTATION In less than a year, Bartlett and Strahan have gone from chatting in the kitchen to brokering partnerships with manufacturers and international customers. Does Bartlett have a background in product design or development? “I’m a stand-up comedian,” she says. A native of Texas, she’s executive producer of a show called Four Funny Females. “My family is chock full of doctors,” she says. “My dad’s a plastic surgeon, my other sister is a lawyer, and I’m the wine condom inventor and stand-up comedian.” She says she entered comedy later in life. “I’m a single mum so I waited until it wouldn’t compromise my parenting.” Strahan, her son, has recently quit his job as a waiter to work on the business full time. The whole thing sounds, in

fact, like good material for one of her comedy routines. Bartlett turns serious. “I have referenced it in my stand up, but what’s really cool is that we’re the first to incorporate the word ‘condom’ into a common mainstream product.” She suggests this may do some good, by giving the word mainstream usage. “Bill and Melinda Gates have championed worldwide acceptance and destigmatisation of the word ‘condom’ and we may have contributed to that. And if the bottle is sealed with our condom, we may prevent the cascading effect of drinking too much wine.” And as for her own wine background, she says there’s always wine after her shows. “I enjoy wine, but I’m not a wine connoisseur,” she says. “I like blended reds. I’m the average supermarket wine consumer and that’s who we’re targeting.

The average.” Now that the kickstarter campaign is over and the duo have raised more money than they expected, the hard work is about to begin. Strahan has taken on the task of packaging and product design. Bartlett is in charge of marketing and media relations. There is development, production and licensing to deal with. The name ‘wine condom’ has been trademarked, but a patent is still pending. And, of course, there’s the tag line to think of. Protection for wine lovers? Think outside the bottle? Or perhaps “Drink responsibly. Use proper protection. Use wine condoms.” Contact: winecondoms@mail.com This article first appeared in Meininger’s Wine Business International.

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business & technology You have to be on the ball if you are employing online Job searching or hiring can be tough at the best of times but when you are trying to hook up with a job or a potential employee and you are hemispheres apart – literally – then you really have to be switched on to avoid unwelcome pitfalls. This month Grapegrower & Winemaker’s Stephanie Timotheou looks at some of the people who can smooth your way. THE internet has given the wine industry immediate access to a global skill base. Viticulturists, winemakers, front office and back office. Using job websites would-be employers are drawing specialist staff from around the world. But there is a trick. If you are a winery in California’s Napa Valley and get an application from what seems to be the right person – in New Zealand’s Marlborough wine region – having them drop in for a traditional interview is a little out of the equation. But there are ways you can adjust your employment technique to keep up with technology. Recruitment Coach’s Michael Murphy says there are simple, practical techniques to uncover a candidate’s real experience and knowledge. He frequently presents webinars on interview techniques where he will share tips and tricks to help you interview like an expert. • Learn how to quickly identify what’s needed to succeed in a position and how to evaluate your candidates against these criteria • Learn how to assess a candidate’s workplace preferences and get an insight into how they might perform in your role • Assess team and cultural fit – learn how to determine whether a candidate will be compatible with your workplace culture and team • Learn the common interviewing mistakes made and practical ways to avoid them Murphy says he is committed to helping businesses grow and facilitating employee performance through the delivery of tailored HR strategies and support. “We take a holistic view, so you get deeply strategic, actionable insights in staff – from recruitment to replacement,” he says. June 2014 – Issue 605

“We’re experienced in many disciplines including: HR Support, recruitment, job descriptions and KPIs, staff turnover, remuneration and reward, performance management, staff surveys and policies and procedures.” An experienced HR professional Murphy has previously been responsible for managing the delivery of HR solutions and recruitment services for a number of small-medium businesses. Other online service providers include operations such as international enterprise The Barefoot Group, which works on the business itself and identifies the people and positions any company needs to consider to get the best possible outcomes. Adelaide-based Winetitles runs winejobs.com.au, which is the industry’s leading online job portal and it works with wineries, businesses, recruitment agencies and job seekers. Winejobs offers job hunters immediate access to a range of positions available in every major wine producing region in the world. Winetitles general manager Elizabeth Bouzoudis says at the click of a finger, employers can post or edit a job and discover a range of suitable candidates to complement their company. She says companies are using online employment for its reach, its cost advantage over traditional, but geographicallylimited print options and its speed. Earlier this year Hahndorf Hill Winery co-owner Marc Dobson advertised with Winejobs for a wine sales representative and received several applicants. He says the site is easy to use and is less expensive than the print advertising the winery previously used. “Overall I would say the number of applications we received from Winejobs and other internet employment sites exceeded those received from print, suggesting more and more people seem to be looking for work online,” he says. Bouzoudis says Winejobs is primarily used to fill wine-related jobs across the www.winebiz.com.au

