Wine & Viticulture Journal - November/December 2017

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017 · Volume 32 Number 6

FERMENTATION • Yeast population dynamics in the vineyard & winery • Influence of sequential inoculation on sparkling wine • Canopy management effiencies highly modulated by climate conditions • The price determinants of Australian Riesling • Tasting: High elevation vs southerly latitude Pinot Noir

Steam rises off a new barrel emerging from hot water at the Dargaud et Jaeglé cooperage.

To cooper a new barrel requires heat.

First to bend the staves, then to toast the inside.

Dargaud et Jaeglé bends the staves by immersion in hot water before toasting over an open fire.

A gentle technique for a more subtle toast and softer tannins, respecting fruit flavours.

In Australia contact Geoff Henriks 0412 947 090 | geoff@djbarrels.com.au

www.dargaud-jaegle.com/en

Creating barrels for winemakers since 1921

IN THIS ISSUE

R E G U L A R F E AT U R E S

C O NN ET W E N S T S

V I T I C U LT U R E

8 ASVO (Anthony Robinson): Busy end of year for the ASVO 10 WFA (Tony Battaglene): WET rebate - what the changes mean for our wine business

36 Canopy management efficiencies are highly modulated by the climate conditions

11 WINE AUSTRALIA (Andreas Clark): Focus on wine exports and tourism at Wine Australia’s annual Exporter Update

WINEMAKING

12 ERIKA SZYMANSKI: The cultivated, the wild and everything in between: yeast population dynamics in the vineyard and the winery

42 Highlights from the 10th International Workshop on Grapevine Trunk Diseases 48 Waite Diagnostics marks 20 years of service to the viticultural industry 51 ALTERNATIVE VARIETIES: Barbera

BUSINESS & MARKETING

53 The price determinants of Australian Rieslings

18 Rapid assessment of wine yeast viability and vitality 22 Influence of sequential inoculation in the first fermentation on the foaming properties of sparkling wines 27 DAN CALVERT: Pinot Noir: up or down?

31 AWRI REPORT: Struck match, freshness and tropical fruit: thiols and Chardonnay flavour 58 Ties that bind: building strong importer and retailer relationships to drive premium wine export sales 60 MARK ROWLEY: Exporting wine - how Wine Australia can help

WINE TASTING

67 High elevation and southerly latitutde Australian Pinot Noirs V3 2N 6

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Established 1985 Published bi-monthly Publisher: Hartley Higgins General Manager: Elizabeth Bouzoudis Editor Sonya Logan Ph (08) 8369 9502 Fax (08) 8369 9501 Email s.logan@winetitles.com.au Editorial Advisory Panel Gary Baldwin Peter Dry Mark Krstic Armando Corsi Markus Herderich EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE Lauren Jones, Write Lane CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lara Agnoli Jason Amos Matthew Ayres Evelyn Bartowsky Tony Battaglene Regina Billones-Baaijens John Blackman Dan Calvert Dimitra Capone Joan Miquel Canals Steve Charters Andreas Clark Duncan Cook Armando Corsi Roberta Crouch Peter Dry Rachele Falchi Francesca Fort Leigh Francis Tommaso Frioni Elena Gonzalez-Royo Nuredin Habili Jose Heras Markus Herderich Dan Johnson Mark Lloyd Vinh Lu Laura Medina-Trujillo Eddie Oczkowski Alberto Palliotti Amy Rinaldo Anthony Robinson Mark Rowley Paolo Sabbatini Neil Scrimgeour Nathalie Sieczkowski Paolo Sivilotti Mark Sosnowski Lucinda Staley Erika Szymanski Patricia Williamson Fernando Zamora Shijian Zhuang Advertising Manager: Paul Andrew Ph (03) 9370 0040 Fax (08) 8369 9529 Email: wvjsales@winetitles.com.au Production and Design: Luke Westle Subscriptions One-year subscription (6 issues) Australia $77.00 (AUD) Two-year subscription (12 issues) Australia $144.00 (AUD) To subscribe and for overseas prices, visit: www.winetitles.com.au Published by Winetitles Media ABN 85 085 551 980 Address 630 Regency Road, Broadview, South Australia 5083

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Sonya Logan, Editor

I

think I’m the least ready for the end of a year than I’ve ever been this year.

Don’t quite know why. Christmas paraphernalia has been going up around me for weeks with ever-increasing intensity. Yet still I can’t get my head around the fact that 25 December is less than a month away. My Christmas and Boxing Day plans with family and friends have been finalised – with no urging from me I might add – yet still the spirit of the season evades me. Christmas lunch with friends and work colleagues have taken place, and I’ve even largely taken care of buying this year’s Christmas presents, but I feel that’s been thanks to automatic pilot than a swell in my fervour for the festive season to be upon us.

However it is, after all, still November as I write this editorial – sure, only a couple of days of the month are left, but maybe, just maybe, it’s the rest of the world that is heralding the end of each year earlier and earlier and I’m just playing catch up.

Not even preparing for this final issue of the Wine & Viticulture Journal for the year has heightened my sensitivity to the fact that the end of 2017 is nearly upon me. And here it is in your hot little hands! (And, thankfully for you reader, my planning and enthusiasm for it well and truly exceeded my current zeal for the coming end-of-year by several sleigh lengths…Wait, did I just say sleigh?

Perhaps there’s hope for me yet!).

Of course, as readers only know too well (those in the Southern Hemisphere at least), once Christmas and New Year celebrations are out the way, vintage is the next looming event on the calendar. And to help get into the spirit, this issue focusses on fermentation.

Our new regular writer Erika Szymanski kicks things off on page

12 with a look at the interaction of commercial yeast strains with their indigenous counterparts. Thanks to a variety of new techniques, how commercial yeasts interact with their native equivalents is now easier to assess, which is particularly useful given the growing number of wineries choosing spontaneous ferments.

New technology features again in the following article by a team of researchers from the Australian Wine Research Institute and Lallemand Australia who have demonstrated the potential of a tool to rapidly assess the viability and vitality of yeast cultures during fermentations.

Although more research into the tool is required, it offers to give winemakers a more accurate picture of the health of their ferments, which means fermentation practices can be managed more effectively (page 18).

Christmas is very much dominated by sparkles – sparkling tinsel, sparkling lights and, of course, sparkling wine.

Our third and final fermentation article is therefore quite timely: researchers from Spain report on their study into the influence of a sequential inoculation of Torulaspora delbrueckii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the first fermentation on the foaming properties of sparkling wines. With the foam of a sparkling wine a key indicator of quality, improving foam is an ongoing quest for many of the winemakers who make bubbles, and the co-inoculation of these yeasts has shown it might have what it takes (page 22).

Best wishes of the season to all our readers and may the 2018 vintage proceed smoothly for those who will be up to their necks in it by the time our first issue of the year hits letterboxes.

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The opinions expressed in Wine & Viticulture Journal are not necessarily the opinions of or endorsed by the editor or publisher unless otherwise stated. All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher.

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Cover: Ben Heide REGULAR FEATURES

NEWS 6 ASVO 8 WFA 10 WINE AUSTRALIA 11 PRACTICAL WINEMAKING 12

4 www. wi n e t i t les.com.au

AWRI REPORT 35 ALTERNATIVE VARIETIES 51 VARIETAL REPORT 64 TASTING 67

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N E W S

S N I P S

INLAND REGIONS FORM ALLIANCE The Riverland, Murray-Darling/Swan Hill and Riverina, which collectively are responsible for around 70 percent of Australia’s winegrape production, have signed an agreement to form the Inland Wine Regions Alliance (IWRA) to act together on matters of mutual interest and concern.

“These regions have much in common.

As well as being the backbone of the Australian wine industry they also generate the majority of export earnings from the sale of wine around the world,” said Murray Valley Winegrowers executive officer Mike Stone. “About 80 percent of wine exports are made from grapes produced in the three regions.”

A Memorandum of Understanding between Riverland Wine Grape Growers Association, Murray Valley Winegrowers and Riverina Wine Grapes Marketing Board underpins the role and activities of the alliance. The bodies’ combined grower membership exceeds 1600.

Stone said the IWRA would present a single voice on agreed matters of common concern and interest, and it expected to be influential at regional, state and federal levels. It also aimed to share information, initiatives and resources for the benefit of its members.

Stone said the IWRA would operate across a core area of activity including consultation with Wine Australia, Australian Vignerons, Winemakers Federation of Australia, Plant Health Australia and state and federal governments when required.

“We particularly want to see a vast improvement in the industry data that growers receive. There are shortcomings in vineyard statistics and in the data that growers need to understand the outlook for supply/demand,” he said.

“We also expect to become active in the promotion of the Australian Wine Industry Code of Conduct, with the aim of achieving greater sign-up to the voluntary code.”

Former long-serving chair of CCW Cooperative and board member of the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (now Wine Australia), Jim Caddy, has been active in establishing the alliance and will fulfil the role of coordinator and spokesperson for the IWRA. AUSTRALIA’S SMALL WINEMAKERS REPORT STRONG GROWTH Australia’s small winemakers have reported strong growth in revenue and production across all sales channels for the second consecutive year, according to the findings of the recently-published Small Winemaker Production and Sales Survey 2016–17 report by Wine Australia.

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The report notes production and revenue for small winemakers (categorised as those crushing up to 500 tonnes) grew by 10 percent in 2016–17.

Small winemakers contributed an estimated 8% to the total Australian winegrape crush and $1.3 billion of wine sales.

The vast majority of wine sales for Australia’s small winemakers were in the domestic market, with retailers accounting for almost half of all wine sales and cellar door nearly one third.

Cellar doors and export markets were identified by small winemakers as presenting the best business opportunities over the next five years.

The report also revealed that cellar doors were the fastest-growing sales channel with an average 6% growth.

Other key insights from the report include: • small winemakers accounted for 35% of domestic sales value and 10% of export sales value • 73% of small winemakers reported increased revenue, 10% reported no change and 16% reported a decline in sales • the retail channel was the largest domestic channel for small winemakers, accounting for 45% of wine sales on average, with cellar door sales second at 30% • other direct-to-consumer channels – such as own website, online retail through a third party and mail order/ wine club – together accounted for 17% of wine sales.

PROSECCO PRODUCERS GO TO PARLIAMENT Australian Prosecco producers met with federal politicians in late October to brief them on the impact of expected attempts by the European Union to prevent them from marketing their wines with the grape variety on labels as part of upcoming Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Ross Brown (Brown Brothers), Michael Dal Zotto (Dal Zotto Wines) and Eliza Brown (All Saints Estate) said any such efforts would be devastating, wiping out millions of dollars of marketing and brand building investment by regional businesses, and cutting off the growth prospects of the Australian Prosecco industry at its knees.

Ross Brown, executive director of Brown Brothers, the largest Australian producer of Prosecco, said Prosecco was a globallyrecognised grape variety and being unable to use it on a label would be akin to losing the right to use the term Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.

“This is a cynical move by the Italians to prevent other countries participating in the huge growth opportunities in the domestic

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and international Prosecco markets,” said Michael Dal Zotto, whose family was the first to commercially grow Prosecco in Australia.

Tony Battaglene, chief executive of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA), said the industry was looking to work cooperatively with Australian Government trade negotiators to develop a strategic approach to the negotiations that would allow Australian Prosecco to trade throughout the world.

“We need the Government and Opposition representatives to understand that there are real jobs and investment at stake. We fought off an EU claim on this same issue in 2013 and the industry will be fighting hard to again defend its right to use the term Prosecco as a grape variety,” he said.

REPORT REVEALS POTENTIAL IMPACT OF AUSTRALIA’S NUMBER ONE PLANT PEST ON WINE INDUSTRY An incursion of Xylella fastidiosa, the pathogen responsible for Pierce’s disease, could cost the Australian wine industry up to $7.9 billion over 50 years, according to a recently-released report released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

Xylella fastidiosa is one of the world’s most devastating plant pests and there is no cure. In California, it has caused more than $100 million in yearly losses to the grape industry. Although not present in Australia, it could arrive on imported plant propagation material or insect vectors.

Australia introduced emergency biosecurity measures in late 2015 to reduce the risk of a Xylella fastidiosa incursion.

These measures were in addition to strong biosecurity controls already in place, including offshore testing of nursery stock and plant material coming from countries or regions where Xylella fastidiosa occurs and certification that material is free from Xylella fastidiosa before it arrives in Australia.

“If the deadly plant bacterium Xylella fastidiosa entered and established in Australia, it would pose a significant threat to the productivity, sustainability and competitiveness of Australia’s winegrape and winemaking industries,” said the Federal Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Luke Hartsuyker.

The report also said that if an outbreak was contained within one region, the impact on the wine industry would be a fraction of the impact of an uncontrolled spread, highlighting that early detection of the bacterium would be vital.

The full report is available on the ABARES website at www.agriculture.gov. au/xylella-impact-report.

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N E W S

S N I P S

VALE DON MCWILLIAM AND WAYNE STEHBENS The Australian wine industry has farewelled former McWilliam’s Wines chair Don McWilliam and Katnook senior winemaker Wayne Stehbens.

In a statement, the McWilliam’s Wines Group said Don McWilliam, who died aged 83, was instrumental in the company’s shift to a premium offering and the building of a national portfolio of brands in key wine regions to showcase the diversity and quality of Australian wine.

McWilliam was also instrumental in establishing the McWilliam’s Maurice O’Shea Awards in 1990 which celebrates an individual, group, corporation or entity that has made a significant contribution to the Australian wine industry.

He was also active on a number of key associations within the industry including the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, Australian Wine & Brandy Producers’ Association, the Australian Wine Board and the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.

He was recognised for his considerable contributions to the wine industry when he was named a Patron of the Wine Industry in 1994 by the Winemakers Federation of Australia and in 1995 received the Graham Gregory Award for his outstanding contribution to NSW wine.

Wayne Stehbens, who died suddenly aged 63, has been an institution on the Coonawarra winemaking scene for more than 38 years.

He made Katnook’s first vintage in 1979, followed by its first commercial vintage the following year, and headed its winemaking team until his death.

Over the course of his career Stehbens

Above, Don McWilliam (far right) and then Wine Australia Corporation chair George Wahby (far left) presenting Ray Becwith with the 2006 Maurice O’Shea Award; and, right, Wayne Stehbens. won two Jimmy Watson trophies (1987 and 1998) and a double trophy at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in 2003 for the 1998 vintage of Katnook’s flagship Odyssey Cabernet Sauvignon.

Stehbens served two years as president of the Coonawarra Vigneron’s Association.

COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP FOR WINE INDUSTRY TRADE EXHIBITION The Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference Inc. (AWITC), Fair Events and Wine Industry Suppliers Australia Inc. (WISA) have announced a new collaboration to deliver the Australian Wine Industry Trade Exhibition.

The three organisations will work closely together on the coordination and running of the exhibition, with this new agreement delivering certainty for exhibitors and visitors about the timing and scale of future wine industry trade exhibitions.

AWITC chair Dan Johnson welcomed

Also manufacturers of

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the partnership, saying “This collaboration is a very positive step and ensures that the Australian Wine Industry Trade Exhibition will continue as the industry’s pre-eminent trade show, held in conjunction with the wine industry’s premier technical event.

It is one in a series of partnerships that extend the impact of the conference, including agreements with the WFA Outlook Conference and the McWilliam’s Maurice O’Shea Award Dinner. These alliances are transforming the AWITC into an ‘Australian wine week’ that no-one from the grape and wine community will want to miss.”

The agreement covers the next three conference cycles, with the opportunity to extend. The next conference and trade exhibition will be held at the Adelaide Convention Centre in July 2019. Conference registrations will open in February 2019 and sales of exhibition space will commence in 2018.

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A S V O

Busy end of year for the ASVO

By Anthony Robinson, President, Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology 2017 AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE The ASVO joined forces with the Crush symposium to present the annual Awards for Excellence at a sold-out dinner held at Carrick Hill in Adelaide on 14 November.

The 2017 Viticulturist of the Year was awarded to Liz Riley, viticulturist, owner and operator of consulting company Vitibit based in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. Liz was recognised for her expertise in the sustainable management of agrochemicals including her participation in numerous research, development and extension projects focussing on fungicide resistance, practical implementation and recommendations for effective pest and disease control and her efforts to achieve ongoing access to vineyard pest and disease control options. The Winemaker of the Year was awarded to Mike Hayes, viticulturist and winemaker of Symphony Hill Wines in Queensland’s Granite Belt.

Mike has worked tirelessly for the past decade to understand and promote alternative varieties and associated innovative winemaking practices and he has shared his knowledge nationally. For further details about the Viticulturist and Winemaker of the Year, visit www.asvo.com.au.

Two research papers published in the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research were awarded for their potential to impact the industry. The Best Viticultural Paper of the Year was awarded to Mark Sosnowski, Matthew Ayres, Eileen Scott and Trevor Wicks for their paper, ‘Developing pruning wound protection strategies for managing Eutypa dieback’.

The Best Oenology Paper of the Year was authored by Simone Vincenzi, Diana Gazzola, Matteo Marangon, Gabriella Pasini and Andrew Curioni and entitled, ‘Grape seed extract: the first protein-based fining agent endogenous to grapes’.

a Fellow of the ASVO. The purpose of the honorary membership category of Fellow of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology is to recognise the exemplary contributions by its members to the organisation, and to the discipline and/or profession of viticulture and/or oenology.

