JANUARY 2022
Turning the tide
The future of exports
Making the cut Carbonic maceration From the inside out
Reducing trunk disease in rootstocks
2022 ANNUAL THEME: SUSTAINABILITY | ISSUE THEME: VINTAGE PREPARATION
Hans Mick Editor
W 68 BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
71 New global markets and familiar challenges – creating opportunities for Australian Wine 77 How well do you manage bullying and harassment? SALES & MARKETING
79 Websites and digital sales: the new frontier
elcome to 2022! In the year’s first issue of the Grapegrower & Winemaker, we have a little something for everybody. For those toiling in the vineyard, we focus on preparing for the new vintage. Dr Richard Smart shares his insights into the importance of reducing trunk disease infection of rootstock cuttings (page 16). We also take flight on the issue of bird control, with a look at preventing damage to crops from feathered pests (page 26) and the potential benefits of drone technology to deter problem birds (page 29). Writer Simone Madden-Grey uncovers the successful methods used by sustainability-focused growers to control weeds in New Zealand (page 32). Meantime, journalist Harrison Davies recently spoke to SA growers affected by severe hail storms in October to find out how they’re dealing with the damage caused to their crops (page 38). Lincoln University researcher Dr Romy Moukarzel also provides a preview of a study to be undertaken into the potential benefits to grapevines of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (page 42). We also shine a spotlight on Vermentino for our regular Uncorked feature (page 44). For those working in the winery, we provide a snapshot of the latest technology in pumps to improve the quality of winemaking (page 49). Sonya Logan, meanwhile, examines carbonic maceration (or ‘cab mac’ for short) in the first of a two part feature on this winemaking technique involving whole bunch fermentation (page 54). We also meet quiet achiever Charlie O’Brien,
the winemaker behind McLaren Vale’s lauded Silent Noise Wine and our Young Gun for January (page 65). For Behind the Top Drops, we learn the story of Penfolds Yattarna Bin 144 Chardonnay (page 68). With exports and international shipping and logistics at the forefront of the industry right now, we delve into some of the challenges facing exporters and also scope out the potential of certain global markets for Australian wine (page 71). SAWIA’s Henrik Wallgren addresses the issues of bullying and harassment for wine businesses (page 77), while we find out just important websites and digital sales channels have become for producers over the past year or two (page 79). Enjoy the read!
E @winetitlesmedia D @winetitles Q @winetitlesmedia C linkedin.com/company/winetitles-pty-ltd
EQDC Find us @winetitles
81 January 2022 – Issue 696
www.winetitles.com.au
Grapegrower & Winemaker
5
news Vinomofo announces acquisition of events company Revel Online wine retailer Vinomofo announced it has acquired Melbournebased business Revel, the creators of global food and wine events including Pinot Palooza and the Mould Cheese Festival and Collective. Vinomofo CEO Paul Edginton said both Vinomofo and Revel were forward thinking, innovative businesses that had laid the foundation for success but recognised additional future business growth can come from businesses innovating their offers to better meet customers’ needs. “As our customer base grows year-onyear, we are seeing demand for a more extensive offering, with tactile, engaging, fun experiences at the top of the musthave list,” said Edginton. “The recent news to acquire Revel further builds our capabilities to continue meeting the growing needs of our customers who love wine, food and the adventure of experiencing it all.” Edginton said the time was right to investigate opportunities that would develop a deeper customer connection by offering services that enhance their online wine offer. “Over the last 18 months, the team at Revel successfully navigated a path through the pandemic with innovation, adaptation and sheer determination,” he said. “We’ve watched as they cultivated their offering and remained dedicated to ‘creating remarkable experiences that people could love and learn from’. As a similarly savvy company, we saw that and admired what they achieved.” Vinomofo co-founder Justin Dry said customers could expect to see Vinomofo and Revel adapt and evolve. “The team at Revel – they get us. They get what we do. There’s a familiarity, mutual respect, and shared passion for creating remarkable experiences,” Dry said. “It’s our shared ethos that has us excited and working on new, exciting projects that will be launched [this] year. Dan Sims and Revel are industry legends – an industry we are so proud to be a part of. January 2022 – Issue 696
“The recent news to acquire Revel further builds our capabilities to continue meeting the growing needs of our customers who love wine, food and the adventure of experiencing it all.” Paul Edginton “2022 is going to be nothing short of epic. Watch this space.” Revel founder Dan Sims said the acquisition was a coming together of two great entrepreneurial minds in the Australian wine industry. “Justin and I have been talking about collaborating for a number of years now and in many ways, this partnership really does make sense,” Sims explained. “I’ve always had a huge respect for him personally, what Vinomofo do and have achieved, and I’m just so excited to work with the team and directly with Justin on some new and cool projects outside of our individual brands. “For Revel, I’m excited that it gives us the ability to realise the multiple event brand’s true potential and combine our large and diverse audiences.” Sims has over two decades experience in the wine industry; winning the www.winetitles.com.au
Inaugural Sommelier of the Year at The Age Good Food Guide in 2008, as well as numerous other awards including Best Digital Wine Communicator in 2018 by the Wine Communicators of Australia. He said he has no intention of stepping away from the business. “This is a huge opportunity for our team and our customers alike as we tap into the incredible business and audience Vinomofo has built over the years. Not just with the current suite of events and initiatives we’ve created, but with new opportunities that will give them access to even more great times and connections,” concluded Sims. The deal will see the entire Revel team remain with the company. The acquisition brings together two great minds of the Australian wine industry in Dan Sims and Justin Dry, with the shared goal of making great wine (and artisan cheese) accessible to all people. Grapegrower & Winemaker
9
news
Jeffrey Clarke. Photo: Bragato Research Insitute.
