Grapegrower & Winemaker November 2021, Free Preview

NOVEMBER 2021

WIND IN THEIR SALES GROWING PROFITABILITY FOR CELLAR DOORS

GET PUMPED ENERGY EFFICIENT

PUMPING SOLUTIONS

PEST INTENTIONS NEW INSIGHTS INTO PHYLLOXERA

2021 ANNUAL THEME: SUSTAINABILITY | ISSUE THEME: DTC & CELLAR DOOR SALES

contents NOVEMBER 2021

ISSUE 694

NOVEMBER 2021

WIND IN THEIR SALES GROWING PROFITABILITY FOR CELLAR DOORS

GET PUMPED ENERGY EFFICIENT

PUMPING SOLUTIONS

PEST INTENTIONS NEW INSIGHTS INTO PHYLLOXERA

2021 ANNUAL THEME: SUSTAINABILITY | ISSUE THEME: DTC & CELLAR DOOR SALES

The November issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker focuses on direct-toconsumer and cellar door sales. The cover shows Anne Timms – daughter of Bob and Dianne Morrison – at the cellar door of Morrisons of Glenrowan in Victoria. Photo

by Kieren Tilly

REGULARS 7

Winetitles Insights

8

In this issue

8

What’s online

44 Ask the AWRI

81 Producer profile: Spring Timlin 84 Marketplace classifieds 86 Looking back 86 Calendar

NEWS

68

Inclusive network for women in wine launched

13 Endeavour Group announces

Supplier of the Year Awards Program

12 Brian Croser AO awarded WCA

South Australia Legend of the

Vine 2021

15 Family wine companies and growers

to bear the brunt of loss of China

9

10 Out of this world tech for Aussie wine

14 Wine Australia welcomes new CEO

17 International briefs

86 GRAPEGROWING

18 FEATURE Assessing nutrient inputs for

warm and cool climates 23 Crop manipulation: treatments to

enhance harvest outcome

26 New phylloxera research: actions

for industry 32 FEATURE Advanced tech drives

vineyard automation

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

40 Tannat Uncorked: The beauty that can

pack a beastly punch www.winetitles.com.au

November 2021 – Issue 694

Hans Mick Editor

48 WINEMAKING

46 FEATURE Reducing winery pumping

and refrigeration energy consumption

52 X-Fresh: a new yeast for lower alcohol

and natural acidification

58 Behind the Top Drops: Mount Pleasant

Lovedale Semillon 64 Young Gun: Dan Graham BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

68 PACKWINE Regional sustainability

through the lens of adapting packaging

to the 21st century SALES & MARKETING

71 To your health! The growing demand

for no and low alcohol wine

78 FEATURE DtC, cellar door sales and

the export market: a pandemic update

November 2021 – Issue 694

Cellar doors and DtC sales are the theme of this issue of the Grapegrower & Winemaker. Not surprisingly in this age of the pandemic, direct-to-consumer sales have outperformed all other channels in 2020-21. According to Wine Australia’s latest DtC Survey Report, the value and volume of direct-to-consumer sales have shown increased profitability.

With more operators emerging from the shadow of lockdowns, journalist Samuel Squire provides an update on how the growth of DtC and cellar door sales, as well as export options, are lifting business opportunities (page 78).

With the summer growing season right around the corner, viticulturist Sam Bowman provides guidance on planning a nutrition program from the perspective of both warm and cool climates (page 18). Meanwhile, a new study undertaken by Agriculture Victoria Research is summarised

by Vinehealth Australia, providing insights into a new tool to identify phylloxera and highlighting the next phase of research (page 26).

www.winetitles.com.au

Crossing the Tasman, Simone Madden-Grey examines the integration of technology into organic grapegrowing through the trial of an advanced automated tractor system (page 32).

Moving into the winery, Ian Jeffery delves into the role of variable speed drives in improving pumping and refrigeration efficiencies (page 46). We’re also introduced to a new yeast for producing lower alcohol concentrations in wine and providing natural acidification (page 52). For this month’s Behind the Top Drops, Sonya Logan talks to current Mount Pleasant chief winemaker Adrian Sparks and Phil Ryan, who was chief winemaker for 35 years from 1978, about the highly regarded Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon (page 58). We also meet Young Gun Dan Graham, winemaker at Sigurd Wines (page 64).