Louisa is highly respected within the wine industry across all areas of winemaking, viticulture and industry leadership. During her 25-year career at Yalumba, Louisa has championed technical change in the winery and has overseen significant shifts in practice including the change from inoculated ferments to the wider use of natural ferments in a larger commercial winery situation and practices to reduce the use of animal-based finings and opening new market opportunities for vegan wine. Louisa has done this in collaboration with research organisations such as the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) and The University of Adelaide to ensure that the safety and longevity of the techniques are adopted and sustainable.

Louisa has led the evaluation of new grapevine clones and championed the variety Viognier. Beyond this, she has been remarkable in her promotion of alternative varieties, and has been an integral part of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show as a committee member, judge and ambassador. Louisa has been extremely active as a wine show judge in Australia and

overseas, acting in the roles of judge, panel chair and wine show chair.

She has received a number of accolades from key wine shows and media entities such as: The Age’s Best Winemaker 2014, Gourmet Traveller Wines’ Winemaker of the Year 2008, and the Women in Wine Award from the International Wine and Spirits Competition in 2004.

Louisa authored the sparkling wine chapter of Australian Winemaking, a compendium of Australian oenological practice, published by Trivinium Press and available at: https://winebookcellar.com.au/ awm/awm/spk.

Louisa’s contributions to and accolades in the industry have led her to become a prominent role model for aspiring winemakers and her peers.

Louisa joined the ASVO in 1991 and has been an active contributor to the organisation, presenting at numerous technical workshops and seminars and also contributing as a technical speaker and session chair at several Australian Wine Industry Technical Conferences. She was named the 2013 ASVO Winemaker of the Year in recognition of her work on the adoption of natural ferments and the reduced use of animal-based fining products in a commercial winery setting.

She has continued to have input into this award and has chaired the ASVO Winemaker of the Year selection panel for the past two years.

NEW ASVO FELLOW Louisa Rose was also honoured at the ASVO Awards for Excellence for her particularly outstanding and meritorious contribution to the grape and wine industry and the ASVO by being admitted

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ASVO Viticulturist of the Year Liz Riley and Winemaker of the Year Mike Hayes.

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A S V O

Dr Mark Sosnowski, Matt Ayres and Professor Eileen Scott, authors of the 2017 ASVO Viticulture Research Paper of the Year.

Louisa is described by her peers and colleagues as a great thinker, one who resolves problems and moves onto the next challenge. She has been extremely gracious with her time in promoting Australian wine and in championing research, development and extension across industry. Above all she is humble and goes about her activities somewhat under the radar. It is her quiet achievements, her unwavering support for individuals and her boundless capacity to share her experience and expertise that make her most worthy of the honorary role of ASVO Fellow.

OENOLOGY SEMINAR The day after the ASVO’s Awards for Excellence in Adelaide, almost 70 enthusiastic winemakers, researchers and students attended our regular oenologythemed seminar. This was highlighted as a topic of interest from previous seminar attendees and provided an update on the latest developments in sensory science used to advance our understanding of oenology. Dr Leigh Francis, from the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), provided a summary of the major developments and key individuals involved in advancing sensory techniques over the last few decades. Dr Paul Smith, of Wine Australia, showed how many myths prevail in our understanding of wine mouthfeel and how the application of analytical and sensory methods have been used to shed light on these misconceptions.

Toni Paterson, Master of Wine, provided the perspective of a wine judge and critic and the challenges of palate fallibility and

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fatigue in doing justice to the demands of both producers and consumers.

Presentations from Dr Renata Ristic, from The University of Adelaide, and Dr Patricia Williamson, from AWRI, showed the results of broad-based consumer sensory studies across a range of cultures. These studies highlighted differences in wine appreciation in these contexts and the importance of addressing terminology and emotions as drivers and constraints. For a different perspective, Richard Gawel, from the AWRI, and Claudia Guillaume, from Modern Olives Laboratory, provided their insights into olive oil production and the factors that influence its sensory properties.

The highlight of the seminar was the introduction by Dr Sue Bastian and her group from The University of Adelaide to RATA (Rate-All-That-Apply), a new methodology that allows rapid but powerful evaluation at the expert or consumer level. This was compared favourably to established techniques which are slower, more demanding and much more expensive. Oliver Tomic, international guest speaker visiting from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, led an interactive tasting to demonstrate the powerful and accessible statistical tools which provided convincing evidence that this is a technique with great potential for both wine research and broad industry uptake.

ASVO ANNOUNCES NEW PRESIDENT AND CHANGES TO ITS BOARD The results of the ASVO’s general board election were announced in November.

We are happy to confirm 228 valid ballots

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votes were received representing 43% of eligible voters. Our congratulations to all candidates for their commitment to the profession, and willingness to participate and we sincerely thank every member who participated by voting in one of our most important governance events.

Anthony Robinson (Treasury Wine Estates) and Mardi Longbottom (AWRI) were reappointed for their third terms with Matt Holdstock (AWRI) returning for his second term. The ASVO welcomes new directors in Brooke Howell (Yalumba Family Vignerons) and Chris Brodie (Wingara Wine Group). Brooke, viticulturist and technical manager at Yalumba Family Vignerons, based in the Barossa Valley, is keen to ensure the future of the society is sustainable and believes the next generation has a vital role to play in providing a different perspective. Chris, general manager – vineyards for the Wingara Wine Group, in Coonawarra, is excited to give back by encouraging others to benefit from and contribute to the ASVO. Executive and office bearers were elected on the 16 November at the ordinary board meeting. Anthony Robinson was elected as the new president supported by immediate past president Mardi Longbottom as vice president. Kristy Bartrop (Casella Family Brands) has taken on the role of treasurer while Matt Holdstock continues in the role of secretary and public officer. The ASVO would like to thank outgoing president Mardi Longbottom for her hard work and dedication to the organisation. Her insight and focus has been invaluable during her term as president.

The ASVO would also like to thank outgoing directors Brett McClen and Mike Trought. Brett has made an outstanding contribution to the board having served as vice president, treasurer and chair of the Mildura program committee over a four-year period. Mike provided valuable experience and insight to the board bringing a global perspective to discussions during his term.

The new ASVO board members are: Anthony Robinson (president), Mardi Longbottom (vice president), Kristy Bartrop (treasurer, regional director, NSW), Matt Holdstock (secretary & public officer, Paul Grbin (regional director, SA), David Wollan (regional director, VIC), Fiona Kerslake (regional director WA, QLD & TAS), Chris Brodie and Brooke Howell.

WVJ

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W FA

WET rebate - what the changes mean for our wine businesses

By Tony Battaglene, Chief Executive Officer, Winemakers’ Federation of Australia

A

s the 2018 vintage approaches, it’s important for wine businesses to understand the implications of the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rebate changes which have been the subject of so much industry debate over the past 18 months.

The Federal Government’s changes were approved by the Australian Parliament on 17 August this year and are now law, known as the Treasury Laws Amendment (2017 Measure No.4) Act 2017.

Winemakers who currently access the rebate, sell grapes to a wine producer who receives the rebate, or use distributers, will need to understand what the changes are and what the implications will be for their businesses going forward.

WFA has been working with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to develop guidance on all of these issues to help our industry navigate the changes. WFA and state wine associations hosted important information roadshows in a number of wine regions throughout November to give industry members the opportunity to speak directly with ATO staff. The ATO, at the time of going to print, was looking at making other information resources available to assist industry.

A number of critical elements in the new legislation will have an effect on many wine businesses.

Critically, to be eligible to claim the WET rebate, proof of ownership of the grapes will mean that some form of contract must be in place at the weighbridge (prior to crushing). This may take the form of an exchange of letters or emails, but a more formal contract will provide more surety. The agreement must be in place prior to crushing – agreements put in place after the fact are not acceptable.

Any agreement must state when title passes - noting that payment terms are separate to transfer of title, and require acceptance from both parties.

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Retention of title clauses may mean that ownership does not pass to the grape purchaser at the weighbridge.

Therefore, such clauses cannot be included in a contract for the purposes of establishing WET eligibility.

...to be eligible to claim the WET rebate, proof of ownership of the grapes will mean that some form of contract must be in place at the weighbridge ...The agreement must be in place prior to crushing – agreements put in place after the fact are not acceptable.

The ATO will require record keeping that demonstrates ownership of the grapes, from prior to the crusher through to the final branded and packaged product. The ATO will continue to put a strong emphasis on compliance and, to ensure producers pass an audit, their records will need to be comprehensive and verifiable.

Some distribution models will require different payment forms.

For example, if a producer sells to a distributer, they can quote, but if that distributer on-sells to a further distributer, no rebate will be available but WET will be payable.

The transitional provisions are complex. In essence, sales of bulk wine after 1 January 2018 will not be eligible for the WET rebate and industry is looking to the ATO to provide clear guidance on all of the ins and outs.

The requirement to have contracts does give both parties the opportunity to write into the agreement a reference to the Australian Wine Industry Code of

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Conduct. This code has been in place since December 2008. It is voluntary and there are no joining fees or ongoing annual costs. The code’s purpose is two-fold: • to establish a common framework for Australian winegrape supply contracts • to provide a dispute resolution system to manage price or quality assessment disputes.

Winegrape purchasers who are signatories to the Code of Conduct agree to be bound by its principles in their commercial dealings with winegrape growers. The code provides a good mechanism to resolve disputes without recourse to expensive legal proceedings. While not perfect, it does work and this is a timely reminder for producers to look into it if they have not already or revisit the code given these developments.

We would like all wine businesses to become code signatories and WFA encourages producers to go to www. wineindustrycode.org and consider signing up. After all, no business big or small wants to end up in court and the code can help avoid that.

The new WET legislation will clearly require all businesses to understand how it will apply to their own businesses. I would encourage producers to learn as much as they can, and to make sure their contracts and record keeping are up-to-date.

For more information about the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, go to www.wfa.org.au or email wfa@wfa.org.au In the next issue of the Wine & Viticulture Journal the WFA will explore wine marketing and the industry’s licence to operate.

WVJ

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Focus on wine exports and tourism at Wine Australia’s annual Exporter Update

By Andreas Clark, Chief Executive Officer, Wine Australia

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ustralia’s wine exports have experienced significant growth at almost all price points over the past 12 months, but the wine community is pushing to boost this even more – and it has the China and USA markets firmly in its sights.

More than 200 new and existing wine exporters attended our annual Exporter Update in November to hear the latest market insights, trends and opinions and learn how to grow their exports across China, the USA, UK, Europe, Canada and other emerging markets. If you were unable to attend this year’s Exporter Update, you can view the speakers’ presentations at www.wineaustralia. com/whats-happening/events/2017-exporter-update.

This year’s update also gave exporters the opportunity to learn more about the Australian Government’s Export and Regional Wine Support Package. This one-off allocation of $50 million over four years is focussed on showcasing the nation’s wine tourism and driving demand for Australia’s wine exports in China and the USA – Australia’s two largest wine export markets by value.

With Australian wine exports to the USA heavily weighted to the commercial end, a key focus of the $50 million package is on improving the perception of Australian wine to increase exports of wines that retail for US$11 per bottle and over.

In China, where the value of exports has trebled in the last five years, the focus is on continuing the strong export growth and furthering trade and consumer knowledge of our fine wines.

As our speakers at the Exporter Update acknowledged, improving the perception of Australian wine in specific markets is no easy task, but this $50 million commitment from the Australian Government gives us an opportunity to deliver targetted marketing campaigns at a size and scale never before seen.

Already, Wine Australia has delivered a suite of early investment events, including Aussie Wine Week in New York and San Francisco, the China Awards in Shanghai and Hong Kong Wine & Dine Week – all of which featured new initiatives to amplify the celebration of premium and diverse Australian wine amongst key wine trade and consumers.

This momentum will continue over the next three years as we partner with Tourism Australia, Australian wineries and marketing experts to deliver the four components of the $50 million package. These will include: • China and USA marketing campaigns that are bigger, bolder and better than ever before • export-readiness activities to leverage the opportunities created from international marketing campaigns, including capability development workshops, access to detailed market analysis and a wine export grant for small and medium wine exporters • state-based and competitive grants for new wine tourism initiatives that build a stronger pull for Australia’s food, wine and tourism experience and grow the number of and/or spend of international wine tourists in our states and regions, and • development of brand proposition and go-to-market strategy for Cider Australia.

With the grant components of the $50 million package anticipated to open from December, 2018 is shaping up to be a very busy year for the Australian wine community. If you’re seeking more information about the package, we’d love to hear from you! Contact grants@wineaustralia.com or (08) 8228 2000 or visit www.wineaustralia.com.

WVJ

Export and Regional Wine Support Package Growing the Australian wine sector Showcasing the nation’s wine tourism Driving demand for Australia’s wine exports

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Visit erwsp.wineaustralia.com Phone (08) 8228 2000 Email grants@wineaustralia.com

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YEASTS

The cultivated, the wild and everything in between: yeast population dynamics in the vineyard and the winery

By Erika Szymanski

Following her first article for the Wine & Viticulture Journal in the September-October issue, Erika now turns her attention to the interaction of commercial yeast strains with their indigenous counterparts which, thanks to a variety of new techniques, are now easier to document.

A

re ‘wild’ fermentations wild? Are ‘native’ fermentations native?

Do commercial yeast strains stay where they’re inoculated, or do they travel around the winery? And have commercial yeast strains infiltrated the environment so that they creep into spontaneous fermentations even in wineries where those strains have never been deliberately used?

At the heart of such questions are deeper concerns about how myriad yeast strains interact in the uncontrolled environmental spaces of wineries and vineyards. An accumulating pile of microbiological evidence indicates that commercial yeast strains specially developed and sold for winery use do not die out when their assigned fermentations are complete. Nor do these strains simply outcompete their indigenous neighbours to dominate the fungal ecology of the wineries where they are used. The picture emerging from recent studies is much more complex, arriving somewhere between those two extremes.

Questions about yeast population dynamics are being asked, at some level, because scientists now have tools to ask them. In addition to relatively inexpensive DNA sequencing, numerous high-throughput DNA-based methods now allow microbiologists to assess whole populations of fungi simultaneously, including slow-growing or hard-to-culture strains (Guillamón and Barrio 2017). But it is also fair to say that questions of how commercial and indigenous yeast interact are becoming more important as more wineries choose to inoculate some ferments but perhaps allow some to proceed spontaneously. Evidence for microbial contributions to regional

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A micrograph of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Considered a relatively benign organism, releasing huge numbers of specially-bred strains of this yeast has never been perceived as a problem and, therefore, particular disposal or containment of these strains has never been required. But with the increasing interest in the makeup of vineyard and winery yeast populations, we can now ask whether commercial yeasts are altering the biodiversity of indigenous yeasts, and whether steps should be taken to protect that diversity. Image: AWRI differences in wine sensory profiles – sometimes called ‘microbial terroir’ – is also emerging, and choices about fermentation strategy are becoming part of wine marketing. Finally, it is at least theoretically possible that longterm commercial yeast use is having a demonstrable effect on indigenous yeast populations.

Historically, little has been known about how commercial wine yeast interact with their native counterparts.

That is beginning to change as a variety of low-cost genetic ‘fingerprinting’ techniques become available for documenting whole populations of micro-organisms simultaneously and for making fine distinctions amongst genetically similar strains.

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Older studies from the 1990s documented that commercial strains generally dominated ferments into which they were inoculated, but without completely excluding the growth of indigenous strains (e.g. Querol et al.

1992). Even in the mid-1990s, however, distinguishing amongst yeast strains remained difficult (Querol et al. 1994) and genetic strategies for assessing large numbers of strains from winery or vineyard samples were simply not yet well-developed. Given tools capable of greater scope and specificity – and a growing interest in how microbiomes everywhere function as whole communities – scientists can ask more complex questions about yeast population dynamics (Guillamón and Barrio 2017). ▶

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Beyond the individual winery, commercial-indigenous yeast interactions have to do with biodiversity and how commercial yeast breeding and dissemination affects the reservoir of yeast genetics available to winemakers in the future. With Saccharomyces cerevisiae considered such a benign organism, releasing huge numbers of specially bred strains has never been perceived as a problem. Special disposal or containment of these strains has never been required.

Now that microbiologists and the wine community are interested in the make-up of vineyard and winery yeast populations, we are in a position to ask whether commercial yeast is altering indigenous yeast biodiversity, and whether steps should be taken to protect that diversity.

One pragmatic reason to be interested in how commercial yeast spread is a desire for control. Many wineries may want to ferment with both commercial and indigenous yeast and to choose when they rely on one versus the other, rather than have commercial yeast drive spontaneous fermentations outside the winemaker’s control. A second reason is sustainability.

The effect of commercial yeasts on native populations matters to the long-term integrity of diverse yeast genetics in the wild. That diversity represents options for developing new yeasts in the future; more importantly, it may be important for the health of ecosystems in which yeast are important players. While no current evidence indicates that disrupting wild yeast genetics has environmental consequences, little research has been conducted to investigate that possibility.

Finally, microbiology data might help resolve – or at least add substance to – the perennial discussion about what to call non-inoculated fermentations and whether ‘wild’, ‘native’, or ‘natural’ are misplaced on wine labels.

No wine yeasts are precisely ‘natural’, if natural is assumed to mean unaffected by human activity. Genetic studies indicate that wine yeasts are domesticated – that is, they have become specifically adapted to the peculiar stresses of winemaking over the millennia that humans have been deliberately fermenting grapes.

Wine yeasts tend to have a genetic rearrangement that increases cellular production of a sulfite-pumping molecule, increasing their sulfite tolerance compared with most non-wine associated strains which lack this rearrangement (Marsit

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and Dequin 2015). Wine yeasts have also generally acquired increased resistance to copper sulfate compared with strains from other environments. Several mechanisms are likely at play in generating these kinds of differences. Winemakers, over millennia, have intentionally and incidentally perpetuated or selected strains with desirable characteristics.