industry with positions in winemaking, viticulture, sales and marketing, administration, management and hospitality. “It is user-friendly (even for the less technically inclined) and provides many benefits similar to other job seeking websites, but with a targeted approach to those pursuing a career in the industry,” she says. With its link to major wine publications in the Australian and New Zealand marketplace, advertising on Winejobs provides a wider spread of viewers than other sites provide. Joseph Phelps Vineyards in St Helena, US has been advertising with Winejobs since 2003 and says it’s the company’s “go to” site when seeking employees. “We use it all the time – we don’t have the resources to handle large responses from the more generic job posting sites and appreciate the ability to post on an industry specific site like Winejobs,” JPV human resources director Jackie Diaz says. “We have been very successful in hiring for our wine educator and customer service positions and the ease of job posting as well as the affordability of posting an advert is phenomenal.” Eleven years ago the company decided to look at online job posting and came across the Winejobs website by sheer luck. “We tried a few sites but found they were too large and our respondents were not industry specific and that’s when we discovered Winejobs,” she says. The company has uploaded a job advert more than 25 times since they began using Winejobs and has found it a great success. “We have posted a few jobs recently and have already closed one because we hired a respondent through Winejobs,” Diaz says. To advertise with Winejobs or for more information, contact: Andrew Dawson P: 61 8 8369 9523 E: jobs@winebiz.com.au W: www.winejobs.com.au Brought to you by Grapegrower & Winemaker

business & technology

Bulk wine – it’s a big business in today’s market If you think South America is Australia’s competitor in the bulk wine market then think again. Mark Rowley provides an overview of what drives the global bulk trade and proves the Northern Hemisphere still sets the price.

At a glance: •

•

The gap between global supply and demand has tightened in the past 10 years with wine production falling and wine sales growing at a relatively constant rate. Wine production has ranged between 26 and 30 billion litres over the past 15 years, with production varying by an average of 4 per cent from year to year. In 2013 all major wine-producing countries lifted production. Italy, the world’s largest producer, rose 2% to 4.5 billion litres. It is possible information on the US drought and potential lower yields in the Southern Hemisphere are providing some support for bulk wine pricing

Figure 1: Global Wine Production

Source: OIV and Euromonitor

THE bulk/commodity wine market is highly dependent on the interactions between supply and demand. With global demand for wine growing Bulk Wine consistently during the past decade, global wine pricing is highly dependent on supply changes and hence as an agricultural product, seasonal conditions. In 2012, some commentators were predicting a global shortage of wine as smaller crops were harvested in that vintage. However in 2013, Mother Nature provided favourable growing conditions in almost every corner of the globe and a large crop was produced. This article examines how pricing for bulk wine has been impacted by this cycle and it is still the Northern Hemisphere producers who dictate the market price. The gap between global supply and demand has tightened in that decade, with wine production falling and wine sales growing at a relatively constant rate. Arguably supply has had a more significant effect on price changes for commodity wine than demand. Figure 1 illustrates that global wine production has ranged between 26 and 30 billion litres over the past 15 years, with production varying by an average of 4 per cent from year to year in that time. While production had been trending downwards due to vineyard removal and seasonal conditions (most notably in 2012). However, according to the OIV, wine production was estimated to have increased significantly in 2013. In 2013, all major wine-producing countries recorded production increases (see Figure 2). Italy, the world’s largest producer, increased production by 2% to 4.5 billion litres, albeit at a level lower than what had been recorded in earlier years. French production rebounded from a poor 2012 vintage but yields were still considered to be lower than average. The major mover was Spain, with production forecast to increase 23 per cent to four billion litres. Some sources have estimated even greater production than the OIV and it is possible Spain was the number one wine producer in 2013. Wine production from the US also increased, with consecutive record high vintages according to the US Department of Agriculture (OIV figures for 2012 and 2013 are provisional and the larger vintages are not reflected to the same extent as the USDA suggests). In what may contradict recent record crops, California is experiencing an ‘extreme to exceptional’ drought which has the potential to reduce yields in 2014.