We also conclude our series on ‘NOLO’ wine, this time examining the consumer response to the growing category (page 71).

There’s much more as well, so I hope you enjoy the read!

Grapegrower & Winemaker

5

grapegrowing Wines by Geoff Hardy Hand Crafted Tannat.

Tannat

Uncorked

The beauty that can pack a beastly punch

This month, journalist Samuel Squire ventures his mind to the shores of Uruguay, where an emerging variety called Tannat has made a big name for itself thanks to its distinct characteristics. Mnemonic for ‘tannic’, much like Merlot is for ‘mellow’, Tannat is a grape variety that can be brash and beastly, or smooth and refined in the hands of knowledgeable winemakers. We find out how it got to Australia’s shores, and how it’s been performing in our market since its arrival.

T

annat is a red winegrape most closely associated to the Madiran winemaking region in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains in southwestern France. It has been growing in that region since the 1600s.

The French kings of the 17th and 18th centuries used to accept Madiran wines as payment for taxes. Madiran appellation laws at the time actually mandated that Tannat be blended with Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc to mellow out its tannic and astringent nature.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

In the late 19th century, Basque migrants took some Tannat vine cuttings over to South America, where it is now considered to be Uruguay’s national grape.

Known for its distinctive, tough skins and deep black flesh, Tannat is used as the principal ingredient in Madiran wines, where concentrated and traditionally tannic wines are made.

The climate of Uruguay was found to be very adaptable for Tannat, and now it has adapted so well, that the variety accounts for one third of the country’s total wine www.winetitles.com.au

production. Surprisingly, Tannat is grown more in Uruguay than its original home of southwestern France.

As winemakers and viticulturists know, tannins come from the skins and the seeds of the grapes when crushed.

Tannat just so happens to have five seeds, while normal red winegrapes contain just two or three. These additional seeds create a higher concentration of polyphenols, procyanidins, flavenoids and resveratrol, which are the four main antioxidants found in red wine, and Tannat has been identified by leading November 2021 – Issue 694

winemaking

Behind the Top Drops

Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon

It’s been an historic year for Hunter Valley-based Mount Pleasant — not only is it celebrating 100 years since winemaker Maurice O’Shea acquired the first property that would bear its first vineyard plantings, but the winery, vineyards and brand now boast new owners in the Medich Family Office, a Sydney-based investment group, following its acquisition from McWilliam’s Wines. Standing tall among Mount Pleasant’s stable of wines is the Lovedale Semillon. The wine was first made in 1950 and labelled Lovedale Riesling when released a couple of years later, as early Hunter Valley Semillons were often called. Today considered one of Australia’s and the world’s finest examples of the variety, the Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon is released with a minimum of five years bottle. To find out more about this historic and iconic wine, Sonya Logan went behind the scenes with current Mount Pleasant chief winemaker Adrian Sparks and Phil Ryan, who was chief winemaker for 35 years from 1978.

This year, ownership of Mount Pleasant passed from McWilliam’s Wines to investment group Medich Family Office.

How far back does the association between the McWilliams family and Pleasant stretch?

Phil Ryan (PR): McWilliams Wines was established in 1877 and by 1913 was based in the Riverina. Mount Pleasant was established by Maurice O'Shea in 1921. The McWilliams family purchased a half share of Mount Pleasant in 1932 and acquired the remaining 50% in 1941.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

When was the Lovedale vineyard acquired and planting commenced?

PR: In 1939, shortly before the onset of World War II and with the support of the McWilliams family, Mount Pleasant winemaker Maurice O'Shea looked to expand their viticultural opportunities in the Hunter. O’Shea, with his now considerable local experience and understanding of terroir, chose a property owned then by the Love family (hence Lovedale). The planting of the vineyard was temporarily halted between www.winetitles.com.au

1939 and 1945, with the Australian Government retaining a large section of the property as an emergency landing field during the war years.

