Grapegrower & Winemaker, March 2022, Free Preview

MARCH 2022

SENSING CHANGE DATA DRIVES VITICULTURE'S FUTURE

Benefits of ultrafiltration become clearer

Shattering expectations for bottle design 2022 ANNUAL THEME: SUSTAINABILITY | ISSUE THEME: VINEYARD FOCUS

contents MARCH 2022

ISSUE 698

Featured on the cover of this issue is winemaker Nic Peterkin who is our Young Gun for March.

Photo: Ryan Murphy

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REGULARS 7

Winetitles insights

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In this issue

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82 83 86 86

What’s online

GRAPEGROWING

International briefs

16 FEATURE Bringing fertiliser production to home soil

Ask the AWRI

Producer Profile:

20 FEATURE Precision Viticulture down to a science

Mark Summerfield

Marketplace classifieds

24 Improving efficiencies, soil and biodiversity

Looking Back

26 Harlequin ladybirds – A developing threat for Kiwi producers

Calendar

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29 Humidity – don’t sweat it

34 Nero d’Avola Uncorked: There’s something about being a bold red

NEWS

WINEMAKING

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50 Weighing filtration options – Choosing mineral, ceramic or titanium

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The Tahblik Group announces new appointment to replace retiring CEO Voyager Estate in Margaret River joins IWCA

10 The Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference to go ahead

12 2021 export figures show global challenges continue to impact Australian wine exports

14 Near miss from Margaret River bushfires

44 FEATURE Ultrafiltration the solution to eliminating bentonite?

54 Managing winery wastewater with a focus on ozone

58 A new age for sulphur dioxide testing

62 TOP DROPS: Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz 67 Young Gun Nic Peterkin

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March 2022 – Issue 698

Hans Mick Editor

W

elcome to March. With vintage proceeding well by most accounts, growers in a diverse range of regions have reported pleasing conditions ahead of harvest and are expecting good results accordingly.

However, there is still some hail-related fruit loss expected in SA’s Riverland.

62 BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

72 Proposed alcohol tax reform in the UK

76 The 18th AWITC – looking to the future through the prism of experience 77 Limestone Coast winery removes 10 million plastic bottles from oceans

SALES & MARKETING

78 Shattering bottle expectations

This issue has a vineyard focus with a number of related topics covered. Firstly we provide an update on measures being taken to secure local supplies of fertiliser as disruptions to global supply lines continue (page 17). We also delve into a data-driven future with the latest innovations related to precision viticulture (page 20). Writer Simon Madden-Grey digs up perspectives on cover crops to improve soil and vineyard biodiversity (page 24). In New Zealand, the spread of the introduced harlequin ladybird could bug wine producers and we find out what early measures are being taken to reduce the risks (page 26).

With heavy rainfall and unusually high humidity affecting many Australian wine regions over summer, we discover what the possible impact of this could be on vintage (page 29). As alternative varieties continue be mainstreamed in Australia, we take a look at one rising star: Nero d’Avola (page 34).

Heading into the winery, Sonya Logan explores the use of ultrafiltration as a way to ameliorate phenolics (page 44).

Meantime, winemaker Paul Le Lacheur uncovers the pros and cons of using

ozone as a winery sanitiser (page 55). We also look at research into the potential of sulfur dioxide testing (page 58). For Behind the Top Drops, we’re introduced to the Hunter Valley’s Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz (page 62).

We also meet this month’s Young Gun – Margaret River winemaker Nic Peterkin (page 67).

In last month’s issue we featured positive accounts of an increasingly warm reception for Aussie premium wines in the British market. Since then, reports have surfaced about proposed changes to the UK’s alcohol tax system, dampening expectations of those producers targeting British consumers. Kym Anderson, from the University of Adelaide, and Glyn Wittwer, from Victoria University, provide their answer to the question of how much this is likely to erode exporter gains from Australia’s FTAs with the UK (page 72).

With supply chain issues causing headaches across the board, we examine possible solutions to deal with dwindling and more costly glass supplies – from recycling to the rethinking of bottle design (page 78).