– each very subtly different – will allow us to select traits to accommodate a changing environment, capture market opportunities, and fend off biosecurity threats,” said Clarke. Most of New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc vines are of the same variant. This means that a new pest, disease or environmental change that affects one Sauvignon Blanc vine could affect every one of them. Sauvignon Blanc provides 87 per cent of the export revenue of New Zealand’s $1.9 billion wine industry.
Major research programme aims to protect and enhance NZ Sauvignon Blanc Bragato Research Institute (BRI) has announced that through a partnership with the government, work has begun on its Sauvignon Blanc Grapevine Improvement Programme. The research programme will develop new variants of New Zealand’s premier wine varietal, Sauvignon Blanc, to make the wine industry both more resilient and more sustainable. More resilient by identifying traits such as drought and frost resistance, and more sustainable by seeking natural resistance to pests and diseases. “The New Zealand wine industry has a substantial track record of coming together to create large R&D projects for the benefit of the industry as a whole. This will be the first national grapevine improvement programme in the country,” says BRI CEO Jeffrey Clarke. BRI has designed an accelerated sevenyear research programme that will apply the latest genome sequencing technology, after using established tissue culture techniques. 12
Grapegrower & Winemaker
The programme seeks to develop new grapevines with traits such as improved yield, more tolerance of fungal attack, frost, high temperatures and drought, and which either maintain the characteristic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc wine flavour and aroma, or offer new opportunities to expand sales of novel Sauvignon Blanc styles. This will allow BRI to create up to 20,000 entirely new variants of contemporary New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and then screen them to identify plants that exhibit the most useful traits selected by the wine industry.
“The innovation in this programme is in harnessing the natural diversity that appears when plant cells are exposed to harsh environmental conditions, and repeating this in a way that is controlled at scale,” principal research scientist Dr Darrell Lizamore said.
Clarke made the announcement following the signing of a new partnership investment between the government, industry organisation New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW), and more than 20 wine sector companies.
“The technology we will use is not being harnessed similarly for grapevines anywhere else in the world, and this programme leverages unique New Zealand knowledge and capability developed over the past decade.”
The programme’s partners will invest NZ$18.7 million over seven years, making this the industry’s largest research project ever.
Dr Lizamore will be based at a newlyestablished research and laboratory facility built in collaboration with Lincoln University.
The government, through the Ministry for Primary Industries, is investing $7.5 million, NZW up to $6 million in levy funds, plus cash and in-kind contributions of $5.2 million directly from participating New Zealand wine companies.
To deliver the programme, BRI is working closely with Plant & Food Research as a major partner.
“This innovative programme builds sustainability for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Growing a huge number of vines www.winetitles.com.au
“Selected new variants will have enhancements that will boost sustainability and industry resilience, while producing wines that still possess all the distinctive characteristics our local and international wine consumers have grown to love,” Clarke said. January 2022 – Issue 696
Stay ahead in the wine industry with a subscription to
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE WINE INDUSTRY SINCE 1963 Publisher and Chief Executive Hartley Higgins General Manager Robyn Haworth Editor Hans Mick h.mick@winetitles.com.au Associate Editor Sonya Logan s.logan@winetitles.com.au Editorial Advisory Board Denis Gastin, Dr Steve Goodman, Dr Terry Lee, Paul van der Lee, Bob Campbell MW, Prof Dennis Taylor, Mary Retallack and Corrina Wright Editorial Harrison Davies h.davies@winetitles.com.au Advertising Sales Louise Reid sales@grapeandwine.com.au
SUBSCRIBE AND RECEIVE
Digital Access
Delivered Aust. Post
+ Digital Access
Creative Services Jarren Gallway Luke Fernandez Circulation: subs@winetitles.com.au
Unrestricted access to Grapegrower & Winemaker and winetitles.com.au on your desktop, tablet and mobile
Winetitles Media ABN 85 085 551 980 630 Regency Road, Broadview, South Australia 5083 Phone: (08) 8369 9500 Fax: (08) 8369 9501 info@winetitles.com.au www.winetitles.com.au E @winetitlesmedia D @winetitles Q @winetitlesmedia C linkedin.com/company/winetitles-pty-ltd
Grapegrower & Winemaker DIGITAL & PRINT EDITION available every month
Grapegrower & Winemaker DELIVERED AUST. POST every month
from $79 S U B S C R I B E T O D AY $55 Upfront for the Upfront for the WINE INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS
Production Jarren Gallway
first 12 months
first 12 months
Printing by Lane Print Group, Adelaide ISSN 1446-8212 © Contents copyright Winetitles Media 2022 All Rights Reserved. Print Post Approved PP100004140 Articles published in this issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker may also appear in full or as extracts on our website. Cover price $8.25 (inc. GST) Subscription Prices Australia: 1 year (12 issues) $79.95 (inc. GST) 2 years (24 issues) $150 (inc. GST) New Zealand, Asia & Pacific: 1 year (12 issues) $114 (AUD) 2 years (24 issues) $217 (AUD) All other countries: 1 year (12 issues) $190 (AUD) 2 years (24 issues) $349 (AUD)
S U B S C R I B E T O D AY w w w. w i n e t i t l e s . c o m . a u / g w m or call +618 8369 9500
Students (Aus only): 1 year (12 issues) $66 (inc. GST)