Yeasts that come to be associated with winemaking environments – those that ‘show up’ year after year – will increasingly be strains that perform well in those

The researchers speculate that the unusually high prevalence and broad distribution of commercial strains that they found compared with several other studies may signify an increasing problem: over time, the persistent release of commercial yeasts may be having a cumulative environmental effect. environments. Genetic drift is also likely to be involved: geographically isolated populations ‘drift’ apart over time as each population randomly accumulates different groups of small mutations. The term ‘indigenous’ – or ‘autochthonous’, belonging to the land – is useful to signify strains resident in the vineyard or winery in contrast to deliberately inoculated commercial strains, without suggesting that those resident strains are ‘natural’ or uninfluenced by selective breeding.

In Canada, researchers from the University of British Columbia worked with Stoneboat Vineyards in the Okanagan Valley to compare yeast populations resident in the vineyard against the influence of microbiota dwelling in the winery (Martiniuk et al. 2016). Alongside spontaneous Pinot Noir fermentations conducted in the winery, identical fermentations were conducted in a sterile laboratory environment with grapes aseptically conveyed from the vineyard to prevent contamination by additional micro-organisms after harvest. On the basis of previous evidence, researchers expected to see commercial yeast strains,

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long used by this winery, influence the winery fermentations but not their lab counterparts.

While commercial yeasts were more common in the winery than the lab ferments, they were found in both locations, comprising 13 of the 254 different strains identified in total via genetic screens across all of the ferments.

In addition, the winery fermentations also involved yeast strains that were clearly related but not identical to commercial yeasts, with small differences at one or a few of the genetic markers the researchers examined. By a commonly used statistical measure for calculating relatedness, 102 strains were kin to commercial strains and 139 were genetically independent.

Commercial yeasts, in other words, appear to be exchanging genetic material with other resident yeast strains to change the makeup of the population as a whole.

Further, the winery has employed some but not all of the commercial yeast strains identified in this study over past crushes, making it reasonable to assume that strains used by neighbouring wineries have spread with the movements of people, equipment, birds, and insects.

Meanwhile, the winery and vineyard contained essentially the same noncommercially related strains. Tracing the probable genetic lineage of those strains suggested to the researchers that they are indeed indigenous to the region and could at least theoretically contribute to the regional distinctiveness of its wines.

In northeast Italy, researchers sampling grape bunches directly from the vineyard found several of the same widely used commercial strains across vineyard sites in Piave and two adjacent Protected Appellation of Origin regions (Viel et al.

2017). Like the Okanagan study, they also detected commercially related strains indicating exchanges between commercial and indigenous yeasts. Together, commercial and closely related yeasts were responsible for 10%, 23%, or 51% of the total number of strains identified in each of the three appellations. The researchers speculate that the unusually high prevalence and broad distribution of commercial strains that they found compared with several other studies may signify an increasing problem: over time, the persistent release of commercial yeasts may be having a cumulative ▶ environmental effect.

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Whether that hypothesis is correct, or whether study results differ because of regional ecological differences or winemaking practices, or because of differences in experimental design, the data are unable to say.

Experimental design does vary widely from study to study. The interests of research funders vary, as do the technologies researchers have available to them. In Bordeaux, researchers sponsored by several Sauternes estates were more interested in how resident cellar populations might differ amongst wineries (Börlin et al. 2017). They evaluated fermentations at 75% completion in an effort to specifically identify strains responsible for carrying the weight of fermentation. Across three years of sampling at three estates, an estimated 503 genetically unique yeasts were isolated (the number is an estimate because of the method by which genetic differences were documented) with only 14 genotypes found in all three sites. While a different array of strains was found at each of the three estates, the population at each site followed a common pattern: a few ‘cellar strains’ resident at the winery were essentially identical to commercial strains in common use across the region and a small percentage were clearly genetically related to these commercial strains, but better than 90% were judged to be unrelated. It is worth noting that the French scientists’ cut-off for judging relatedness to commercial strains was 75% similarity across an array of short DNA sequences, while the Italian scientists used a more lenient measure.

It would be easy to think that commercial strains, bred for fitness in stressful wine environments, would outgrow and outcompete their indigenous counterparts over the course of a fermentation. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. The Bordeaux group was also able to compare samples from 1992-1994 to samples they collected from 2012-2014 and demonstrate that some of these indigenous cellar strains were present in both samples, suggesting some long-term stability to the resident cellar population.

In other words, like commercial strains, these indigenous winery-associated strains also seem to be well-adapted to their environment and able to persist long-term alongside their commercial counterparts.

The Italian researchers call the widespread presence of industrial strains disrupting ‘natural yeast microbiota’ in the

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vineyards they studied ‘a real emergency’.

Data from other locations indicate that they may be describing a regional problem, not necessarily a global situation. Of course, they’re also not necessarily describing an emergency. Human activity has been altering yeast populations for as long as winemaking, brewing, baking, and any number of other deliberate fermentation practices have been part of daily life and food production. Continuing to do so by introducing specially-bred strains to environments where they exchange genetic material with indigenous strains can be seen as one more stage in that long history. Moreover, recent genomesequencing surveys at the Australian

design, discrepancies could indicate that studies aren’t taking into account important variables relating to how yeast strains are used, disseminated, and identified. Yeast populations may be highly context-dependent, with the intricacies of how strains interact depending on the strains involved and where they reside. As is so often the case in winemaking, a few general principles are likely to underpin the substantial influence of local context. More (and more consistent) studies of winery and vineyard microbiota should begin pointing toward those principles and, in the long run, help scientists and winemakers get a handle on how best to maintain and protect the diversity of those populations.

REFERENCES

Human activity has been altering yeast populations for as long as winemaking, brewing, baking, and any number of other deliberate fermentation practices have been part of daily life and food production. Continuing to do so by introducing specially bred strains to environments where they exchange genetic material with indigenous strains can be seen as one more stage in that long history.

Wine Research Institute indicate that many wine-associated yeast strains, commercial and otherwise, are genetically similar (Borneman et al. 2016). Such lack of diversity might be taken as a reason not to care too much about whether commercial yeast infiltrate or even take over native populations. In another sense, however, the same data might suggest that winemaking communities need to take care to preserve native yeast diversity, lest those reservoirs of difference be permanently lost.

In the midst of new data, it is important to remember that these are new questions because new tools are now being applied to ask them, not necessarily because fungal ecology is now changing in dramatically new ways. Equally important, studies of wine yeast population dynamics often arrive at different conclusions, so no one study should be generalised too far. In addition to differences in experimental W I N E & V I T I C ULT U R E JO UR NA L NO V EMBER/DEC EMBER 2017

Börlin, M.; Venet, P.; Claisse, O.; Salin, F.; Legras, J.-C. and Masneuf-Pomarede, I. (2016) Cellarassociated Saccharomyces cerevisiae population structure revealed high-level diversity and perennial persistence at Sauternes wine estates. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 82:2909–2918.

Borneman, A.R.; Forgan, A.H.; Kolouchova, R.; Fraser, J.A. and Schmidt, S.A. (2016) Whole genome comparison reveals high levels of inbreeding and strain redundancy across the spectrum of commercial wine strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. G3 6:957–971.

Guillamón, J.M. and Barrio, E. (2017) Genetic polymorphism in wine yeasts: mechanisms and methods for its detection. Frontiers in Microbiology 8:1-20.

Marsit, S. and Dequin, S. (2015) Diversity and adaptive evolution of Saccharomyces wine yeast: a review. FEMS Yeast Research 15:1-12.

Martiniuk, J.T.; Pacheco, B.; Russell, G.; Tong, S.; Backstrom, I. and Measday, V. (2016) Impact of commercial strain use on Saccharomyces cerevisiae population structure and dynamics in Pinot Noir vineyards and spontaneous fermentations of a Canadian winery. PLOS ONE 11:e0160259.

Querol, A.; Barrio, E.; Huerta, T. and Ramón, D. (1992) Molecular monitoring of wine fermentations conducted by active dry yeast strains. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 58: 2948–2953.

Querol, A.; Barrio, E. and Ramón, D. (1994) Population dynamics of natural Saccharomyces strains during wine fermentation. International Journal of Food Microbiology 21:315–323.

Viel, A.; Legras, J.-L.; Nadai, C.; Carlot, M.; Lombardi, A.; Crespan, M.; Migliaro, D.; Giacomini, A. and Corich, V. (2017) The geographic distribution of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates within three Italian neighbouring winemaking regions reveals strong differences in yeast abundance, genetic diversity and industrial strain dissemination.

Frontiers in Microbiology 8:1-15.

Erika Szymanski is a research fellow in science, technology and innovation studies at the University of Edinburgh, in the UK, where she studies yeast in contemporary biotechnology. Her background spans microbiology, rhetoric and composition, and wine studies in the United States and New Zealand, where she completed her PhD research in wine industry-focussed WVJ science communication.

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I NEE M MA G G WW I N A KKI N I N

FERMENTATION

Rapid assessment of wine yeast viability and vitality

By Amy Rinaldo1, Eveline Bartowsky2, Jason Amos2 and Neil Scrimgeour1

»

A recent study has demonstrated flow cytometry has the potential to be a superior tool to traditional methods for assessing yeast viability and vitality in ferments.

BACKGROUND Yeasts require optimal conditions to be in the healthiest state during fermentation. To maintain cells in a viable, healthy state to achieve the best winemaking outcomes, constant monitoring is required to prevent the occurrence of stuck or sluggish ferments. Analytical methods commonly employed in the wine industry tend to focus on measurement of cell mass, and sometimes yeast viability that is, the percentage of live and dead cells in a ferment. Yet an assessment of the vitality of live yeast is not currently carried out, meaning that winemakers may not get an accurate picture of the health of the ferment.

Yeast vitality is a broad term encompassing the overall health/fitness of a cell including its metabolic activity, membrane function and integrity, and overall capability to function in the current environment. It goes without saying that yeast with increased vitality have a better chance of surviving the challenging conditions posed during wine fermentation and this will help to minimise the risk of attenuated ferments occurring. When fermentation conditions become too challenging or yeast become stressed, vitality decreases, and fermentation problems are more likely to occur.

If ferment health can be determined more objectively, then fermentation practices can be managed more effectively. Yeast strain selection, rehydration environment, dose rate, and ferment nutrient additions could be more targeted and specific for the resulting wines, which could therefore be produced in a more consistent and reliable manner.

AT A GLANCE: • The health of a wine fermentation is largely determined by the vitality of the yeast cell population.

• Current analytical methods employed in the wine industry focus on measuring yeast cell mass and sometimes viability, but not vitality.

• Flow cytometry is a tool that can potentially be used to rapidly assess wine yeast viability and vitality during fermentation.

CURRENT INDUSTRY METHODS FOR MONITORING YEAST PERFORMANCE There are several different methods that can be used in the winery to monitor yeast performance. Most of the techniques involve the use of a microscope. A spectrophotometry-based method can also be used to measure cell biomass as optical density. All these methods can determine cell viability, albeit to varying degrees of accuracy, but not cell vitality. A microscope can be quite informative on the physical condition/state of the yeast. It is relatively simple to use and provides an insight into the number of yeast present and whether they are multiplying, as noted by budding cells. By using a haemocytometer (gridded counting chamber) it is possible to determine the yeast cell numbers and count the number of budding cells. This provides an indication of the state of the yeast population.

Determining the population of live and dead cells in a sample requires staining techniques to distinguish these two populations. One of the most common

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WHAT IS FLOW CYTOMETRY AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Flow cytometry has been used to study the physical and chemical properties of cells for many decades.

Figure 1 shows a simple schematic of how this technology works. A population of cells is fed into the cytometer where they are hydrodynamically focussed into single-file due to the difference in velocities of the outer sheath fluid and the sample. Each cell then passes through a laser light source, and the way in which the light scatters is detected, converted to a voltage, and

The Australian Wine Research Institute

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methods is to stain the yeast with methylene blue dye. Cells that are dead have a compromised cell wall/membrane which means they retain the dye and are seen as dark blue cells. Live cells, on the other hand, exclude the dye and appear pale in colour. The percentage of dark and light cells can be determined, and this is then used as a guide to the health of the yeast population during fermentation. However, it is often difficult to determine ‘how blue’ a cell is and thus it can be a very subjective method. The use of fluorescent dyes can help with reducing the subjectivity in distinguishing live and dead cells; however, this requires a more sophisticated microscope. When such dyes are used, live and dead cells fluoresce a different colour.

Other methods that might be used, such as determining cell biomass or plating on agar plates, are not very informative.

Optical density measurements only provide an indication of how many yeast are present but do not give any information about their viability. Plating for viable cells can only provide retrospective information on the number of live yeast in the fermentation, as it takes at least 24 hours for colonies to grow.

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emitted from each cell can be used to assess not just viability but also aspects of vitality such as metabolic activities and membrane functions. Modern flow cytometers can analyse all these parameters on thousands of individual cells per second, making them powerful instruments.

AN EXAMPLE OF USING FLOW CYTOMETRY TO ASSESS YEAST VIABILITY AND VITALITY DURING FERMENTATION

Figure 1. Schematic explaining the principles of flow cytometry. recorded by a computer. Light scattering gives information about the size and complexity of each cell, and the number of cells detected per second determines cell counts.

Fluorescent probes can also be used in conjunction with flow cytometry.

Based on the probes used, of which there are many, the fluorescence

Flow cytometry was used to assess the effect of two different yeast preparation techniques on cell viability and vitality during fermentation. Two fluorescent probes were chosen: propidium iodine (PI) and Bis-(1,3dibutylbarbituric acid) trimethine oxonol (BOX).

PI is a commonly used viability probe which fluoresces when bound to DNA. This compound cannot permeate cell membranes and so is excluded from healthy viable cells with intact membranes. In non-viable cells, where membrane integrity has been lost, the dye can pass into the cell and bind to

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internal DNA, resulting in fluorescence.

In cells exposed to certain stresses (e.g. osmotic stress) their membranes can become slightly porous allowing a small amount of dye through, which gives them an intermediate level of fluorescence. It has been shown that these intermediate cells can recover if removed from a stressful environment (Davey and Hexley 2011) and so they are not necessarily dying but rather ‘stressed’.

BOX, a membrane-potential probe, is able to enter depolarised cells where it fluoresces when bound to proteins and membranes. Ethanol has been shown to increase membrane depolarisation and hence results in cell stress by reducing the ability to take up nutrients (Henderson and Block 2014). Stressed cells are generally more permeable to BOX compared with healthy cells, and dead cells will allow the greatest amount of dye through, resulting in the highest level of fluorescence.

Using these two fluorescent probes concurrently allows sub-categorisation of yeast populations based on their ▶ membrane integrity and function.

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Figure 2. Graphical representation of yeast cell sub-populations quantified in fermentation experiments using flow cytometry and staining with both PI and BOX. Cells fell into four sub-populations: healthy viable cells that are both PI and BOX negative (A), ‘stressed’ cells that are slightly PI and BOX positive (B), ‘stressed BOX+’ cells that are PI negative but BOX positive (C), or non-viable cells that are both PI and BOX positive (D).

Figure 2 shows an example of this where four sub-populations are depicted.

Those with no or low PI and BOX fluorescence, and hence high membrane function and integrity, can be considered healthy viable cells. Cells with high PI and BOX fluorescence have lost membrane integrity and function and hence are categorised as non-viable.

Stressed cells could fall into several categories. For example, those with intermediate PI and BOX fluorescence have slight loss of membrane integrity and function. Those with no or low PI but high BOX fluorescence have depolarised membranes but have maintained their membrane integrity.

In the study using flow cytometry to compare two yeast preparation methods, Sauvignon Blanc juice was filter sterilised and fermented at laboratory scale. The ferments were inoculated in triplicate with the same number of viable yeast cells which had been previously prepared using one of two methods (preparation 1 and 2). Two different yeast strains (yeast A and B) were tested.

Fermentation kinetics were monitored via weight loss measurements as an indicator of sugar consumption, and OD600, as a measure of cell biomass (Figure 3). Flow cytometry analysis was carried out at four time points during fermentation: 1) on the initial yeast inocula, 2) as the yeast population was entering the exponential growth phase,

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Figure 3. Kinetics of laboratory-scale fermentations, illustrated by weight loss and OD600, inoculated with yeast prepared by two different methods (Prep 1 and Prep 2). The experiment was carried out using two different yeast strains, yeast A (top) and yeast B (bottom). Arrows indicate where samples were taken for flow cytometry analysis.

Figure 4. Percentage of cells within ferment samples putatively segregated into viable, non-viable or stressed sub-populations as determined by flow cytometry.

‘Stressed’ cells were defined as those with intermediate PI and BOX fluorescence.

‘Stressed Box+’ were defined as cells that were PI negative and BOX positive. The yeast (either strain A or B) was prepared before ferment inoculation using two different preparation techniques (Prep 1 or Prep 2).

3) during the stationary phase, and 4) when fermentation was approximately 85% complete (based on total weight lost). Samples were taken when the ferments reached the same total weight

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loss, to ensure equivalent alcohol concentration. Cells fell into four subpopulations based on flow cytometry (described in Figure 2) and results are summarised in Figure 4.