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June 2014 – Issue 605

In the Southern Hemisphere, the Argentine, South African, Australian and Chilean harvests were also higher in 2013 than the previous year. Intelligence from Rabobank suggests the 2014 crush in Australia, Chile, South Africa and Argentina will all be down – significantly in the case of Chile and Argentina. Fluctuations in wine production have an obvious impact on the average price of bulk wine shipments (defined by shipments of wine in containers above two litres). Figure 3 illustrates this point. Only 11 of the 15 largest bulk wine markets were included due to lack of data availability for certain countries. The countries included in the analysis accounted for 79 per cent of bulk wine imports in 2013 and included Germany, US, France, UK, Portugal, Canada, Russia, Switzerland, China, Japan, Czech Republic and New Zealand. In 2011, global production recorded its second light year in a row. As a result, prices for bulk wine began to rise at the start of 2012 – this also coincides with when wine from the 2011 Northern

Hemisphere vintage would have begun to hit the market. The average price took another ‘leg up’ in September 2012 when harvest in the Northern Hemisphere was in full swing and the low yields were being realised. The average price of bulk wine peaked in March 2013. By this time, there was confirmation of larger crops in Argentina, Australia, South Africa and Chile. The Northern Hemisphere also followed suit with large crops and as a result the average price of bulk declined further. The last three months of the chart illustrate somewhat of a stabilisation in the average price of bulk wine shipments. It is possible that information on the US drought and potential lower yields in the Southern Hemisphere are providing some support for bulk wine pricing. Figure 3: Imported Bulk Wine Price Index vs. Global Wine Production

Figure 2: Wine Production by Country (billions of litres)

Source: OIV

Source: Global Trade Atlas

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business & technology The five largest exporters of bulk wine are, in rank, Spain, Italy, Australia, Chile and South Africa. Naturally, the volume wine exported in bulk is influenced by the size of the crop. This reason is twofold. Firstly, the domestic wines are usually the dominant source of wine in the domestic market and therefore the scope to increase sales through increasing market share is lower. Secondly, the global wine market is obviously much larger than the domestic market. Therefore, exports are the natural means for selling wine from a larger vintage. Figure 4 illustrates total bulk wine shipments on a moving annual total (MAT) basis. Spanish wine export declined as a result of the lower crops in 2011 and 2012, however volumes started to increase again around the same time information on 2013 yields was emerging. It was Chile and South Africa that were the major benefactors of the lower Spanish crops with their exports moving in an inverse direction to that of Spain. These two countries have trade advantages over Australia but also have arguably a lower cost base. It is common to consider South Africa and South America as our low-cost competitors, however in reality; it is Italy and Spain that ship huge quantities of low priced wine. Due to Australia’s relatively small production base, its supply fluctuations have a limited influence on the global commodity/bulk wine market. However, as was demonstrated with excess Spanish supply undermining its own pricing, the same occurs for Australian wine. It is obvious getting the balance right is critical for industry profitability. Contact: Mark Rowley Wine Australia

Figure 4: Bulk Wine Exports by Country

Figure 5: Bulk Wine Exports by Country

Source: Global Trade Atlas

Our purpose is to provide buyers the best choice and sellers the best opportunities when dealing with Australian Bulk Wine.

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Differences of distributor decisions across the US, Australia and China When wine starts moving around the world most people are exporting direct to distributors. In this second of three papers, wine economics researchers Steve Goodman and Cullen Habel take a look at what turns on a distributor to take on a new wine. THIS paper seeks to give the top level results of the comparisons of results from distributors in Australia (AU), China (CH) and the US. The f undamental approach is around the question: What influences a distributor to take on a new winery? So many times we’ve seen very good product with very good marketing plans that have fallen short of success due to the inability to attract a distributor, particularly in export markets. In our experience we’d say that securing a distributor is a, if not the, key determinant of success for a winery. This research started with qualitative work, talking and listening to what distributors had to say, and then moving into an experimental design to show

the relative strength of the influences on the decision to take on board a new winery. Figure 1 shows the top level comparisons between the three markets. Continuing on from qualitative work, the US showed retail price point was very important, much more than AU and CH; if you are looking to enter the US markets, then do your homework. You need to know where your wine sits price point wise, how crowded it is, what other wines are there and how yours compares. Just because ‘that’s how much it costs me to make’ doesn’t make it a valid reason for sitting at that retail price point. It is worth looking at the market in a pricing exercise to see