It’s all food for thought – enjoy the read!

E @winetitlesmedia D @winetitles Q @winetitlesmedia C linkedin.com/company/winetitles-pty-ltd

EQDC Find us @winetitles

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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

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grapegrowing

Nero d’Avola

Uncorked

Uncorked

There’s something about being a bold red

Nero d’Avola loosely translates to ‘the dark grapes of Avola’. The variety hails from the south-eastern end of Sicily, near the village of Avola, and is one of two principal varieties from the island. In Australia, many producers have brought the variety under their wing as it thrives in the warm conditions found in many of the country’s growing regions. Harrison Davies spoke to experts and producers about this up-and-coming variety in Australia.

Nero d’Avola has a short but prolific place in the Australian viticultural scene.

Its homeland, however, is Sicily.

Originating from the island’s southeastern coast, the variety thrives in hot, dry conditions and is often grown as bush vines, similar to Grenache, however more producers have begun trellising their vines.

It was brought to Australia in 1998 by Chalmers, also responsible for bringing several other varieties down under, and allowed out of quarantine for cultivation in 2001.

Since being brought to Australia, producers across the country have found quite a bit of success with the variety, and it is now grown by over 70 producers in regions from coast to coast.

The variety, like others from the Mediterranean, suits the warmer Australian climate more comfortably than more traditional reds like Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

In a report in the Wine & Viticulture Journal (Summer 2012), the AWRI’s Dr Peter Dry explored the variety’s historical roots.

“The variety has been grown for centuries in Sicily and is presumed to have originated from close to the town of Avola, in the south-east of the island,” he said.

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Nero d’Avola is one of the most planted grapes in Sicily, making up for roughly 16 per cent of plantings in Sicilian vineyards.

“In recent decades, its wines have become more reputed to such an extent that the Italian Wine and Food Society have included it in its top 12 red wine varieties of Italy.

“Nero d’Avola is the principal variety of the only DOCG wine of Sicily, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, for which it must be 60% of the blend with Frappato.

“There may now be 19,000 hectares of Nero in Sicily.”

We envisage, and we are already seeing evidence in the Australian wine market, that Australian grape growers and wine makers will embrace more Mediterranean wine grape varieties as a strategy to adapt to climate change.

– Sue Bastian The rise of Nero d’Avola has come shoulder to shoulder with the expansion of other Mediterranean varieties in the Australian wine industry, like Vermentino and Grenache.

Sue Bastian, associate professor in oenology and sensory studies at the University of Adelaide, said the onset of climate change would make varietals like Nero much more appealing to Australian producers.

March 2022 – Issue 698

winemaking

Behind the Top Drops

Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz

Originally gazetted to be a cemetery for the Parish of Pokolbin in the 1800s, Brokenwood’s Graveyard vineyard is today the sole source of fruit for the Hunter Valley-based winery’s flagship, The Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz.

First made in 1983 by Iain Riggs, who stepped down from his roles as managing director and chief winemaker at Brokenwood in mid-2020, the wine is now in the hands of the winery’s senior winemaker Stuart Hordern. Stuart spoke with Sonya Logan about the wine which has been included in every Langton’s Classification of fine Australian wine since the inaugural classification in 1990.

First of all, briefly tell us the Brokenwood story:

Established in 1970, Brokenwood Wines was founded by a trio of Sydney-based solicitors — Tony Albert, John Beeston and James Halliday — who paid a then record price of $970 per acre for a 10-acre block in the foothills of the Brokenback Ranges. The original block was destined to be a cricket ground for the local community but was instead planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

The first vintage was picked in 1973 and while none of the original partners claimed to know anything about viticulture, the wine received praise and attracted a loyal following from the first vintage.

In 1975, a new winery was built to accommodate the growing production.

Visitors helped themselves to a taste of the very limited and eagerly sought after boutique wine made by the weekend winemakers from a table standing in the shade of the first floor balcony.