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For yeast strain A, those ferments inoculated with yeast preparation 2 had longer lag phases, were slower, and finished one day later than those inoculated with yeast preparation 1. The latter also reached a higher maximum OD600, suggesting a larger cell biomass in these ferments. For yeast B, no significant differences in fermentation kinetics were observed.

The flow cytometry analysis clearly showed that yeast cells within the ferments could be segregated into subpopulations based on viability and vitality at all time points assessed. While there were differences in viability between the yeast preparations 1 and 2 in the initial inocula, no significant difference was seen during the exponential and stationary growth phases. At 85% fermented for both yeast strains, those ferments inoculated by preparation 1 had a significantly higher percentage of stressed cells compared with preparation 2. This stressed yeast cell population was higher for yeast A, which also correlated with the slower kinetics observed in these fermentations.

FLOW CYTOMETRY AS A TOOL IN THE WINERY? The study clearly illustrates the potential for flow cytometry to be used as a tool to assess not just yeast viability but also yeast vitality of cultures and fermentations within a winery. One clear advantage of this technique over traditional methods, such as methylene blue staining, is the potential to quantify the overall health of a culture in an objective manner. There are also many other fluorescent probes that could be investigated which may result in more sensitive or informative cell vitality markers.

More research is required, however, before this technology can completely replace traditional methods. Flow cytometers essentially function by detecting particles within a certain size range. This means that cells cannot always be distinguished from other biological matter, of which there is an abundance in unfiltered juice. For this reason, only cultures and fermentations using filtered juice could be assessed using current flow cytometry techniques,

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which would exclude all cloudy white and red fermentations. Further work is required to optimise this technology for the wine industry; however, its potential is clear.

REFERENCES Davey, H.M. and Hexley, P. (2011) Red but not dead? Membranes of stressed Saccharomyces cerevisiae are permeable to propidium iodide.

Environ. Microbiol. 13(1):163-171.

Henderson, C.M. and Block, D.E. (2014) Examining the role of membrane lipid composition in determining the ethanol tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 80(10):29662972.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was funded by Lallemand Australia. The AWRI’s communications are supported by Australia’s grapegrowers and winemakers through their investment body, Wine Australia, with matching funds from the Australian Government. The AWRI is a member of the Wine Innovation Cluster. Ella Robinson is thanked for her editorial assistance. The wine producers who participated in this study are gratefully WVJ acknowledged.

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Influence of sequential inoculation in the first fermentation on the foaming properties of sparkling wines

By Laura Medina-Trujillo1, Elena González-Royo1, Nathalie Sieczkowski2, José Heras2, Francesca Fort1, Joan Miquel Canals1 and Fernando Zamora1 »

Researchers have explored the use of a sequential inoculation of Torulaspora delbrueckii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the initial fermentation of sparkling wine as a tool to improve foaming.

INTRODUCTION Although obvious, effervescence and foam stability are the main factors determining the quality of sparkling wines.

Undoubtedly, other aspects such as flavour and aroma also play an important role, but the effervescence and the persistence of the foam are differential attributes in sparkling wines and, therefore, are of paramount importance in their qualitative assessment. When serving a glass of a sparkling wine, a magnificent spectacle is generated in which the bubbles are the protagonists. Initially, the foam rises quickly and compactly (Poinsaut 1991) and after reaching its maximum height, the foam level slowly descends and forms a light layer at the interface between the liquid and the crystal, called the collar.

The initially impetuous effervescence is appeased and a quasistationary state is reached, conditioned by the balance between the bubbles that rise and those that are destroyed on the surface (Moreno-Arribas et al. 1996). The foam is constituted by a changing set of ephemeral bubbles that is maintained on the surface of the liquid thanks to this delicate balance between formation and destruction (Zamora 2003).

There are various effervescent drinks such as soft drinks, beer and naturally sparkling wines. The effervescence and foam among the drinks are very different. Carbonated soft beverages generally have a tumultuous effervescence, with large bubbles and a relatively short stability of the foam. At the opposite end is beer, with a slow effervescence, small bubbles and extremely persistent foam. Sparkling wines are in the middle of the spectrum. Therefore, a quality sparkling wine must have white and compact foam generated by the presence of numerous trains of fine bubbles which, upon reaching the surface, form a stable collar (Maujean 1989, Ligier-Belair 2001).

However, effervescence and foam are not only visual attributes of greater or lesser aesthetic beauty, but also have a significant effect on the sensations that will later be noticed on the palate (Vanrell 2002). A soft drink of tumultuous effervescence and large bubbles will cause a somewhat aggressive sensation in the mouth. In the same way it will quickly lose its effervescence due to the rapid degassing that these phenomena entail. On the contrary, a good sparkling wine

»

should have a pleasant tingling in the palate accompanied by a creamy feeling of its foam. Likewise, its effervescence should be persistent enough to maintain these sensations in the time necessary for the consumer to drink the glass.

For these reasons, one of the main concerns of sparkling winemakers is to find new procedures to improve foamability and foam persistence. The sparkling properties of sparkling wines are highly dependent on their chemical composition, which is closely related to their varietal origin, grape maturity and winemaking conditions (Cilindre et al. 2010, Coelho et al.

2011, Kemp et al. 2015). In this regard, it has been reported that foam stability is favoured by the presence of surfactants such as proteins, mannoproteins and polysaccharides which stabilise the bubble interface because of their surface properties (Brissonnet y Maujean, 1993, Vanrell y col. 2005). In that sense, it is known that all treatments that decrease protein concentration drastically affect the properties of wine foam (Vanrell et al. 2007, Pocock et al. 2011). Consequently, sparkling wine producers know that they must be careful with all factors affecting the protein levels of musts, base wines and sparkling wines.

For these reasons, several strategies have been proposed in recent years to improve the foaming properties of sparkling wines, including supplementation with inactivated dry yeast (Pérez-Magariño et al. 2015, Medina-Trujillo et al. 2017b), the selection of yeasts strains with greater autolytic capacity (Martínez-Rodríguez et al. 2001) and, more recently, the use of non-Saccharomyces yeasts in the first fermentation (GonzálezRoyo y col. 2015, Medina-Trujillo y col. 2017a).

In recent years numerous scientific publications have appeared on the advantages of the co-inoculation or sequenced inoculation of non-Saccharomyces yeasts such as Torulaspora delbrueckii, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Candida zemplinina, Hanseniaspora spp and Pichia kluyveri among others (Jolly et al. 2014) to improve the quality and complexity of wine. Specifically, positive effects on aroma, glycerol, polysaccharides, mannoproteins and volatile acidity have been reported (Ciani and Comitini 2011, Loira et al. 2014, Zara et al. 2014). In fact, some strains of these non-Saccharomyces yeasts are commercially available in the form of active dry

Departamento de Bioquímica y Biotecnología, Facultad de Enología de Tarragona, Universidad Rovira i Virgili, C/Marcel.lí Domingo, s/n. 43007 Tarragona, Spain.

1

Lallemand BIO S.L. C/ Galileu 303. 1ª planta. 08028-Barcelona, Spain.

2

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yeast and the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) has just approved a monography about them at its last general assembly in Sofia (Bulgaria).

Concerning the production of sparkling wines, our research group has recently proposed the use of a sequential inoculation of Torulaspora delbrueckii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the first fermentation as a tool to improve the properties of the foam in the production of sparkling wine (Gonzalez-Royo et al. 2015, Medina-Trujillo et al. 2017a). This article presents these results.

MATERIALS AND METHODS Manufacture of base wines and sparkling wines White monovarietal base wines were produced in the experimental winery of the Rovira i Virgili University, in Constantí (AOC Tarragona, Spain), with Macabeo grapes during the 2013 vintage. The grapes were picked manually, crushed and pressed to obtain a yield of 0.6L/kg of grapes. The must was sulfured immediately (30mg/L of potassium disulfite).

The grape juice was then poured into six stainless steel tanks (100L). Three tanks were conventionally inoculated with 250mg/L of a commercial S. cerevisiae yeast strain (QA23®, Lallemand Inc, Montreal, Canada) and the other three tanks were initially inoculated with 250mg/L of commercial T. delbruekii (Biodiva™, Lallemand Inc, Montreal, QC, Canada).

Twenty-four hours later, when the density had fallen to around 10 units, the tanks were re-inoculated with 250mg/L of the control S. cerevisiae yeast strain (QA23®, Lallemand Inc, Montreal, QC, Canada). All microvinifications were performed at 18±1°C. Once the alcoholic fermentations had finished, the wines were racked and sulfited (20mg/L). All wines were maintained in airtight vessels at 4°C. Sparkling wine production was carried out by the traditional method with both base wines six months after the end of alcoholic fermentation. Both base wines were supplemented with 22g/L of sucrose, 30mg/L of bentonite as a riddling agent (Adjuvant 83, Station Oenotechnique du Champagne, Epernay, France) and 2×106 cells/mL of a pre-adapted yeast culture (EC1118, Lallemand Inc, Montreal, QC, Canada). Twelve bottles of each base wine were prepared. The wines were then bottled and crown-corked. Nine months later, all the sparkling wines were disgorged, analysed and tasted.

Chemical and physical analysis The standard parameters of base wines and sparkling wines were performed using the methods recommended by the OIV (2014). The foaming properties were measured by the Mosalux method (Maujean et al. 1990). The proteins were determined

by HRSEC-DAD (Canals et al. 1994). The polysaccharides were analysed by HRSEC-RID (Ayestaran et al. 2004).

Sensory analysis A triangular sensorial test was carried out by a group of 12 expert winemakers to compare the sparkling wine of the conventional inoculation with that of the sequential inoculation.

The main objective was to determine if the tasters were able to recognise which sparkling wine was different. The second objective was to determine which one was preferred by ▶ panelists who had correctly identified the different wines.

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Table 1 shows the general parameters of the base wines and sparkling wines. As expected, the ethanol content of the sparkling wines was about 1.3% higher than that of base wines.

This increase corresponds to the transformation of the added sugar (22g/L) into ethanol with a transformation ratio of 16.9g/L per ethanol grade. Since both base wines had similar ethanol contents, their corresponding sparkling wines also had similar values. In general, the titratable acidity of the sparkling wines was significantly lower than in the base wines and their pH was significantly higher. These data are also logical because the increase of ethanol causes a decrease in the solubility of potassium bitartrate (Boulton et al. 1996). The volatile acidity and glycerol concentration increased after the second fermentation and were significantly higher in sparkling wines.

In general, these changes between base wines and sparkling wines are in agreement with previously published data (Pueyo et al. 1995, Esteruelas et al. 2015).

Figure 1 shows the foam properties of the base wine and the sparkling wines measured by the Mosalux method. As expected, the maximum foam height (HM) was significantly lower in both sparkling wines than in their corresponding base wines.

This decrease, which has already been described previously (Esteruelas et al. 2015), can be attributed to the increase in the ethanol content, which exerts a negative effect on the foamability of the wine, and to the absorption of proteins by the added bentonite as an adjuvant to promote the removal of lees (Vanrell et al. 2007). Our data confirms that the prise de mousse reduces the maximum height of the foam. However, it does not appear to affect the stable height of the foam (HS) since base wines and sparkling wines presented similar levels in this parameter.

Much more interesting is the fact that the base wine and the sparkling wine produced by sequential inoculation of Torulaspora delbreuckii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae presented HM values significantly higher than their corresponding base and sparkling wines from conventional inoculation. We may assert that the positive effect on HM of sequential inoculation with T. delbrueckii and S. cerevisiae observed in the base wines is maintained in the sparkling wines. It was also observed that HS of the base wine from the Table 1. Influence of sequential inoculation (Torulaspora delbrueckii/Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the first Table 1. Influenceon of general sequential parameters inoculation (Torulaspora fermentation of basedelbrueckii/Saccharomyces wines and cerevisiae) in the first fermentation on general parmeters of base wines and sparkling sparkling wines. wines.

Parameter Ethanol (%) TA (g/L)

Base Wine Conventional 10.7 ± 0.1

A a

Sparkling wine Sequential

10.7 ± 0.1

Conventional A a

12.0 ± 0.1

A b

Sequential 11.9 ± 0.1

A b

5.68 ± 0.01 A b

5.60 ± 0.02 A b

5.25 ± 0.06 A a

5.15 ± 0.06 A a

pH

2.81 ± 0.01 A a

2.80 ± 0.01 A a

3.03 ± 0.01 A b

3.02 ± 0.01 A b

VA (g/L)

0.18 ± 0.01 B a

0.12 ± 0.02 A a

0.22 ± 0.02 A b

0.22 ± 0.04 A b

Glycerol (g/L)

4.70 ± 0.30 A a

5.30 ± 0.14 B a

5.80 ± 0.36 A b

6.37 ± 0.54 A b

All data are expressed as the arithmetic mean of three replicates ± standard deviation. TA: Titrtable acidity expressed as g of tartaric acid/L; VA: Volatile acidity expressed as g of acetic acid/L. Different Latin capital letters All data are expressed as the arithmetic mean of three replicates ± standard indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between conventional and sequential deviation.

Titratable acidity expressed as g ofofstatistically tartaric acid/L; Volatile inoculations. TA: Different Greek letters indicate the existence significantVA: differences (p < 0.05) betweenexpressed base wines andas itsgcorresponding sparkling wines. acidity of acetic acid/L. Different Latin capital letters indicate the

existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between conventional and sequential inoculations. Different Greek letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between base wines and their corresponding sparkling wines.

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sequential inoculation was significant higher than in the base wine from conventional inoculation. However, this difference was not observed in the sparkling wines.

Figure 2 shows the protein composition of the base wines and sparkling wines. As expected, the total protein content of sparkling wines was much lower than that of base wines. This strong decrease in the total protein content was significant in both sparkling wines (conventional and sequential) and was observed in all molecular weight fractions. This drastic decrease in protein is attributable to its absorption by the bentonite used as riddling adjuvant (Vanrell et al. 2007). This decrease in protein concentration is probably one of the main reasons why HM is lower in sparkling wines than in their corresponding base wines.

The total protein, especially the low molecular weight fraction (LMW), of the base wines produced by sequential inoculation was significant higher than that of conventional inoculation and this difference was still higher in the sparkling wines despite the decrease described above. Since it has been reported that proteins have clear positive effects on foam (Vanrell et al.

2007), the greater protein concentration can be the reason why sequential inoculation generates better foam properties than conventional inoculation in base wines and sparkling wines.

Figure 3 shows the polysaccharide composition of the base and sparkling wines. Again, the concentration of polysaccharides in the sparkling wines was significantly lower than in their corresponding base wines and this decrease was observed in all molecular weight fractions. Similar results have been reported by other authors (Moreno-Arribas et al. 2000, Martínez-Lapuente et al. 2013), who attributed this decrease to precipitation. Since ethanol decreases the solubility of some polysaccharides, the increase in ethanol concentration caused Figure 1. Influence of sequential inoculation (Torulaspora by the second fermentation may explain delbrueckii/Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the this first phenomenon. fermentation on the on the foam properties of base wines and sparkling wines.

200 150

40

A

B

30

100

* a

50 0

Base Wine

* b

Hs (mm)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Hm (mm)

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Sparkling Wine

Conventional inoculation

20

A

B

a

a

10 0

Base Wine

Sparkling Wine

Sequential inoculation

AllAll data areare expressed as the mean mean of three ± standard deviation. Hm data expressed asarithmetic the arithmetic of replicates three replicates ± standard maximal height of the foam, Hs stable thestable foam. height Different letters indicate the deviation.

Hm maximal height of theheight foam,ofHs ofcapital the foam.

Different existence of statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between base wines. Different capital letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences lowercase letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) (p<0.05) between base wines. Different lowercase letters indicate the existence between sparkling wines. Asterisk indicates the existence of statistically significant differences of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between sparkling wines. Asterisk (p < 0.05) between base wines and sparkling wines indicates the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between base wines and sparkling wines.

Figure 1. All data are expressed as the arithmetic mean of three replicates ± standard deviation. Hm maximal height of the foam, Hs stable height of the foam. Different capital letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between base wines. Different lowercase letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between sparkling wines. Asterisk indicates the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between base wines and sparkling wines.

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FERMENTATION Figure 2. Influence of sequential inoculation (Torulaspora delbrueckii/Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the first fermentation on the protein fraction of base wines and sparkling wines.

Figure 3.

Influence of sequential inoculation (Torulaspora delbrueckii/Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the first fermentation on the polysaccharides and oligosaccharides of base wines and sparkling wines 500

Base Wine

Sparkling Wine B

[Proteins] (mg/L)

B 100

A

Conventional inoculation

A

Sequential inoculation

[Polysaccharides] (mg/L)

150

A A

A A

0 HMw

IMw

LMw

TOTAL

* *a a

* *a a

HMw

IMw

* * b a

* * b a LMw

200

TOTAL

between base wines. Different lowercase letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between sparkling wines. Asterisk indicates the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between base wines and sparkling wines.

Figure 2. Influence of sequential inoculation (Torulaspora delbrueckii/Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the first fermentation on the protein fraction of base wines and sparkling wines.

Another possible explanation is the absorption of some polysaccharides by the bentonite used as a riddling agent or even by the dead yeast cells. In that case no significant differences were found between sequential and conventional inoculation.

Table 2 shows the results of the sensory triangle test.

Nine tasters out of 12 were able to distinguish the sparkling wine from sequential inoculation from that of conventional inoculation with S. cerevisiae. These data are statistically significant (p=0.01) and indicate the existence of sensory differences between the two sparkling wines. Moreover, six of the nine tasters who correctly identified the different sample preferred the sparkling wine from sequential inoculation because its effervescence was more integrated and it was generally less aggressive in the mouth. It seems, therefore, that the better foam properties measured are reflected in the sensory perception of effervescence.