where opportunities exist to develop a wine or to target what you have. Speak with distribution and retail in the US to find out what price points are sought after – you will need to fit into them. The US is much more influenced by ‘taste’, ‘range of wine offered by the winery’ and ‘grape variety’ than CH and AU. It appears from this that part of the distributor’s ‘solution’ in the US is to take on a winery that offers a range, the qualitative work indicated price point variety as well as grape type. The US and AU are very comparable in terms of A&P, press write-ups, medals and origins. So again, a key difference between the US and AU comes down

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business & technology Figure 1

Figure 2

to knowing your price points and matching opportunities to quality. Figure 2 shows the results when we look at distributors that have a high proportion of their business selling to Off-Premise customers. AU and US may be similar in terms of margin, but again, the US is much more influenced by price point. Similar to earlier consumer work, CH is much more influenced by ‘brand’. Different to the On-premise distributors, AU is more influenced by ‘the range offered’ than the US. ‘Taste’ is much less of an influence in CH than AU and the US, in fact CH compared to the other two markets, in this segment is much less influenced by all other attributes except for brand. Figure 3 shows the results for the distributors which have a higher focus on On-Premise, where we see the continued lesser influences of all attributes, although the strength of the influences becomes somewhat closer. Margin in AU is much stronger than the US, where ‘taste’, ‘origin’, range’, ‘grape’ and interestingly, ‘tasting stock allowance’. This last attribute does tie in with results that show the importance of On-Premise managers/sommeliers/chefs liking the taste of the wine. A small influence, but a difference nonetheless that might be exploited if you were to design/offer a tasting program and allowance for US distributors that target on-premise customers. In both of these results, ‘merchandising support’ is more of an influence in CH and the US than AU. This does create a point of difference in your approach, the design and implementation of brand based merchandising support. Our experience has shown the results that can be achieved through ‘supermarket’ style merchandising work, from ‘facing up’ of stock to negotiating floor displays, better fridge locations and retail knowledge. Yes, it is a resource intensive activity, but effective design needn’t be on a large scale at first. Perhaps the approach with other principals of the distributor to see how a ‘team effort’ might be executed through a cooperative approach. As with the On and Off-Premise channels, there are differences throughout the segmentation analysis – we can talk for days on the opportunities and subtle differences that just might assist in shaping and targeting your pitch to find a new distributor. What we’ve done is to make a report giving easy to read radar-plots of all the segmentation (also available for On and Off-Premise analysis).

98 Grapegrower & Winemaker

The research has been funded by industry (GWRDC) so we want to ensure all wineries have access to all segmentation; every situation is different and we’ve worked to develop a way of presenting the insights so that you can use them to guide you in your decision making. Find out who you are trying to do business with, their size in terms of sales, the orientation (on or off premise focus), the number of reps they have. Then go through the radar plots to look at the influencers for customers of that type – and if you want to talk it offer in relation to your own wine – drop us a line. Distributor Influence Attributes 1

retail price point

margin

testing stock allowance

advertising and promotion contribution

press write ups and features

medals and awards won

vintage/aged wine

merchandise support from the winery

grape variety

range of wine offered by the winery

brand

origin/region

like the ta-ste

This paper gives the comparisons between the three markets in the study (Australia – AU, China –CH and the USA). Previous articles are available at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/wine2030/ research/fields/ or by emailing the authors. Key is that there has been a rich stream of results to assist in decision making, the reports of the full project are available at the website given – and the authors are happy to discuss findings and share insight – contact details given below. About the authors: Steve Goodman is senior lecturer in marketing at The University of Adelaide Business School, specialise in wine business research. Contact: steve.goodman@adelaide.edu.au Cullen Habel is an independent market research consultant and adjunct lecturer in marketing and market research at the University of Adelaide. Contact: www.cullenofadelaid.com

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June 2014 – Issue 605

looking forward 2014

looking back

Australia & New Zealand June 18-20 (JD) Boutique Wine Awards 2014 Concord, NSW. www.boutiquewines.com.au 18-20 (JD) Cairns Show Wine Awards Cairns Showgrounds, QLD. www.cairnswineawards.com.au