Many of Australia’s most prominent wine identities have ‘done their time’ in the vineyards and winery at Brokenwood over its 51 years.

The winery started out utilising its estate-owned vineyards to make wine.

At what point did the winery begin to look beyond its own plantings and even beyond the Hunter for its fruit sources?

Brokenwood sourced fruit from outside the Hunter Valley for the first time in 1978 — Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra, which was blended with Hunter fruit to make a premium red, creating the style that has been synonymous with Brokenwood for the last 40 years.

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March 2022 – Issue 698

Minimal intervention. Sustainability.

Organic growing. All things that sound more and more like marketing jargon.

For winemaker Nic Peterkin, they sit at the core of his vision.

His label, L.A.S. Vino, has seen somewhat of a meteoric rise since launching in the mid-2010s and has heralded change across the industry and across the Margaret River region.

Peterkin grew up amongst a family of winemakers and growers and was exposed to all areas of winemaking from a young age.

Despite his passion for winemaking being clear now, it wasn’t always destiny for Peterkin.

We agreed that great wines have a balance of both science and art and, of course, luck. The luck of the vintage, the weather and the fermentations. L.A.S. Vino was born.”

– Nic Peterkin “I grew up with wine on both sides of the family. Cullen on my mother’s side and Pierro on my father’s side,” he said.

“I spent hot summers in the vineyard weeding and water shooting; spent wet, cold winters pruning and vintages cleaning the drains and floors.

“If anything, growing up in a small family winery extinguished any passion I could have had for vineyards or winemaking, but working vintages was an easy and accessible way to make money to travel, which I love.”

The travel itch was enough to get him in the game and the family instinct lead him toward a Masters in Oenology at Adelaide University.

He reflected gleefully on his time at university and explained how it allowed him the chance to rediscover wine for himself.

“Prior to Adelaide, wine was a part of my life; in Adelaide, wine was my life – t was a match that started a fire,” Peterkin said.

“In Adelaide, every breathing moment was wine.”

March 2022 – Issue 698

Nic was exposed to all areas of wine production from an early age having grown up in a family of winemakers and grapegrowers cheers to that!

Wine wasn’t just the family business anymore, now it was his. It allowed him to combine the analytical, scientific parts of his mind with the creative and gave him a unique lifestyle that he had been seeking.

“I realised the wine world combined a lot of my favourite things and provided a lifestyle I enjoyed living,” he said.

“The diversity of the job and the people involved in the industry are great.”

What’s in a name?

Peterkin’s meticulous approach to winemaking is encapsulated in the name of his label: Luck, Art and Science.

The name came from his tenure on vineyards in Mexico in 2012 when one gumptious winemaker proclaimed Australian wines too formulaic.

“I was doing a vintage in Mexico in 2012 and, over a few mezcals, the Mexican winemaker at Casa Madero was expressing how he thought the Australian wine industry had a tendency to produce recipe based industrial driven wines based too much on science with not enough in art,” Peterkin explained.

“After tasting a few faulty wines in the regional parts of Mexico, which could have been easy fixes if a little science was applied I told him that a lot of the wines there had a little too much art and not enough science.

“We agreed that great wines have a balance of both science and art and, of course, luck. The luck of the vintage, the weather and the fermentations. L.A.S. Vino was born.”

The early days of the label were built www.winetitles.com.au

L.A.S. Vino focusses on single vineyard, single variety wines made with sustainable growing and winemaking methods.

Photo: Ryan Murphy.

I don’t know how all of this plays into my philosophy of winemaking but living in a great place with great people certainly makes the work more enjoyable.”

– Nic Peterkin upon hard work and an un-flappable drive to succeed.

Peterkin explained the initial struggles to find buyers and distributors for his wine and how he became the face for L.A.S. in Perth in the early days.

“In the early days in Perth I would fill up the boot of the car with wine and just drive around cold calling bottle shops and restaurants,” he said.

“The aim each day was to empty the car of wine so I didn’t have to carry it back into the house. It grew from there.

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