It can be concluded that sequential inoculation with T. delbrueckii and S. cerevisiae can be a useful tool for obtaining sparkling wines with better foaming properties. Specifically, sequential inoculation produced base wines with significantly higher maximum heights of foam (HM) than conventional inoculation, probably because autolysis of the T. delbrueckii cells in the base wine released higher amounts of proteins, especially of the low molecular weight fraction. This trend of higher protein concentration and better HM was maintained in the sparkling wines from sequential inoculation though, logically, both values were reduced by the prise de mousse.

Control vs Sequencial

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p 0.01

Sparkling Wine Conventional noculation Sequential inoculation

A

A A

* a

* a * a

* * a a

100 PS

OS

Total

PS

OS

Total

All data are expressed as the arithmetic mean of three replicates ± standard deviation. PS All data are expressed as the arithmetic mean of three replicates ± standard polysaccharides (MW > 5 kDa) OS oligosaccharides: (MW: < 5 kDa). Different capital letters deviation.

(MW>5kDa) OSdifferences oligosaccharides: indicatePS thepolysaccharides existence of statistically significant (p < 0.05) (MW<5kDa). between base wines.

Different capital letters indicate statistically significant differences Different lowercase letters indicatethe theexistence existence ofof statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) (p<0.05) between base wines.

Different lowercase letters indicate the existence between sparkling wines.

Asterisk indicates the existence of statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between base wines differences and sparkling wines of statistically significant (p<0.05) between sparkling wines. Asterisk

Figure 3. Influence of sequential inoculation (Torulaspora delbrueckii/Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the first fermentation on the polysaccharides and oligosaccharides of base wines and sparkling wines.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has been funded by CDTI (Program CIEN) 'New vitivinicultural strategies for sustainability and increasing the competitiveness of the sector in the international market (VINySOST 2014)'. The authors thank Juvé & Camps SA winery ▶ for providing the grapes.

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Table analysis results for sparkling Table2.2.Sensorial Sensorial analysis results for sparkling wines wines.

Positive identifications

A

A

indicates the existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between base wines and sparkling wines.

All data are expressed as the arithmetic mean of three replicates ± standard deviation. HMw: high molecular weight protein fraction (Mw arithmetic > 80 kDa); Imw:mean intermediate molecular weight protein All data are expressed as the of three replicates ± fraction (80 kDa > Mw > 60 kDa); LMw: low molecular weight proteinprotein fraction (Mw < 60 kDa).

Different capital standard deviation.

HMw: high molecular weight fraction (Mw>80kDa); letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between base wines.

Imw:Different intermediate molecular weight protein fraction (80kDa>Mw>60kDa); lowercase letters indicate the existence of statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) LMw:between low molecular weight protein fraction (Mw<60kDa). sparkling wines.

Asterisk indicates the existence of statisticallyDifferent significant capital differences (p < letters indicate existence of statistically significant differences (p<0.05) 0.05) between the base wines and sparkling wines

Triangular test

A

300

0 50

Base Wine

400

Preferences

Control

Sequencial

3

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Boulton, R.B.; Singleton, V.L.; Bisson, L.F. and Kunkee, R.E. (1996) Principles and practices of winemaking. Chapman & Hall, New York.

Brissonnet, F. and Maujean, A. (1993) Characterization of foaming proteins in a Champagne base wine. Am. J. Enol.Vitic. 44:297–301.

Canals, J.M.; Arola, L. and Zamora, F. (1998) Protein fraction analysis of white wine by FPLC. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 49:383–388.

Ciani, M. and Comitini, F. (2011) Non-Saccharomyces wine yeasts have a promising role in biotechnological approaches to winemaking. Ann. Microbiol.

61:25–32.

Cilindre, C.; Liger-Belair, G.; Villaume, S.; Jeandet, P. and Marchal, R. (2010) Foaming properties of various Champagne wines depending on several parameters: grape variety, aging, protein and CO2 content. Anal. Chim. Acta.

660:164–170.

Coelho, E.; Reis, A.; Domingues, M.R.M.; Rocha, S.M. and Coimbra, M.A. (2011) Synergistic effect of high and low molecular weight molecules in the foamability and foam stability of sparkling wines. J. Agric. Food Chem.

59:3168–3179.

Esteruelas, M.; González-Royo, E.; Kontoudakis, N.; Orte, A.; Cantos, A.; Canals, J.M. and Zamora, F. (2015) Influence of grape maturity on the foaming properties of base wines and sparkling wines (Cava). J. Sci. Food Agric.

95:2071–2080.

González-Royo, E.; Pascual, O.; Kontoudakis, N.; Esteruelas, M.; Esteve-Zarzoso, B.; Mas, A.; Canals, J.M. and Zamora, F. (2015) Oenological consequences of sequential inoculation with non-Saccharomyces yeasts (Torulaspora delbrueckii or Metschnikowia pulcherrima) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in base wine for sparkling wine production. Eur. Food Res. Technol.

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Medina-Trujillo, L.; González-Royo, E.; Sieczkowski, N.; Heras, J.; Canals, J.M. and Zamora, F. (2017a). Effect of sequential inoculation (Torulaspora delbrueckii/Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the first fermentation on the foaming properties of sparkling wine. Eur. Food Res. Technol. 243:681-688.

Medina-Trujillo, L.; González-Royo, E.; Sieczkowski, N.; Heras, J.M.; Canals, J.M. and Zamora, F. (2017b) Levaduras secas inactivadas en el tiraje de vinos espumosos. La semana vitivinícola 3494:582-590.

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Vanrell, G.; Esteruelas, M.; Canals, J.M. and Zamora, F. (2005) Influence du type de clarification du vin de base et des adjuvants de tirage sur la qualité de la mousse des vins effervescents. Revue des Oenologues, 114:28–30.

Kemp, B.; Alexandre, H.; Robillard, B. and Marchal, R. (2015) Effect of production phase on bottle-fermented sparkling wine quality. J. Agric. Food Chem. 63:19−38.

Vanrell, G.; Canals, R.; Esteruelas, M.; Fort, F.; Canals, J.M. and Zamora, F. (2007) Influence of the use of bentonite as a riddling agent on foam quality and protein fraction of sparkling wines (Cava). Food Chem. 104:148-155.

Ligier-Belair, G. (2001) Histoire illustré d’une bulle de Champagne. Bull. de la S.F.P. 127:9-11.

Zamora, F. (2003) La espuma del Cava; un delicado equilibrio. Enólogos 23:28-32.

Loira, I.; Vejarano, R.; Bañuelos, M.A.; Morata, A.; Tesfaye, W.; Uthurry, C.; Villa, A.; Cintora, I. and Suárez-Lepe, J.A. (2014) Influence of sequential

Zara, G.; Mannazzu, I.; Del Caro, A.; Budroni, M.; Pinna, M.B.; Murru, M.; Farris, G.A. and Zara, S. (2014) Wine quality improvement through the combined utilisation of yeast hulls and Candida zemplinina/Saccharomyces cerevisiae mixed starter cultures. Aust. J. Grape Wine Res. 20:199–207.

fermentation with Torulaspora delbrueckii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae on wine quality. LWT - Food Sci. Technol. 59:915-922.

Martínez-Lapuente, L.; Guadalupe, Z.; Ayestarán, B.; Ortega-Heras, M. and Pérez-Magariño, S. (2013) Changes in polysaccharide composition during sparkling wine making and aging. J. Agric, Food Chem. 61(50):12362–12373.

Martínez-Rodríguez, A.; Carrascosa, A.V.; Barcenilla, J.M.; Pozo-Bayón, M.A. and Polo, M.C (2001) Autolytic capacity and foam análisis as additional criteria for the selection of yeast strains for sparkling wine production. Food Microbiol. 18:183–191.

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Pinot Noir: up or down?

By Dan Calvert

Tying in with this issue’s tasting of Australian Pinot Noirs from high altitudes and low latitudes (see page 67), Dan speaks with two producers with grape and wine interests in each camp to find out the rationales behind their site selection and the benefits these sites bring to the resulting wines.

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inot Noir is a funny variety. It’s regarded world wide in After early success producing Cabernet Franc from Orange as such high esteem that it verges on cult status and it’s a garagister, were you naturally drawn to Orange when looking for your own vineyard? one I hold dear to my heart. Colloquially known as the ‘Heartbreak Grape’, and rightfully so, as penned by author Marc In the early days, before we purchased Lofty Vineyard, De Villiers, it’s best grown in the fringes where the annual race our winemaking choices were directed by a lack of access to against Mother Nature to reach phenolic ripeness is usually vineyard sites above 1000m. Cabernet Franc was an accessible won only by a nose year after year. I’ve always spoken of Pinot exciting variety that rewarded attention to detail and a Noir as a feminine style of red wine. Its grace, finesse and minimalistic winemaking approach. fragility are what makes it so enticing, exposing the soul of the maker bare for all to gaze Were you initially looking for somewhere to upon. Like a lover scorned there’s no grow Pinot or was it a post realisation place to hide mistakes, but if you do that it would be suitable for the site? everything right your rewards will We were always looking for a be returned 100-fold. site for Pinot and Chardonnay to So, when something is placed produce bubbles - Pinot Noir on a pedestal, often stigmas and Chardonnay. When we we all know to be truths are purchased Lofty Vineyard we inherently attached, like reworked the extensive Merlot where, how and on what plantings to Pinot clones for soils the best Pinots are both still and sparkling styles. produced. That leads us to We now have a good selection the conclusion, to get the best of material for both. The clones out of your Pinot plantings you planted are: MV6, 114, 115, 667, need to look for cool climates 777, Abel, Merrifield, and D5V12. and the obvious place to look is south, but are we overlooking up.

Had you made any correlations In line with this issue’s tasting of with other Pinot growing regions?

Pinot Noirs below latitude 37.5S and We were interested in a site that above 600 metres, I spoke with two Pinot pushes the boundaries between Noir produces pushing the boundaries sparkling base production and table of these limits. First, Charlie Svenson, wine. Most Pinot regions of Australia Charlie and Mitch Svenson, of De Salis of De Salis Wines, in Orange, along with are reasonably warm due to their Wines, in Orange. his wife Loretta, who are producing Pinot maritime influences. Orange, at 1000m, Noirs with reverence and distinction from is significantly different to the valley floor their ‘Lofty Vineyard’ aptly named at 1050m elevation. Then I of 850-900m and the coastal regions of Victoria and Tasmania. caught up with Paul Lipscombe, from Sailor Seek Horse Wines, It is cold and, unlike most (except Tumbarumba), is truly in Tasmania's Huon Valley, whose winemaking, with wife Gilli, is continental. Our site is unable to ripen Shiraz and our Pinot second to none. is not in the ‘Pinot for Shiraz drinkers’ category. In cold years, sparkling wine is sometimes a better option.

CHARLIE SVENSON, DE SALIS WINES, ORANGE What advantages do you feel elevation brings to your fruit Tell us a little about the parameters of your ‘Lofty Vineyard’? quality and how does this transfer to your finished wines? (latitude, altitude, aspect, the rich terroir history, etc) Long uninterrupted sunlight provides sufficient solar energy Lofty Vineyard is at 1050 metres, directly north of Mount and the long cold days and nights post-veraison slow the Canobolas. The site is feros basalt soil with subterranean enzymatic metabolism of acid. This enables the retention of limestone aquifers. It was planted between 1991 and 1994 on a Pinot fruit esters in their natural state, unmodified by postridge offering full sun without shading. The resultant long solar harvest acid additions, giving our wines ‘Pinosity’ lost in the exposure offers good growth and ripening while the altitude and hot, simple, modern styles (so loved by our current marketingslope give good air drainage and cold evening temperatures for dominated show circus). ▶ frost-free acid retention.

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Orange as a wine growing region has a remarkable breadth of what it can ripen. At what altitude do you feel it becomes prime for Pinot Noir and what are the driving forces?

That requires a complicated answer. It is true the simple altitude change affords different ripening potential and results in subregional planting diversity. However, topographical micro climates require specific site selection to achieve good results with Pinot. West of the mountain is dryer and warmer, east is cooler and more frost and hail prone. You can plant at 850m to the east and harvest (if not affected by rain, hail and or frost) several weeks after sites above 1000m. The most important criteria are north-facing ridges offering good air drainage, and full sunlight (dawn till dusk), which are beneficially impacted by the cold air stream above the hills of the valley that slow and warm the air. Daytime summer temperatures are four to six degrees lower on the mountain than those of the valley, while the night temperature inversion of autumn keeps the mountain above freezing with temperatures staying in single figures between 4-9°C. Very few people in the Australian wine industry have any idea of the true potential nature of the Orange region. It requires and deserves the attention of great wine thinkers who are not impeded by the narrow-minded politics of southern Australian regional snobbery.

What’s your average range of harvest dates for your Pinot blocks?

On a cold year we start harvesting Pinot in early April and finish in mid-May. In warm years we start in mid-March and finish by mid-April.

Is there anything coming up that you’re excited about in the near future?

Gamay, Lagrein and Blaufrankisch.

PAUL LIPSCOMBE, SAILOR SEEKS HORSE, HUON VALLEY, TASMANIA Tell us a little about your introduction to Pinot Noir in the Houn Valley I guess the idea for Gilli and I being down here in the first place, we were looking for an area where Pinot Noir would just get ripe. When you’re in a region where your fruit is just getting ripe whether it be Shiraz, Chardonnay or Pinot there’s that freshness, acidity, verve, minerality, whatever you like, that can’t be replicated in regions where the fruit can easily ripen and ripen quickly. We came to the Huon Valley because we wanted to make Pinot Noir in Australia and unless you go up you need to go south and we’d read about the Huon

De Salis Wines Lofty Vineyard in Orange is 1050 metres above sea level – bought by Charlie and Loretta Svenson after a search for a site that pushed the boundaries between sparkling base production and table wine.

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Valley and the climatic research stats from the Grove weather station close by. When we looked at the data we thought, ‘I don’t know, it looks pretty risky down there’. But when you look at the history of the vineyards of the region like Home Hill and Panorama there are points in their operation [where] they were punching way above [their weight], doing amazing things within the show system. So, these guys are able to do something great down there but the stats just didn’t seem to add up. Once we delved further into it we found that what it’s about is the viticultural management. Once you get behind and you begin chasing your own tail, things can start to go south.

We came here in 2010. Prior to that we were in Western Australia studying winemaking and viticulture, getting our experience up and meeting lots of great people, but we always wanted to do Pinot, so we did some overseas vintages in Oregon and New Zealand. We read about the Houn and we now knew that’s where we wanted to be. But our first introduction was in 2010 when we first started working for Wine Tasmania.

The original idea was to go to a contract winemaking facility and see the different fruit coming in from the different parts of Tassie. After we had driven across the Nullarbor and finally reached Hobart, we looked at the Sailor Seeks Horse site and we thought, ‘Perfect, this is everything we want’, even if it was going to take five to 10 years really to resurrect. So, it was vintage 2010 that we sat there and fruit came in from Home Hill and to be honest it was the best fruit that came in that whole vintage and we thought, ‘Yeah, thankfully, the Huon Valley is where it’s at’.

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Paul Lipscombe and his wife Gilli, from Sailor Seeks Horse wine company in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. Paul says one of the main benefits their southerly site delivers is during the post-veraison period when temperatures don’t rise any higher than mid 20°C.

What do feel your southern latitude brings to your ripening process?

On average we get three to four days over 30°C and specifically down here we tend to get a very long season.

There’s a long period of canopy management compared with more northern sites, even comparing the same clones as Home Hill; we’d be picking four weeks later at 12.5 Be and Home Hill will be 13.8 Be. So, it’s much nuanced down here and you need to tailor your viticulture appropriately.

But basically, you flower later here and once you finally get through verasion, the hottest part of summer has all but gone, then as for rainfall we tend to have a pretty dry autumn and we’re very rarely pushed into rainfall-induced disease pressure and things like that, it just doesn’t happen. The only time we’ve been pushed to pick is due to senescence with the leaves falling off. So, we do get that long cool ripening period post-verasion. I know it sounds all rather clichéd but we retain all our natural acidity, preserve all our aromatic precursors within the skins due to the lack of intense heat once the skins soften; it just eeks it out through to late April/early May. I don’t know if it’s the region, us or the site but if you look at other sites like Chatto the complexity you end up getting is quite amazing. I think the key is post-verasion - we only get temperatures in the mid 20s, not up into the 30s.

With the cooler temperatures post-verasion and the protection of the fruit esters, what characteristics do you feel typify the Huon Valley?

That’s hard. We don’t ever pick on seed ripeness. 2013 would be the only exception I can think of really and we’ve been here since 2011. We’ve never picked on seed ripeness. ▶

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Because we flirt right on the edge of ripeness, sometimes you can get a hint of green in there.

You have to be very careful to manage your extraction levels otherwise you’ll suffer the consequences.

It’s all about when the skin tannins are ripe. Everyone in Tasmania talks about acidity and we certainly talk about it.

When we looked at the wines down here, one of the things we loved about the wines when we came and tasted on our honeymoon in 2008 all around Tassie, was the acid line that the rest of the body just hung off, as well as the focus and tightness that enable the wines to age I guess. The more we get into it the more we think there’s something in the tannin ripeness that we really love. Because we flirt right on the edge of ripeness, sometimes you can get a hint of green in there.

You have to be very careful to manage your extraction levels otherwise you’ll suffer the consequences.