29 The Edinburgh Cellars Shiraz Challenge Mitcham, SA. www.edinburgh.com.au/cellars 30 June-4 July (JD) BRISBANE - 2014 Royal Queensland Wine Show Bowen Hills, QLD. www.rqfws.com.au

18-19 Winery Engineering Association National Conference & Exhibition 2014 McLaren Vale, SA. www.wea.org.au

July

20 (CD) 2014 PERTH Royal Wine Show Claremont Showground, WA. www.perthroyalshow.com.au

1-31 Coonawarra Cellar Dwellers Various cellar doors in Coonawarra, SA. www.coonawarra.org

21-22 Subaru Yarra Valley’s Shortest Lunch Yarra Valley, VIC. www.yarravalleysmallerwineries.com.au

11 (CD) ADELAIDE 2014 Royal Adelaide Wine Show - Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA. Wayville, SA. www.thewineshow.com.au

22-24 Fine Food New Zealand Auckland, NZ. www.finefoodnz.co.nz 25 Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine VI. Perth, WA. www.langtons.com.au/Classification

11-12 Mudgee Small Farm Field Days Mudgee, NSW. www.arec.com.au 11-13 The Good Food & Wine Show – Perth Perth, WA. www.goodfoodshow.com.au

June 1994

International June 22-25 8th American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) Annual Conference Washington, USA. www.wine-economics.org

18-20 Sitevinitech China 2014 Yinchuan-Ningxia, China www.wineinternationalltd.com

24-27 SIAL Brazil Sao Paulo, Brazil. www.sialbrazil.com

19-21 15th Malaysian International Food & Wine Fair. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. www.wineinternationalltd.com

27-29 Wine & Gourmet Taipei 2014 Taipei, Taiwan. www.winegourmettaipei.com

19-22 (JD) San Francisco International Wine Competition. San Francisco, California, USA. www.sfwinecomp.com

July

20-21 ENOVITIS in Campo Italy. www.enovitisincampo.it 20 (CD) New World Wine Awards Wellington, NZ. www.wineshow.co.nz

7-10 International Terroir Congress 2014 Tokaj, Hungary. www.terroircongress.com JD = judging date CD = closing date

20 (CD) The Spiegelau International Wine Competition. Marlborough, NZ. www.spiegelauiwc.co.nz

June 2014 – Issue 605

June 1984 Wolf Blass Wines will launch a major export drive in the Pacific region and Japan following its $6.3 million public float last month. The company has produced a special white wine style specifically for the Queensland and Pacific markets which are expected to be the biggest growth areas for the wine industry. The public share issue which opened and closed heavily oversubscribed on May 30, involving 12.6 million 50 cent shares at par and represents 40 per cent of the wine company.

27-29 The Good Food & Wine Show – Sydney Sydney, NSW. www.goodfoodshow.com.au

16-18 (JD) Shanghai International Wine Challenge (SIWC) 2014. Shanghai, China. www.siwc.org.cn

We step back in time to see what was happening through the pages of Grapegrower and Winemaker this month 10, 20 and 30 years ago.

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Organisational unification within the Australian wine industry has been boosted following the reaching of an agreement between the Independent Wineries Association (IWA), the Australian Winemakers’ Forum (AWF) and the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA). As part of the agreement the IWA has accepted a seat on the board of the AWF, the electoral college of the WFA but will retain its independence. Such a move will allow the IWA’s representative Ken Helm to bring IWA issues, support and expertise to the board and the industry.

June 2004 In a mid-vintage update, New Zealand Winegrowers reiterated its pre-vintage announcement that the wine industry was on track for a record grape crop in 2004. New Zealand Winegrowers CEO Philip Gregan said “vintage has now been underway for nearly two months”. Meanwhile, good quality fruit and above average yields have made this year’s vintage a good one for Gisborne grapegrowers, with some calling 2004 “one of the best vintages in the past decade”.