The motivation for the purchase was to plant on a site specifically for white grapes and to produce a wine with regional definition from the sandy, aggregate, light clay soils with their unique structure that would capture the perfect tightness and acidity, especially with Semillon (called Riesling at the time). In its early years of planting, which November 2021 – Issue 694

business & technology

SPEAKER Sustainability

Regional sustainability through the lens of adapting packaging to the 21st century

By Tim Nowell-Usticke, director of WineWorks NZ

Susta inabi lit y, susta inabi lit y, sustainability – it’s all anyone ever talks about these days.

About author

Tim NowellUsticke

Tim Nowell-Usticke is the founder and director of WineWorks, a contract wine bottling, storage and distribution business in New Zealand, which he started in 1995. After a chaotic quartercentury of riding the boom of NZ Sauv Blanc, WineWorks is now New Zealand’s market leading contract bottler. Its three plants now carry out bottling for 400 of New Zealand’s 700 wineries, employ a team of 400 people, and WineWorks is generally regarded by its customers to be a model operation. The modus operandi of this company is to enable provision of services, skills and systems for wineries that would not otherwise be able to enjoy the economies of scale that larger wineries can afford. In his time since leaving university in the ‘8os with an honours degree in civil engineering, Tim has had 19 different careers, including five start-ups, and turned around four manufacturing businesses, saving them from receivership.

The full presentations of all the 2021 PACKWINE speakers can be viewed online now: www.packwine.com.au/ forum

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

But, don’t we all know in the back of our mind that this could be the one thing that comes along in our lifetime that we can actually do something about… and that really means something.

Yes, our team is important. Yes, profit is important. Yes, market share is important.

But, as the panic-merchants of the climate change argument say, sustainability actually could affect ecosystems dying, people dying and animals dying. In the face of these dramatic statements, you’d think that the theme of PACKWINE 2021 – “Adapting packaging to the 21st century” – would be a sideshow. But you’d be wrong. I’ll tell you why.

The focus of my presentation, “Regional sustainability”, is a great example of the ‘think global – act local’ mantra that we have all thought about – our actions down the back of the winery and between the vineyard rows and packaging our beautiful product actually do make a difference. The problem is these things happen over the long term, which means we (humans who are so good at reacting to problems and opportunities in the here and now) lose interest half way through, and say to ourselves, “I’ll just do something that makes a difference now”.

But the long term has been ignored for too long, and we’re beginning to realise the consequences of our inaction – aren’t we?

As a contract wine packer who learnt his commercial chops in the ‘80s, I’m used running things through the economic lens: Does it stack up financially?

But of course these days, when we strive to be sustainable in the wine world, we’re www.winetitles.com.au

generally trying to meet more than just the financial bottom line – it’s all about the triple bottom line, of “People, Planet & Profit”. The focus of the 21st century is continuing to look for positive effects on…

1. The global or local environment.

2. The community that the business operates in (this is often not just the vineyard area, but also the markets they sell in); and this has a special emphasis on your community of employees 3. And last, but not least, a business that makes enough margin to satisfy the demands that its shareholders, suppliers and team members place on it. (i.e. it can pay its bills and have enough left over to continue to meet its goals).

I’m going to discuss how a local contract packer can provide the economies of scale that hit these three bottom lines, and make it possible for a region to become ‘regionally sustainable’.

Often our clients want the three essential elements of sustainability, the environmental benefits, and the social and corporate responsibility, but they don’t know what it means – sustainability is a very complex area, and the market is looking for a trusted voice to not necessarily explain the math, but to believe that the story being told is actually correct.

I’ll talk about how to come up with something that customers can trust. And if there is a cost, it has to be for reasons that we care about.

And I’ll get two thing out of the way first: it’s not about food-miles!

It is far more efficient to transport via ship than it is by truck – so French wines in California have a transport footprint five times that of an Australian or NZ wine.

November 2021 – Issue 694

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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 Samuel Squire journalist@winetitles.com.au Advertising Sales Louise Reid sales@grapeandwine.com.au Production Jessica Masters

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