Do you get a bit of mintyness?

No, it’s not minty, it’s not a methoxypyrazine, it’s more of a green bunch almost half ripe character, but it’s not really.

People often say we’ve done such a great job with all that whole bunch in there, but then we tell them there’s only something like 5% whole bunch in there. I think it’s due to the fact that we, and Italians, understand bitterness, and we always think you need that hint of bitterness. It’s not aggressive or harsh, just enough to draw the palate right back. So, for us it’s difficult to compare areas down here in the far south because clonally we’re all different and they act differently on the different sites as well. For us our vineyard is less fruit forward. We often get people say, “Wow, that’s not like a Tasmanian Pinot.” It’s much more savoury, almost a smoky cigar box, that savoury complexity that widens the palate. We see these characteristics with the Chatto and definitely our stuff, it may be a clonal thing.

Talking of clones, which do you run with?

777, MV6, 8048, which is D2V6, 114, 115 and D5V12. The majority is D2V6 which makes up to 40% of the plantings.

These clones aren’t hugely fruit forward here; some are but some aren’t. Take MV6, for example, it’s a mainstay of the Victorian Pinot Noir industry like somewhere like the Mornington Peninsula where the fruit does develop more fruit forwardness. But, here on our site we very rarely crop it above half a tonne a hectare. There’s just no many very small bunches - 30g to 15g bunches. That’s just what it does here, whether it’s a flowering thing or a nutrient thing we haven’t got to the bottom of it yet. I know that it’s a characteristic of MV6 but this is pretty ridiculous.

Being so far south you really need to be onto the viticulture in terms of green thinning and dropping wings, which probably is the biggest component, but we have to drop wings because we have to be very careful with that sweet-sour character. So it’s a very labour-intensive viticulture. Say there are 300,000

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bunches in the vineyard, we have to go around and take off the wings on all of them. Some years, like 2014, the wings are twice the size of the actual bunch so you end up scratching your head a little bit.

That hurts a little bit?

Yeah it doesn’t seem to make sense financially, but if you don’t come up with the quality you’re going to come unstuck pretty quickly. And that’s what we’ve seen, reiterating what I said earlier about chasing your tail in the vineyard, if you get behind and we haven’t clipped the wings the fruit quality can been so-so. But if you do the work and drop it and balance your crop levels with your canopy then you’ll be away.

What are your thoughts about altitude verses latitude?

It is on our wine label. We go from 80-120m above sea level.

I couldn’t tell you the latitude off the top of my head. We saw Jim Clenenden, of Au Bon Climat [based in Santa Barbara in the US], at the IPNC [International Pinot Noir Celebration] in Oregon last year talk about having a clear idea of the style of wine he wanted to make and then finding the site for that.

We empathised with this as it was what we did. Being in the Huon ticked the dry-farming/on-the-edge-of-ripeness boxes. From there it was about the soil/clones/management.

We didn’t want to force our vineyard to make a wine that we wanted, we want it to do it without that coercion. We wanted to make great Pinot and for us that’s about poise, delicacy, intensity, complexity, etc, so that’s what we saw in the region and then the site. It’s not all about getting as far south as possible; there are a huge number of other factors - soil, clones, objective, etc. If we’d seen a fertile flat field down here we wouldn’t have gone for it. It needed to be north-facing, relatively steep, crappy soil, just enough rain, etc. On the clonal front, Home Hill have only a few vines of 115 and 114 but they are so different on that site to the other clones (much lighter, less intense, etc). The D5V12 is super-intense on their site when they restrict the yields but on our site, it yields low and is still just so-so. It is our least favourite clone on our site.

Well there you have it, it sounds as though the realities of growing grapes in southern regions verses northern regions at altitude aren’t all that dissimilar. I was particularly surprised at the closeness in timing of harvests, and I wish I was on the Wine & Viticulture Journal’s tasting panel! Oh well, might have to conduct a personal one of my own. I want to thank Charlie and Paul for their openness and willingness to talk about their views and respective sites. I hope that Paul and Gilli won’t have to drop too many wings this year because that’s enough to make grown men cry, and that Charlie gets his wish and Orange gets the respect it deserves as a diverse region with a genuine cool climate at altitude with the capacity to produce gold level Pinot Noirs.

Dan Calvert is winemaker for Gourmet Paddock and Grasslands and has his own label, Domestique Wine Australia, focussing on small parcel fermentation in de-headed barrels.

Dan has spent the last decade at Quealy Wines as senior winemaker. Prior to this he managed winery production at T’Gallant where he first entered the wine industry in 2000.

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Struck match, freshness and tropical fruit: thiols and Chardonnay flavour

By Dimitra Capone, Leigh Francis, Patricia Williamson, Markus Herderich and Dan Johnson The Australian Wine Research Institute, PO Box 197, Glen Osmond SA 5064, Australia

Managing director Dan Johnson

Chardonnay is the most planted white grape variety in Australia, but understanding of its flavour and aroma chemistry has been limited. Recent research at the AWRI has highlighted the importance of ‘thiols’ (a class of sulfur-containing compounds, previously thought to be important mainly in Sauvignon Blanc) in Chardonnay flavour. These compounds can contribute to overall wine freshness, ‘fruity’ characters, ‘flint/struck match’ notes and less desirable ‘box hedge/cat pee’ characters.

BACKGROUND Chardonnay is the most planted white grape variety in Australia, with more than 360,000 tonnes harvested in 2017 (Wine Australia).

Understanding of the compounds responsible for its aroma and flavour is, however, still quite limited. This is partly due to the subtlety of many wines of this variety, and also the wide range of winemaking options used in Chardonnay production, from low temperature fermentation in stainless steel, to inclusion of solids, barrel

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AT A GLANCE • Thiols are a class of flavour compounds known for their contribution to the aroma and flavour of Sauvignon Blanc wines.

• A survey of thiols in 106 commercially available Chardonnay wines found levels of four key thiols that were well above their sensory thresholds.

• A winemaking trial using Chardonnay juice from 16 vineyards across five states also found high levels of thiols and showed that wine sensory characteristics were correlated with thiol concentrations.

• Simple steps are available for grapegrowers and winemakers to increase or decrease thiol concentrations to influence wine style.

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fermentation, malolactic fermentation, and ageing on lees. In recent years many Australian Chardonnay producers have been focussing on finer, more complex and restrained styles and the AWRI has worked to improve knowledge of Chardonnay aroma and flavour chemistry to assist with this goal. Many producers are working to optimise the profile of ‘fruity’ flavours such as ‘stone fruit’ and ‘citrus’, while allowing complexing characters such as ‘struck flint/match’ to play a role.

And as with virtually all wine types, one of the features of a desirable wine, especially when relatively young, is the degree of general fruit ‘freshness’ and overall intensity and length of flavour.

Understanding this aspect of wine quality has been another area of active work for AWRI flavour researchers.

Recent efforts have focussed on exploring the role of several sulfur compounds known as thiols in Chardonnay flavour. These thiols are highly potent flavour compounds known to give many Sauvignon Blanc wines their ‘tropical fruit/ passionfruit’ character. They can also contribute a less desirable ‘cat pee/ sweaty/box hedge’ or ‘green’ aroma to Sauvignon Blanc when at high concentrations. There are three main compounds: 3-mercaptohexanol (3MH), 3-mercaptohexyl acetate (3-MHA), and 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one (4-MMP), each with very low sensory detection thresholds, so that even at sub-part per billion concentrations they can have a dominating effect on wine flavour (King et al. 2011). The aroma of 3-MH is described as ‘grapefruitlike’, while 3-MHA can contribute ‘passionfruit/tropical fruit’ flavour, and at higher concentrations a ‘cat pee’ character. A further thiol compound called benzyl mercaptan (BM) has also been assessed. This compound is also known to contribute to ‘gunflint/struck match/mineral’ aromas in, for example, Sauvignon Blanc wines produced in the Loire Valley in France. Multiple factors can influence the formation of thiols in wine. Generally, they are formed by enzymes from yeast metabolism acting on precursors in grape juice and there are several practical avenues that can be taken to enhance or reduce their levels in the wine.

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HOW COMMON ARE THIOLS IN AUSTRALIAN CHARDONNAY? One of the obstacles in flavour research is often the speed and ease of use of the analytical methods needed.

Previous methods for thiol analysis were slow, difficult and used toxic materials, meaning that progress in knowledge of these compounds was also slow. A highly sensitive and accurate analytical method was recently developed with colleagues from The University of Adelaide (Capone et al. 2015), which is relatively straightforward to apply to large sample sets. This method was applied to a survey of more than 100 commercially available Australian Chardonnay wines, with a range of ages and prices, including some of the top selling wines in the country.

Figure 1 shows the results from the analyses of these 106 wines. The initial surprise was the number of wines that contained concentrations of each of the four thiols above their aroma detection thresholds. For the compounds 3-MH and 3-MHA, all wines were well above the reported sensory threshold, strongly

suggesting that these highly potent aroma compounds were contributing flavour to the wines.

Almost all wines were also above the threshold concentration for 4-MMP and BM. A previous report (MateoVivaracho et al. 2010) provided a guide as to whether the compounds at a certain concentration were likely to contribute general ‘fruity’ flavour or ‘fruit freshness’, or a clear dominating sensory effect. In Figure 1, when the concentration is above the aroma detection threshold value (dashed red line) but below the dashed blue line, these compounds are likely to be enhancing ‘fruit’ flavour, but when concentrations are above the blue line there may be dominant ‘grapefruit’, ‘tropical fruit’ or ‘cat pee’ aromas. For 3-MH there were numerous wines with concentrations above this indicative line, while only one wine had a 3-MHA concentration above the blue line. No wine was above the blue line for the 4-MMP compound, while almost all were above the blue line for BM. Also of interest was the number of wines from Western Australia

Figure 1. Concentrations of the thiol compounds 3-MH, 3-MHA, 4-MMP and BM for a set of 106 commercially available Chardonnay wines, grouped by state (SEA: South Eastern Australia). Median values are shown by the connected symbols and the outlier wines by the black circles. The sensory threshold for each compound is shown as the dashed red line, while the blue line represents the concentration where the compound may start to dominate the aroma.

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flavour story of Chardonnay wines.

However, there was no sensory data collected from these wines, and as they were commercially available wines, there is the possibility of a percentage of other varieties being included. There would also certainly have been a wide range of viticultural and winemaking variations in their production.

YOUNG UNWOODED CHARDONNAY: DO THIOLS CONTRIBUTE IMPORTANT FLAVOUR WHEN WINEMAKING IS IDENTICAL?

Figure 2. Concentration of the four thiol compounds (3-MH, 3-MHA, 4-MMP and BM) for a set of 16 wines made from juices sourced from vineyards across a wide range of Australian regions. RUTH: Rutherglen; HV: Hunter Valley; TUMB: Tumbarumba; PAD: Padthaway; GW: Great Western; MORN: Mornington Peninsula; GS: Great Southern; MV: McLaren Vale; YV: Yarra Valley; MR: Margaret River; TAS: Tasmania (Coal River Valley); AH: Adelaide Hills; OR: Orange; RL: Riverland. The median values are shown by the dark blue symbols. The sensory threshold for each compound is shown as the dashed red line, and the dashed blue line shows the indicative concentration where the compound may start to dominate the wine’s aroma. with relatively high concentrations of 3-MH. The wine with the highest level was a well-known and highly regarded premium oaked Chardonnay from Margaret River, considered one of the ‘new wave’ of Australian Chardonnays with a retail price of $80. Tasmanian wines had the highest median concentration of 3-MHA, while the highest individual concentrations were found in two large-volume selling Western Australian Chardonnays, previous vintages of which were assessed by a trained AWRI sensory panel as being high in ‘passionfruit’ aroma. Tasmanian wines were high in BM and, overall, higher priced wines were more likely to have higher concentrations of this compound,

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probably reflecting the propensity of barrel fermentation and use of time on lees and time in barrel in producing higher-priced wines, which are factors that can affect the formation of this compound. The high values of 3-MH for wines from Western Australia might reflect the use of the Gin-Gin Chardonnay clone, which is known for its ‘tropical fruit’ character. A recent Chardonnay clonal project led by Dr Mike McCarthy, from SARDI, showed that over several vintages wines made from this clone can be rated significantly higher in ‘tropical fruit’ character than wine from other clones made in an identical fashion (Whiting et al. 2017).

The results showed clearly that these four thiols are part of the complex

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To further study the effect of thiols in Chardonnay, a set of free-run wholebunch pressed juices were sourced from major Chardonnay-producing regions in Australia (16 vineyards across five states), and wines were made from them under controlled conditions without the use of oak.

The sensory attributes of the wines were quantified by a trained AWRI sensory panel, and more than 70 aroma compounds were analysed, including the thiols. The results of the chemical analysis showed a high concentration of thiols, with an even wider range of results than seen in the commercially available wines (Figure 2).

The concentration of 3-MH in each wine was well above the sensory threshold (up to 80 times) and the concentration of 3-MHA was above the threshold in all but one of the wines (up to 50 times the threshold in two wines).

Benzyl mercaptan was similarly well above the reported aroma threshold in all wines (up to 48 times), while 4-MMP was only slightly above the threshold in two wines. Interestingly, the wine made from Riverland juice was highest in all thiols, which is consistent with the data from the commercially available wines, where some wines from warm inland regions were relatively high in thiols. There was some variation in the ripeness of the grapes, with alcohol concentration ranging from 12.5 to 14.7%v/v, but there was no correlation of alcohol and thiol concentration.

The high levels of thiols in some warm inland region wines may reflect differences in irrigation regime or nutrient status of the fruit, as these have been shown previously to affect thiols in wines, and this is an area of ▶ active research.

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CONCLUSION This study has shown that Chardonnay wines can gain flavour from the thiol compounds previously thought to be mainly involved in Sauvignon Blanc varietal character, and that these compounds are much more prevalent and important for Chardonnay as a variety than previously thought. With concentrations comparable to those observed in some Sauvignon Blanc wines, the fact that most Chardonnay

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PC2 (22.6%)

Passionfruit A

GS2

Lime A

Green F 3-MH

3-MHA

Overall Fruit A Green A

Box Hedge A MV AH

MR2

PAD

MR1

Flint A

RL

TAS

OR

BM 4-MMP

TUMB RUTH

Pineapple A Floral A

GW PC1 (33.3%) Melon A

MORN

YV GS1

Vegetal A

Confection A

HV Stonefruit F

Citrus FF Citrus Citrus F

YV YV YV

3.6 3.6

PAD PAD PAD

3.4 3.4 3.2 3.2 3.2

HV TUMB HV HV TUMB TUMB RUTH RUTH RUTH

0 00

GS1 GS1 GS1

TAS TAS TAS MR1 MR1 MR1

Figure 3.

The sensory properties of the wines made from the 16 juices sourced from multiple regions across Australia.

Correlation of the concentrations of the four thiols measured with sensory attributes is shown with blue arrows.

MR2 MR2 MR2

AH AH AH

MV MORN MV MORN MV MORN

OR OR OR

GS2 GS2 GS2

RL RLRL

GW GW GW

50 50 50

100 100 100

150 150 150

200 200 200

Passionfruit Passionfruit Passionfruit AAA

GS2 GS2 GS2

2.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.0 1.0 1.0

AH AH AH GW MV GW MV MV GS1 YV PADGW GS1 YV PAD GS1 YV MORN PAD TUMB MORN TUMB MORN TUMB HV HV RUTH HV RUTH RUTH

00 0

Box Hedge Box Hedge Box Hedge AAA

Figure 3 shows a representation of the sensory differences among the wines, with the degree of correlation of the four thiols with the sensory attributes also shown. Of the 16 wines assessed, the Great Southern 2 wine (GS2) was rated highest in ‘passionfruit’ and ‘lime’ aroma, with the other wines plotted in the upper half of the figure also rated highly in these descriptors. The 3-MHA and 3-MH concentrations were closely correlated with ‘passionfruit’ and ‘box hedge’ aroma. The wine made from Riverland juice (RL) was rated highest in ‘box hedge/cat pee’ as well as ‘flint’ aroma, and these attributes were related to 4-MMP and BM, respectively.

When the relationship of thiol concentrations with wine sensory properties was more closely investigated (Figure 4), a non-linear relationship was seen between 3-MHA concentration and ‘citrus’ flavour, with a peak at 100ng/L, followed by a decline. The sensory scores for ‘passionfruit’ or ‘box hedge/cat pee’ aroma, on the other hand, continued to increase with increasing concentration of 3-MHA, providing further evidence that these compounds can contribute different characters as they change in concentration, moving from general ‘citrus/ fruit’ to ‘tropical fruit’ to ‘cat pee/box hedge/sweaty’.

It is important to note that the wines in this study should not be considered representative of the different regions, as only a single juice was obtained from each region in most cases. The intention of this investigation was to achieve a diverse range of wines, not to define differences between regions. As a final aspect of this study, a group of 156 white wine consumers gave liking scores for a subset of these wines, and those wines with higher thiol concentrations were found to be well liked by two identified clusters of consumers, comprising 60% of those tested.