Grapegrower & Winemaker

sales & marketing

FIND YOUR SUPPLIER QUICKLY WITH OUR June 2014 Advertiser List Supplier

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Supplier

Page

AGCO Corporation

Lallemand Australia Pty Ltd

Albatrans International Freight Forwarders

Ledgard

Apricus Australia

MEP Instruments

Aust & International Agri Exchange

101

MIA Vine Improvement Society

102

Australian Beverage Systems

Mono Pumps (Australia)

Austwine Brokers

New Holland

Bibber International

102

New Zealand Frost Fans

Braud Australia

Omnia Specialities Australia

Bruce Gilbert Vine Grafting

102

Oomiak

C E Bartlett

Pastro Custom Ag

101

Patritti & Co Pty Ltd

102

Pellenc Australia

CBRE (Real Estate - Finniss river) Counterpoint Pyrenees)

Vineyard

(Real

Estate

17, 19

Croplands

Plastic Precise Parts

Della Toffola Pacific

QUBE Logistics - SA

Drummuster

R.D. Tallarida Engineering

Duncan Ag

Rapidfil

Ryset (Aust)

Spagnolo Engineering

20 102

Duplex Cleaning Machines Eclipse Enterprises Aust Pty Ltd Farmoz Pty Ltd

25,27

87 76, 102

36,38,42,44

Streamline Cartons

Farnese Vini

103

Syngenta Australia

Felco

Travhotec

Fischer Australis Pty Ltd

Vine Industry Nursery Association (VINA)

102

FMR Group Ltd

Vine Sight

102

GEA Westfalia Separator Australia

Vinewright

102

Gori Australia Pty Ltd

Vinvicta Products

Grapeworks Pty Ltd

Whitlands Engineering

33 24

Graphic Language Design Pty Ltd

Wine Grape Growers Australia

Groguard Australia Pty Ltd

Wine Storage and Logistics

Hypac Pty Ltd

Winequip

104

JMA Engineering Pty Ltd

Winery Engineering Association

Kauri Australia (a limited partnership)

WJB Consulting

Wood-Shield

MGA Insurance Brokers

Winery Engineering Association

MIA Vine Improvement Society

110

Woodchuck Equipment

Wood-Shield

Kym Jones Exhibitions

75, 80, 83, 85

AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND GRAPEGROWER & WINEMAKER *Australia's largest circulation wine industry trade magazine celebrating more than 50 years of publication. *Now available online to all subscribers. *All Marketplace adverts also appear on Winebiz Classifieds * For advertising enquiries please call Chas Barter on 08 8369 9513, c.barter@winetitles.com.au

Winebiz Calendar

Australia’s most comprehensive list of wine industry related local and international events and courses – available online FREE! Search for conferences, trade shows, competitions, courses, festivals & Australian & international wine shows.

www.winebiz.com.au/calendar 100 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Marketplace

All advertisements also appear on www.winebiz.com.au/classifieds/

FARNESE VINI

WINEMAKER REQUIRED ITALY 2014 Farnese Vini, one of the best awarded wine companies of Southern/Central Italy, requires winemakers for the 2014 vintage. There are opportunities in Central and South Italy, mostly starting August and lasting 8 to 12 weeks. Accommodation and an attractive salary provided. Experienced winemakers and with a minimum knowledge of Italian should apply with a CV and covering letter together with dates available by e-mail to: segreteria@farnesevini.com, or by fax +39 (0) 85 906 7389

Rino Santeusanio Winemaker TEL: +39 085 906 7388

All the information you need in one place IN PRINT & ONLINE

Opportunity to gain additional experience

• 7,000 Industry listings • 9,000 Personnel • 3,100 Wineries • 4,800 Wine brands • 1,500 Grapegrowers • 2,200 Buyers’ guide listings • 280 Distributors & retailers • 180 Writers & media

Record overseas experience on you C.V. A life-time of opportunity

PLUS

+ Statistics + 2014 Overview + Calendar of events + Wineshows + Courses + Organisations

June 2014 – Issue 605

• Work in America or in Europe during their current Vintages • Meet with people of your age from other countries • Have Oenology qualifications along with some practical experience • Departure in August and September • Minimum of THREE months work • Paid an allowance while working • Aged between 20 and 35 years

PO Box 3093 KEW, Victoria 3101 Ph (03) 9818 2395 – Fax (03) 9818 7255 Email: auintagx@bigpond.com Web: www.agriculturalexchange.com

NEW 2014! Facebook & Twitter account listings

To advertise in this space, contact Chas Barter on

To order your copy: Ph: +618 8369 9509 E: orders@winetitles.com.au Visit: www.winebiz.com.au

www.winebiz.com.au

(08) 8369 9513 or c.barter@winetitles.com.au Grapegrower & Winemaker

101

Marketplace

PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO THE WINE INDUSTRY

WANT TO WORK & TRAVEL OVERSEAS?

