“If we can improve the quality of lower price point wines and consumers are accepting of this practice, then why not use it? Natural flavour additives could help Australian wines compete with other New World producers at similar price points,” she said. As well as a researcher, Saltman is also a winemaker and has experienced vintage in several regions including
University of Adelaide PhD candidate Yaelle Saltman.
Bordeaux, Napa Valley and New Zealand. She says she appreciates the concerns that some winemakers might have. “As a winemaker, I’m all for natural flavourings in wine – but with limitations,” she said. “The question is how far you can go to improve wine quality while maintaining consumer acceptance.” She said another challenge will be for the industry to decide how to define a “flavour additive”. “There are quite a lot of additives that are used in wine today that consumers don’t know about, such as oak. While it’s considered a processing aid, all it really does is generate oak flavours in the wine,” Saltman said. “So the industry has ways of adding flavour that benefit the wine without actually making reference to the use of flavour additives. The challenge for industry will be to define what exactly a ‘flavour additive’ is.” July 2013 – Issue 594
Wine rules and the law The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code – Standard 4.5.1 – interprets wine as: “the product of the complete or partial fermentation of fresh grapes, or a mixture of that product and products derived solely from grapes”. The Code lists several additives and processing aids that can be used in the production of wine, none of which include artificial flavourings or natural flavourings. Wine Australia’s general manager, regulatory advice Steve Guy says the reason the Code does not allow for the addition of flavourings is a historical one. “From a health and safety point of view, there’s no reason why flavourings cannot be added. But if you extract flavours from other fruit into wine, you start blurring the boundaries of what wine is,” Guy said. He says wine could risk losing its status as the ‘product of grapes’ if the Code was to be changed to include flavourings. “The idea of adding natural flavourings to wine comes up against the pretty well established integrity of wine. To start extracting flavours from other fruits or vegetables for wine would interfere with that integrity,” he said. Even if the law was to be changed, Guy says there would be issues around export. “I can’t think of a wine-drinking country, Old World or New World, that would allow a product with flavour additions to be described as wine,” he said. “If there’s a desire and will on part of the wine industry to change the law, it could be done – but it would need to be recognised that although it can be done domestically, it won’t be an easy thing to do in other countries.” The legal requirements for wine production in Australia are outlined in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code – Standard 4.5.1 (w w w. c o m l a w. g o v. a u / D e t a i l s / F2012C00776). Saltman will hold a workshop on ‘Using natural food additives to improve the quality and consumer acceptability of wine’ on Sunday 14 July from 8.30am-12.30pm at the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference, at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. Participants will get to taste wines, including the prototype wines used in Saltman’s research. Saltman will talk about the results of her research over the past two years as well as future innovation in wine production. www.winebiz.com.au
Wine Analysis mep.net.au/winelab
A U S T R A L I A
A U S T R A L I A
Pat. alcohol determination in wines, beers and spirits Anton Paar Alcolyzer® M Series
pH, total titrateable acidity and SO2 Metrohm 916 Ti Touch
Precise CO2 and O2 measurement for still and sparkling wines Anton Paar CboxQC
Vinotrodes superior electrodes for wine labs Metrohm Vinotrode
Portable density, gravity, baume, brix measurement Anton Paar DMA 35
Fully automated pH & TA, integrated degassing Metrohm 855 Titrosampler
Homogenize grape samples in seconds
Metals analysis, antioxidant capacity, UV-Vis spectrometers Analytik Jena
RETSCH Grindomix GM300
Specord, contrAA
available at
MEP Instruments Pty Ltd Australia Tel 1300 720 485 New Zealand Tel 09 912 1330 www.mep.net.au
Grapegrower & Winemaker
61