50 50 50

TAS TAS TAS MR1 MR1 MR1

MR2 MR2 MR2

100 100 100

RL RL RL

OR OR OR

150 150 150

22 2 11 1 00 0

MV MV YV YV GW MORN GS1 MV GW MORN GS1 YV GW TUMB RUTH MORN GS1 TUMB RUTH PAD TUMB RUTH PAD HV PAD HV HV

00 0

50 50 50

MR2 MR2 AHMR2 MR1 AH MR1 AH MR1 TAS TAS TAS

100 100 100

3-MHA 3-MHA 3-MHA

OR OR OR

150 150 150

200 200 200RL

RL RL

GS2 GS2 GS2

200 200 200

Figure 4. Relationships between 3-MHA concentration and ‘citrus’ flavour, ‘passionfruit’ aroma and ‘box hedge/cat pee’ aroma intensity scores from a trained sensory panel, for a set of 16 wines made from juices sourced from vineyards across a wide range of Australian regions.

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wines do not taste highly aromatic is likely due to complex interactions among the multitude of compounds present suppressing the strong ‘passionfruit’ or ‘box hedge’ characters that are so evident in many Sauvignon Blanc wines. While the thiol compounds may be partially suppressed by other compounds, the sensory study showed that they certainly make a contribution to wine aroma and flavour. From previous research at the AWRI, variables such as post-harvest skin contact, including time from machine harvesting to delivery at the winery, and choice of yeast strain are known to have a large effect on thiol concentration in finished wines, allowing the ‘dialling up or down’ of their concentration by wine producers in a fairly simple, efficient manner. The current research has shown that thiols and their precursors in grapes are important components to consider in viticultural and winemaking trials for Chardonnay, being well accepted by the majority of white wine consumers, and may provide a target for winemakers and viticulturists in influencing wine style. For more details on this study see Capone et al. (2017).

This study has shown that Chardonnay wines can gain flavour from the thiol compounds previously thought to be mainly involved in Sauvignon Blanc varietal character, and that these compounds are much more prevalent and important for Chardonnay as a variety than previously thought.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by Australia’s grapegrowers and winemakers through their investment body Wine Australia. The AWRI is a member of the Wine Innovation Cluster. The authors thank Alice Barker, Amanda Aguis, Joanna Vervey, Peter Godden, John Gledhill, Tracey Siebert and Sheridan Barter from the AWRI for their assistance in the project, and Ella

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Robinson is thanked for her editorial assistance. The wine producers who donated grape juices are gratefully acknowledged.

REFERENCES Capone, D.L.; Ristic, R.; Pardon, K.H. and Jeffery, D.W. (2015) Simple quantitative determination of potent thiols at ultratrace levels in wine by derivatization and high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) analysis. Analyt. Chem. 87(2):12261231.

Capone, D.L.; Barker, A.; Williamson, P.O. and Francis, I.L. (2017) The role of potent thiols in Chardonnay wine aroma. Aust. J. Grape Wine Res. doi: 10.1111/ajgw.12294.

Mateo-Vivaracho, L.; Zapata, J.; Cacho, J. and Ferreira, V. (2010) Analysis, occurrence, and potential sensory significance of five polyfunctional mercaptans in white wines. J. Agric. Food Chem.

58(18): 10,184-10,194.

Whiting, J.; McCarthy, M.; Fennessy, R. and Tassie, L. (2017) Regional evaluation of Chardonnay and Shiraz clones. Beames, K.S.; Robinson, E.M.C.; Dry, P.R. and Johnson, D.L. (eds.). Proceedings of the 16th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference: Adelaide, South Australia, 24-28 July.

Glen Osmond, S.A.: The Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference Inc: 77-83.

Wine Australia. National Vintage Report 2017.

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Canopy management efficiencies are highly modulated by the climate conditions

By Paolo Sabbatini1, Shijian Zhuang2, Tommaso Frioni3, Alberto Palliotti4, Paolo Sivilotti5 and Rachele Falchi5

»

A US study has evaluated the effects of combining cluster thinning and cluster zone leaf removal at veraison in the cool climate region of Michigan over two seasons. The different weather conditions experienced between the two seasons has provided additional insight into fruit ripening dynamics and fruit composition at harvest.

T

he state of Michigan is a cool climate viticulture region in the United States, with a growing season temperature average of 13-15°C. The presence of the Great Lakes regulates temperatures and precipitation throughout the year, allowing the production of grapes along with a number of other specialty crops including cherries, apples, and apricots, despite the state’s location in the centre of the North American continent.

The region’s growing season length, from budburst to the first autumn (fall) frost is approximately 165 days. Vines can be subjected to frost events in the early season and they can also be limited during the fruit ripening stage at the end of the season by the occurrence of early autumn frost. Michigan viticulture is mixed; it is comprised of juice and winegrapes.

Concord and Niagara (Vitis labruscana B.) are the major juice grape cultivars (5500ha) and Riesling and Pinot Noir (Vitis vinifera L.) are the most planted winegrape cultivars (1500ha).

Optimal fruit maturity at harvest consists of an ideal balance between many chemical parameters such as sugars, acidity, aromatic and volatile compounds, colour, and the absence of pathogens.

The parameters determine technological, phenolic and aromatic maturity of fruit at harvest, all critical contributors to wine quality. Elevated temperatures and cluster exposure to direct solar radiation are involved in sugar accumulation, organic acid degradation and biosynthesis of colour and aromatic compounds (Sadras et al.

2013, Matus et al. 2009, Diago et al. 2012), all essential to obtain optimal fruit quality, particularly in cool climates (Acimovic et al.

2016).

»

THE EXPERIMENT

Figure 1. Vines of the thinning and leaf removal treatment (TH+LR) (top) and the control vines (C) (right).

In cool viticulture regions, the achievement of fruit chemistry balance is challenged by different environmental factors, which may affect the results of viticultural practices (Howell 2001). Cluster thinning is a viticultural practice widely used to obtain the desired crop load per vine optimal for fruit maturation. The selective removal of excessive clusters, despite additional labour time, allows for calibrating vine productivity, eliminating defective components of the yield and avoiding excessive ripening delay. The removal of photosynthetically active leaves at different stages of vine growth is also a technique adopted with many purposes.

Basal leaf removal is frequently used to increase sunlight exposure and cluster

The experiment was conducted on Vitis vinifera L. cv. Cabernet Franc vines (clone FPS 01), grafted on rootstock 3309 C and planted in 1993 at Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center, of Michigan State University (Benton Harbor, lat. 42°05’10” N, long. 86°21’36” W) in 2011 and 2012. In the experimental vineyards, each row (north-south orientation) comprised 48 vines with a spacing of 2.4m between vines and 3.0m between rows, trained to a VSP system and spur pruned to about 48 nodes per vine during the winter.

Before the onset of veraison, the two factors were assigned, dividing the vines in four treatments: no thinning no leaf removal (C), no thinning with leaf removal (LR), thinning with no leaf removal (TH) and thinning with leaf removal (TH + LR). Cluster thinning was applied when clusters reached 50% of berry colour change, leaving approximately 50 clusters on TH and TH + LR vines and approximately 85 clusters on C and LR vines. Leaf removal was performed at the same time as cluster thinning, removing approximately six basal leaves in LR and TH + LR vines, meanwhile removing no leaves ▶ in C and TH vines (Figure 1).

Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

1

2 3

temperatures. Here, we are reporting a study that evaluated the effects of cluster thinning and cluster zone leaf removal, applied in combination at veraison, over two seasons. Remarkably, different weather conditions between the two years provided a guide for understanding fruit ripening dynamics and fruit composition at harvest in Cabernet Franc grapevines, a mid-late ripening cultivar for Michigan and a pivotal red cultivar for cool climate viticulture.

University of California Cooperative Extension, Fresno County, CA 93710, USA

Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Vegetali Sostenibili, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122, Piacenza, Italy Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Ambientali, Università di Perugia, Borgo XX giugno 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy

4

Universtity of Udine, Department of Agrifood, Environmental and Animal Sciences, via delle Scienze 208, 33100 Udine, Italy

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At the beginning of veraison, fruit maturation was tracked and harvest was fixed when samples collected reached an average of 21 Brix. At harvest, vine yield and cluster number per vine were recorded, as well as berry number per cluster and berry weight. Fruit chemistry components, e.g. total soluble solids (TSS), pH, titratable acidity (TA), anthocyanins, and total phenolics were then analysed.

with similar GDD accumulation. Vines were harvested on 21 October 2011, 57 days after veraison, and 3 October 2012, 42 days following veraison.

Harvest occurred on 21 October 2011 and 3 October 2012, which was 18 days earlier than the warmer year (2012), but only 15 days earlier when the days from veraison are considered. As expected, cluster thinning reduced yield (-31% to -46%). Leaf removal instead did not affect vine yield, with C vines not contrasting from LR, and TH vines not showing any difference from TH + LR. Cluster weight, the average number of berries per cluster and the average berry weight were not affected by cluster thinning or leaf removal, as no difference was found among treatments (Table 2). Pruning weight at the end of the winter was not different between treatments. However, due to the discrepancy in vine yield, the RI was consequently lower in the thinned vines, but still in the range (RI 4-7) of balanced vines for a cool climate region (Howell 2001).

At harvest, no differences were found in TSS and must pH among treatments in either 2011 or 2012 (Table 3). TA was instead lower in both years for LR and TH + LR vines when compared with C and TH vines (-0.4 to -1.1g/L). In 2011, total anthocyanins were higher in TH + LR compared with all other treatments (+14% than C), meanwhile no difference was

SOME RESULTS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE The maximum, minimum and average temperatures recorded during the two growing seasons were not particularly different until the second part of August.

In 2012, September was much warmer, with the maximum temperature occurring below 20°C only eight days during the entire month. This was in contrast to September 2011, which had 16 days with temperatures under 20°C. Vine phenological stage development was related to heat accumulation during the two seasons (Table 1). However, despite a higher accumulation of active temperatures recorded before anthesis, no differences were found in the timing of fruitset and veraison and respective growing degree days (GDD) accumulation in 2012. Vines reached veraison on 25 August 2011 and 22 August 2012 at 1241 and 1288 GDD, at surprisingly close days during the season

Table 1. Date, growing degree days accumulation and day of the year for phenological stages and harvest date of grapevines cv. Cabernet Franc grown at Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center (SWMREC, Benton Harbor, Michigan) in 2011 and 2012.

Development stage

Date 2011

GDDa

2012

Treatment

403

481

169

173

Fruit set

30 Jun 28 Jun

529

566

181

180

Veraison

25 Aug 22 Aug 1241 1288

237

235

Harvest

21 Oct

294

277

1579 1626

Yield (kg/ vine)

Number of clusters

Ravaz Indexa

Berry weight (g)c

2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012

2011 2012 2011 2012

18 Jun 21 Jun

3 Oct

Table 2. Yield components, cluster morphology and pruning parameters in 2011 and 2012.

Day of year

Anthesis

found in 2012. Total phenolics were notably higher in TH + LR than any other treatment (+10% than C) in 2011, and TH + LR vines were also the highest (+14% than C) in 2012, however, the LR treatment contained similar values and was also different (+9%) from C. In both years, no statistical difference was observed in TSS evolution during the season between TH + LR and C. In both years, LR had lower sugars than any other treatments between 8 and 27 days after veraison. However, this difference disappeared later in the season. Total anthocyanin content was quickly enhanced in TH + LR vines in both 2011 and 2012, and C was lower than any other treatment at the first stage of ripening in both 2011 and 2012. Later in the 2011 season, TH + LR showed higher colour until harvest, while no differences were observed between treatments past 25 days after veraison in 2012. Considering the ratio between anthocyanins and Brix, in both years all treatments enhanced the ratio from one to 24 days after veraison, with a peak at 15-18 days after veraison (TH + LR +13% in 2011 and +12% in 2012, when compared to C). Analysing anthocyanin data as a daily increase (Figure 2), colour compounds initially accumulated at faster rates in TH + LR, TH and LR, than in C (+60% in TH + LR comparred with C at 18 days after veraison) in 2011. Later in the season (27

C

6.7 ab

6.8 a

95 a

78 a

4.2 ab

7.5 a

1.30

1.31

LR

6.5

a

5.8

a

89

a

78

a

5.2

a

7.4

a

1.29

1.33

TH

4.0

b

3.8

b

55

b

47

b

2.5

b

4.8

b

1.36

1.28

TH + LR

4.4 b

4.5 b

1.29

1.25

4.0 b

51 b

46 b

3.3 b

Ravaz Index = crop yield/pruning weight.

Means within columns followed by different letters are significantly different at P<0.05

by F test for main effect. c Number of berries per cluster and berry weight were calculated from five tagged shoots per vine. a

b

GDD calculated from 1 Apr. to 31 Oct. with base temperature of 10°C (Baskerville and Emin 1969) a

Table 3. Harvest fruit chemical parameters in 2011 (21 Oct 2011) and 2012 (3 Oct 2012).

Treatment

Soluble solids (Brix)

pH

TA (g/L)

2011

2012

2011

2012

C

22.2

21.7

3.5

LR

22.3

22.0

TH

22.0

TH + LR

22.5

Anthocyanins (mg/g)

Phenolics (AU/g)b

2011

2012

2011

2012

2011

2012

3.7

6.5

6.0

0.84

b

0.79

1.26

b

1.27 c

3.6

3.7

5.8 b

5.4 b

0.82 b

0.81

1.22 b

1.39 ab

21.3

3.6

3.7

6.6 a

5.7 ab

0.85 b

0.82

1.23 b

1.36 b

21.1

3.6

3.7

5.5 b

5.3 b

0.96 a

0.81

1.39 a

1.45 a

aa

a

Means within columns followed by different letters are significantly different at P<0.05 by F test for main effect.

AU = absorbance unit.

a

b

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days after veraison), anthocyanin daily increase was lower in TH + LR than in C, and consequently, all treatments followed a similar pattern. A similar trend was found in 2012, however, anthocyanin daily increase peaked earlier in the season for TH and TH + LR vines (eight days after veraison, 10 days earlier than 2011), and was slower and more prolonged in C and LR (never faster than 0.033mg/g/day and prolonged until 15 days after veraison).

The anthocyanins-to-Brix ratio evolution showed a similar dynamic between the treatments in both years, with the exception of C (Figure 2).

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Cluster thinning and leaf removal are two management techniques widely adopted in cool climates to avoid and/or mitigate the negative effects of low heat accumulation, high humidity and rainfall on fruit ripening. At harvest, cluster thinning led to a yield reduction consistent with the lower number of clusters per vine, while cluster morphology and berry size were not changed in TH or LR. Anthocyanin evolution was affected after veraison by both cluster thinning and leaf removal in both years. TH + LR, LR and TH enhanced anthocyanin biosynthesis in response to the treatment between one and 24 days after veraison, with the differences peaking both years at 15 to 20 days after veraison.

In 2012, cluster thinning determined the peak of the anthocyanin-to-Brix ratio soon after veraison, while leaf removal induced a slower daily increase of this ratio. In contrast, the low temperatures in 2011 revealed that leaf removal, with and without cluster thinning, was more effective at determining a higher peak approximately 20 days after veraison. Therefore, the greatest contribution to anthocyanins in

40

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Figure 2. Anthocyanins daily increase during ripening in 2011 (upper panel) and 2012 (lower panel) in relation to cluster thinning and leaf removal. Vertical bars represent standard errors around means.

C, no cluster thinning no leaf removal; LR, leaf removal without cluster thinning; TH, cluster thinning without leaf removal; TH + LR, cluster thinning and leaf removal.

2011 resided in the strong accumulation from the beginning of September, when vines experienced cooler temperatures.

The efficiency of combined cluster zone leaf removal and cluster thinning applied at veraison was directly related to the seasonal temperature evolution from veraison to harvest. Both techniques, if applied separately or together, improved anthocyanin content after veraison.

However, this enhancement was more relevant in the cooler 2011 season, when low temperatures and reduced sunlight slowed the ripening processes. In the cooler summer, cluster thinning and leaf removal improved fruit composition at harvest, while in the warmer summer, no difference was found between treatments

W I N E & V I T I C ULT U R E JO UR NA L NO V EMBER/DEC EMBER 2017

at harvest because the vines efficiently synthesised anthocyanins, driven by optimal temperature and light conditions.

When the techniques were not applied together, sugars and colour still provided more uniform results, however, not to the same effect as the combined treatments.

Temperature during the growing season is directly related to winegrape maturity, thus, the increase in temperatures promoted by leaf removal are crucial to fulfill thermal requirements needed for fruit maturation in cool seasons. The combination of these viticultural practices improve the sourcesink ratio, which is critical to speed up the accumulation of metabolites from veraison through maturation. Considering our experiment, the two techniques applied together can be essential to achieve maturity of red grape cultivars in cool climates. When the growing season is short with varying temperatures, there is a conclusive positive effect on colour and the ripening profiles of important chemical compounds in winegrapes.

REFERENCES Acimovic, D.; Tozzini, L.; Green, A.; Sivilotti, P. and Sabbatini, P. (2016) Identification of a defoliation severity threshold for changing fruitset, bunch morphology and fruit composition in Pinot Noir. Aust. J. Grape Wine R. 22:399-408.

Diago, M.P.; Ayestarán, B.; Guadalupe, Z.; Poni, S. and Tardáguila, J. (2012) Impact of pre-bloom and fruitset basal leaf removal on the flavonol and anthocyanin composition of Tempranillo grapes. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 63:367-376.

Howell, G.S. (2001) Sustainable grape productivity and the growth-yield relationship: a review. Am. J. Enol.

Vitic. 52:165-174.

Matus, J.T.; Loyola, R.; Vega, A.; Peña-Neira, A.; Bordeu, E.; Arce-Johnson, P. and Alcalde, J.A. (2009) Post-veraison sunlight exposure induces MYB-mediated transcriptional regulation of anthocyanin and flavonol synthesis in berry skins of Vitis vinifera. J. Exp. Bot. 60:853-867.