Marketplace

All advertisements also appear on www.winebiz.com.au/classifieds/

Vineyard opportunity

VINE GRAFTING

Are you a winemaker who would like to run his own show but does not have $ millions? We are selling our beautiful 65ha property in the Victorian Pyrenees, with 3.5ha vineyard (vines up to 35yo), winery with cellar door, 20ML licensed dam, well designed 6yo house in established gardens, separate SC cottage, olive grove, fruit trees and more. All for the price of a mediocre house in the city! More info: www.winerytogo.weebly.com email: counterpoint@netconnect.com.au

Bruce Gilbert 0428 233 544 Brian Phillips 0417 131 764 fax 03 5025 2321

with Nordson hot melt gluer. Fully Automatic, Very good condition. Does 6 & 12 Bottle Packs Contact: Geoff Dover Wine Mob: 0421 337 009 Ph: (08) 8296 8261 Email: geoff@patritti.com.au

Vine Industry Nursery Assoc.

VINEYARD SECONDS – EX JUGIONG

Cane Support Tabs

95 x 95 x 300 2 Lt Milk carton size

C.O.P (carton over packer)

brucethegrafter@gmail.com www.brucethegrafter.com

Vine / Tree Guards 65 x 65 x 480 Most popular vine size

FOR SALE

www.vina.net.au

• Dripmaster Dripper Pipe • CCA Treated & Hardwood Posts • Strainers & Intermediates Vineyard Removal Specialists – visit our website or call for details.

75 x 75 x 400

Tom Stephens 0428 443 263

Staple around for bushier trees 75 diameter x 420

• Low cost protection against spray, rabbits, wind etc. • Long field life of18 months plus • Available in white poly coated cartonboard • Suit vines, trees, olives, citrus etc • Supplied flat in boxes • Just square up and ready to go • Comes with indent cane holder

www.vinesight.com.au

MIA Vine Improvement Society Griffith, NSW Providers of certified, quality vine and prune material. Available in 2014 are rootstocks and vinifera.

Quality Grapevines

Streamline Cartons Ph 1800-227866 Fax (08) 8260 2387

www.streamlinecartons.com.au sales@streamlinecartons.com.au Supplying vine growers for the past 8 years

Paul Wright PO Box 180 Mt Pleasant South Australia 5235 Ph 08 8568 2385 www.vinewright.com.au

Vintage Overseas?

For your copy of our 2014 Order Form please contact us! P 02 6968 1202 F 02 6968 1479 M 0412 699 476 E miavis@exemail.com.au

WINE PRESS SERVICING • Preventative maintenance & breakdown repairs for all makes and models. • 24/7 coverage during vintage • Large inventory of spare parts. • Membrane replacement. • PLC upgrades and design improvements. Electrical & mechanical expertise.

Marketplace

03 9455 3339 • www.rapidfil.com.au

Talk to us!

www.bibber.com.au

info@bibber.com.au I 08 8374 0077

102 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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June 2014 – Issue 605

Where can I find wine business solutions online?

www.winebiz.com.au • latest wine industry news • leading industry journals & books • classifieds • job postings • vintage reports & statistics • Buyers’ Guide of wine services & equipment • local weather • article archive • directory of wineries, wine shows, events, education courses & so much more T: +618 8369 9500 F: +618 8369 9501 E: info@winetitles.com.au W: www.winebiz.com.au

Melbourne

Adelaide

New Zealand

FOR ALL YOUR

CRUSHING AND PRESSING NEEDS

Puleo Destemmer Crushers

Puleo Pneumatic Presses

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Premium destemmer crusher with electronic variable speed for cage and shaft speed adjustment. Sliding adjustable crushing rollers, and optional draining hopper available

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Mori Destemmer estemmer Crushers

Mori Lift Cage Hydraulic Pres

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S/Steel Drain Plate with forklift pockets The lift cage allows easy & quicker removal of the drain plate with cake Available in 80cm, 95cm and 130cm S/Steel cage sizes

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For further details, contact us on: Melbourne 59 Banbury Rd, Reservoir Ph. 1300 882 850 Adelaide 12 Hamilton Tce, Newton Ph. 08 8365 0044 New Zealand 4c Titoki Place, Albany, Auckland Ph. 0800 699 599 E. sales@winequip.com.au www.winequip.com.au www.winequip.co.nz