Sadras, V.O.; Moran, M.A. and Bonanda, M. (2013) Effects of elevated temperature in grapevine. II Juice pH, titratable acidity and wine sensory attributes. Aust. J. Grape Wine R. 19:107-115.

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TRUNK DISEASES

Highlights from the 10th International Workshop on Grapevine Trunk Diseases

By Matthew Ayres1, Regina Billones-Baaijens2 and Mark Sosnowski1,3

»

The recent International Workshop on Grapevine Trunk Diseases brought together key international researchers to discuss the latest information on managing this worldwide threat to vineyards. This article presents highlights from the workshop with a focus on practical outcomes for the Australian and New Zealand wine industries.

T

he 10th International Workshop on Grapevine Trunk Diseases (IWGTD) was held in Reims, France, in July 2017. Researchers and industry personnel from around the world gathered to discuss and share the latest research findings of relevance to the management of grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs). The workshop attracted 220 delegates (Figure 1) from 29 countries, who presented 150 papers encompassing research updates on Eutypa dieback (ED) and Botryosphaeria dieback (BD), the Esca disease complex and young vine decline, among other diseases. The workshop comprised several main topics including pathogen characterisation and identification, epidemiology, plant pathogen interaction, microbial ecology and disease management in both the nursery and vineyard.

Australian researchers Mark Sosnowski and Matthew Ayres (South Australian Research and Development Institute – SARDI) and Regina BillonesBaaijens (National Wine and Grape

Industry Centre – NWGIC) attended the workshop and, collectively, presented 11 papers on trunk disease research being conducted in Australia and New Zealand. The workshop highlighted that this research is at the forefront of delivering practical outcomes to assist growers in the management of grapevine trunk diseases. It will be important to continue this research which contributes significantly to the sustainability of our wine industries.

Following is a summary of some of the information presented by international speakers that has particular relevance to the Australian and New Zealand wine industries.

DISEASE SURVEYS In a survey of GTDs in Hungary, Szabina Lengyel (Eszterházy Károly University) reported that the ED pathogen was the most commonly isolated pathogen (80%) with higher levels of infection in cordon-pruned than ‘umbrella kniffin’ cane-pruned vines. The most susceptible variety was

Sauvignon Blanc, with 24% of 15-yearold vines affected, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon with 19%. This supports the findings of research conducted in Australia and New Zealand where these varieties are reported among the most susceptible to GTDs. Christoffel Spies (University of Stellenbosch) presented on the diversity and host-range of pathogens that cause Esca disease (Figure 2, see page 44), with 16 new species reported in South Africa. Although some of these species are found in Australia, they have little or no known impact on grapevines with regards to trunk disease. Of relevance is the recovery of these species from Callistemon (bottlebrush), which are prevalent Australian native plant species. Future studies could target bottlebrush as potential hosts of trunk disease causing fungal species in Australia.

DIAGNOSTICS Using quantitative PCR (qPCR), Marion Sineux (Mercier Novatech,

Figure 1. Delegates of the 10th International Workshop on Grapevine Trunk Diseases.

»

2

South Australian Research and Development Institute, GPO Box 397, Adelaide SA 5001

1

National Wine and Grape Industry Centre, Charles Sturt University, School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences, Locked Bag 588, Wagga Wagga NSW 2678 School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Glen Osmond SA 5064

3

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France) showed that pathogen concentration varies in different parts of the young grafted plant and higher concentrations of pathogens were associated with wounds such as the graft union, disbudding injuries and at the basal end of cuttings. This suggests infections occurred through wounds during propagation, and will have implications when targeting tissue samples from propagation material for diagnostic purposes.

An early detection tool for BD pathogens in nursery materials was reported by Erin Galarneau (University of California, Davis). Using leaves instead of wood, plant defence genes that were expressed at the early stage of infection were initially identified, avoiding the need for destructive sampling. This presented another potential technique that could be further explored in Australia and New Zealand as an option for detecting and quantifying latent infections in nursery plant materials.

Loris Ouadi (French National Institute for Agricultural Research - INRA) monitored sap flow in vines affected

by Esca disease and showed that when water demand by the vine was at its highest, sap flow density in symptomatic vines was half that of asymptomatic vines, similar to a trend for stomatal conductance and leaf transpiration rates. It was suggested that these parameters may indicate the health status of a vine before the development of Esca foliar symptoms. These findings may be translated to ED and BD affected vines, but would need to be the subject of future research.

A new DNA macro-array is being developed by José Úrbez Torres (Agriculture Canada) to determine the health status of grapevine nursery propagation material in British Columbia. This diagnostic technique is a rapid and specific tool to detect and identify many plant pathogens simultaneously in a single test.

Collaborative discussions between Australian researchers and Úrbez Torres may lead to adoption of the DNA macroarray for use in Australia and New Zealand. This would provide a faster, cheaper and more specific technique adapted for spore detection and diagnostics. Úrbez Torres also reported on another new technology to detect and quantify GTD pathogens using droplet

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digital PCR (ddPCR), using multi-species primers designed by Billones-Baaijens in Australian research, collaborating with Úrbez Torres. This new technology is reported to be even more sensitive and accurate than qPCR. Olivier Yobregat (French Wine and Vine Institute - IFV) investigated the role of nursery propagation material in the spread of BD. Green grafted plants that were free of BD pathogens, and standard lignified grafted plants of the same rootstock/scion combination were planted in nursery beds. Two years after planting, wood samples collected from both the disease-free and standard grafted plants tested positive to BD pathogens, which were isolated from the surface (bark) and inside the woody tissues. These results indicate that infections of BD pathogens likely originated externally from the environment rather than the grafting and propagation system.

SPORE TRAPPING Preliminary GTD spore dispersal results from British Columbia, Canada, using ddPCR technology and Burkard spore traps (Figure 3), which formed part of collaborative research between Agriculture Canada, SARDI and NWGIC, were presented by Úrbez Torres. It was reported that ED and BD spores were released intermittently throughout the growing season, particularly during late winter and early spring, when the temperatures are above freezing and generally, but not always, correlated with rainfall. These results were similar to those observed in spore trapping studies in Australian regions, confirming that rain is the primary factor for the spore release of these pathogens in vineyards.

Ongoing collaboration between Canada, Australia and New Zealand aims to provide more detailed understanding of spore dispersal, and may eventually lead to real-time monitoring for GTD in vineyards in the future.

SEARCHING FOR TOLERANCE TO GTD Maria Pilar Martínez-diz (Viticultural and Oenological Station of Galicia) evaluated grapevine germplasm collections from Spain for resistance to GTD pathogens by inoculating potted grapevine cuttings with ED, BD and

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Figure 2. Foliar symptoms of Esca disease, taken in a French vineyard.

Esca pathogens. It was found that all cultivars were susceptible to infection by each of the pathogens, but the severity of internal wood discolouration varied significantly, suggesting possible disease tolerance in some varieties.

Martinez-diz will spend three months working with the SARDI research team in 2018 to screen Australian germplasm against Esca pathogens.

In a search for resistance to BD, specifically with clones of Tempranillo, Carmen Berlanas (Spanish Institute of Grapevine and Wine Sciences - ICVV), inoculated potted vines with a BD pathogen, and found that the severity of internal wood symptoms varied considerably. Using real-time PCR analysis, the relative gene expression patterns in leaves differed between the least and most susceptible clones, five months after inoculation. Although the experiment is yet to be repeated, this result suggested possible tolerance in some clones of Tempranillo and that gene expression may provide a marker for tolerance.

Also in Spain, Mónica Berbegal (Polytechnic University of Valencia), screened rootstocks against BD and Esca pathogens. All rootstocks were susceptible to infection by the pathogens, but the severity of leaf chlorosis, wilt and internal wood discolouration varied significantly, suggesting possible disease tolerance in some germplasm.

These Spanish studies confirm

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Figure 3. Burkard spore trap located in a vineyard in British Columbia, Canada. results from Australia on the variability in susceptibility of V. vinifera varieties to GTD pathogens. They also provide more evidence for potential tolerance amongst clones and rootstocks, which will be investigated further in Australia and New Zealand in collaboration with the Spanish researchers, led by GTD research program leader Dr David Gramaje (ICVV).

In France, Severine Mary (Université de Bordeaux) reported varying levels of Esca symptom development on Cabernet Sauvignon grafted onto four different rootstocks (Gravesac, Millardet 101-14, 3309 Couderc, Riparia Gloire).

Furthermore, they observed more Esca symptoms on vines grafted using the whip and tongue method, compared with vines grafted by the omega or full cleft methods. It was concluded that mechanical grafting may be one of the factors exacerbating the incidence of Esca in French vineyards. Although Esca disease symptoms are rarely observed in Australia or New Zealand, the effect of grafting on GTDs will need to be addressed in future.

TRUNK DISEASE MANAGEMENT In the nursery Black foot disease pathogens were detected and quantified using qPCR in the rhizosphere of nursery soils in South Africa by Lizel Mostert (University of Stellenbosch), who investigated the effect of crop rotation

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on black foot disease. Black foot was detected in the roots of triticale and a weed called Corn spurry, but no black foot pathogens were isolated from the roots of lupins, canola, white mustard and forage radish, indicating that brassica may be a useful crop to incorporate into crop rotations in nurseries.

Utilising both conventional culturing and molecular sequencing techniques, Ales Eichmeier (Mendel University, Czech Republic) reported on the effect of pre-planting hot water treatment (HWT; 50°C and 53°C for 30 minutes) on active microflora and GTD pathogens present in young grafted vines.

The molecular approach detected greater diversity of microflora than conventional techniques, and showed that HWT immediately reduced the number of fungal microflora including the GTD pathogens, but these fungal communities increased again after one growing season.

Furthermore, Eline Van Zijll de Jong (Linnaeus Laboratories, New Zealand) reported that some grafted plants subjected to pre-grafting HWT (48°C and 50°C for 30 minutes) tested positive to some GTD pathogens, when tested using a highly sensitive qPCR method post-treatment. She also reported reduction in nursery recovery and initial vine fitness. These studies highlight some of the limitations of HWT for grafted vines, and the need to develop more robust strategies for control of GTDs in the nursery.

Joachim Eder (State Education and Research Centre, Germany) evaluated the application of Trichoderma to propagation material immediately after grafting and before waxing, in order to prevent infection by GTD pathogens. Up to 100% colonisation with Trichoderma of the grafted plants was achieved and no negative effects of treatment were observed in nursery fields. The trial was established to observe the long-term effects of the treatment.

Therefore, future results will determine whether this is an effective method for the protection of young grafted vines against GTDs. Preventative wound protection Research on the biological control of BD pathogens using bacterial endophytes from native New Zealand

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tea tree was presented by Eirian Jones (Lincoln University). Some strains showed broad inhibition of multiple BD pathogen species. One strain was successfully transmitted to Sauvignon Blanc canes where it significantly decreased lesion length and pathogen colonisation of tissue beyond the lesion. Results showed that endophytes with biocontrol activity reside as a natural resource in tea tree and may provide biocontrol activity. The results of this work suggest that Australian tea tree species, well known for their antimicrobial properties, may also host endophytes with biocontrol potential, which could be the subject of future research.

Chemical and biological protection sprays and pastes were evaluated in Chile by Mauricio Lolas (University of Talca) on pruning wounds of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc for their efficacy to control the main Esca pathogen. All treatments significantly reduced the length of necrotic lesions caused by the pathogen, compared with controls. Products that have been shown to be effective in controlling GTDs in Australia and New Zealand, including tebuconazole, pyraclostrobin and fluazinam, also proved effective in these studies. Here, inoculation was conducted using a mycelium plug, but the trials will be repeated using fungal conidia, and by assessing recovery of the pathogen to confirm control. The results also showed that biological agents such as Bacillus and Trichoderma spp. provided a similar reduction in lesion length to the synthetic fungicides.

Using a detached cane assay developed at SARDI for GTD wound treatment evaluation, Laura Martín (Centre of Wine Technology - VITEC) screened 10 products, including natural formulations, fungicides and biological control agents for efficacy against GTD pathogens. Wound application with Trichoderma spp., chitosan and copper oxychloride were reported to decrease infection by GTD pathogens at varying levels.

José Úrbez Torres (Agriculture Canada) also adopted the detached cane assay method from SARDI to evaluate eight chemical and biological pruning wound protectants against 10 GTD pathogens. Triazoles and

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thiophanates were effective, but efficacy decreased over time when pruning wounds were challenged with pathogens from one to 21 days after treatment. Conversely, disease control increased after 21 days when pruning wounds were treated with a Trichoderma-based biological product, suggesting longer-term protection than with chemicals. For this reason, Australian trials are currently evaluating the timing of application of Trichoderma spp. to maximise efficacy of biological control.

The use of ‘alternative’ products for the control of ED and BD has also been the subject of ongoing research in Australia with mixed results, but future trials will include compounds such as chitosan, which has been reported to have potential. The detached cane assay (Figure 4), developed at SARDI, is being adopted in research throughout the world and is proving to be a useful, high-throughput method for screening products for their ability to prevent infection of pruning wounds.

Figure 4. Detached cane assay developed at SARDI for evaluation of wound protectants.

from the workshop include information Outcomes of this workshop for of relevance to the Australian and New Australia and New Zealand are Zealand wine industries, and their recommendations to: expand on the research efforts. Some rootstocks evaluation of rootstock and scion and clones significantly reduce trunk material in the search for tolerance to disease symptoms. Biological agents trunk disease; continue the search for CONCLUDING REMARKS can provide control of pathogens, alternative compounds and evaluate although timing of application to the timing of biocontrol application to ccoladeAttendance Wines Australia Limited, Aravina Estate, Australian Vintage at the 10th IWGTD has wounds can affect efficacy.

Native protect wounds against GTD pathogens; td, Barwick Bests plants Wines Bremerton highlightedWines, that GTDsBeltunga, are increasingly mayGreat contain Western, beneficial and expand on spore trapping and Wines,causing Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard Ltd,beCampbells serious economic effect organismsPty that could exploited as Wines, pruning wound susceptibility studies asama Group PtyAustralian Ltd, Cellarmaster Group, Charles Melton Wines, around the world. and New potential biocontrols in grapevines. to include other climatic regions loverZealand Hill Wines, CMV Wineand Es-make progress toward real-time research is at the Farms, forefront ofCoriole SporeVineyards, trapping studiesDelegats are increasingly ate, Delegat’s Wine Estate Limited, DogRidge, Edgemill Group, Fansepractical management strategies for being conducted around the world, with monitoring of spore dispersal. ow Bell, Wines, Fowles Wine, Fuseshowing Winevast Services GTD,Five leadingStar the international effort early results differencesPty Ltd, The IWGTD is the leading emtree Vineyards, Harry Wines, Henry’s in preventative wound Glenlofty protection and Wines, between regionsJones with different international forum for information rive Vignerons Ltd, Highlights Hentley Farm, Hope Estate, Hospitality exchange Reremedial controlPty strategies. climates. on GTD, with the next planned for 2019 in ruitment Solutions, Howard Park Wines, Hungerford Hill Wines,workshop InBritish Columbia, Canada. Future lewood Wines Pty Ltd, Innocent Bystander, Jack Rabbit Vineyard, involvement by Australian and New im Barry Wines, KarriBindi, Kauri, Kingston Estate Wines Pty Ltd, Zealand researchers will continue to irrihill Wines Pty Ltd, Krinklewood Biodynamic Vineyard, L’Atelier ensure they remain at the forefront of y, Aramis Vineyards, Leeuwin Estate, Make WInes Australia, McWilinternational GTD research. am’s Wines Group, Memstar, Mondo Consulting, Moppity VIneyards, More detailed information and Moxon Oak, Nadalie australia, Nexthire, Oenotec Pty Ltd, Options Wine abstracts from the 10th IWGTD can be Merchants, Orlando Wines, Ozpak Pty Ltd, Patrick of Coonawarra, Planfound at www.icgtd.org agenet Wines, Portavin Integrated Wine Services, R&D VITICULTUR-

L SERVICES PTY LTD, Robert Oatley Vineyards, Rymill Coonawarra, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS eville Estate, Stella Bella Wines, Streicker Wines, The Gilbert Family Wine Co, The Lane Vineyard, The Scotchmans Hill Group Pty Ltd, The Matthew Ayres and Regina Billonesalumba Wine Company, Tintara Winery, Pty Ltd, TreasThe Wine Industry’s LeadingTower OnlineEstate Job Site Baaijens were supported by Wine ry Wine Estates, Turkey Flat Vineyards, Two Hands Wines, Tyrrell’s Wines, Vinpac International, Warburn Estate Pty Ltd, WebAware Australia Pty travel bursaries to travel to France for the 10th IWGTD, with td, Wine and Vine Personnel International,Wines Overland, Wingara additional funding from SARDI and WIne Group,Wirra Wirra Vineyards, Zilzie Wines, Accolade Wines AusCSU, respectively. Mark Sosnowski ralia Limited, Aravina Estate, Australian Vintage Ltd, Barwick Wines, was supported by New Zealand eltunga, Bests Wines GreatbyWestern, Bremerton Wines, Brown Brothcreated & managed Winegrowers and SARDI. rs Milawa Vineyard Pty Ltd, Campbells Wines, Casama Group Pty Ltd, ellarmaster Group, Charles Melton Wines, Clover Hill Wines, Csulting, WVJ Moppity VIneyards, Moxon Oak, Nadalie australia, Nexthire, Internaonal,Wines Overland, Wingara WIne Group,Wirra Wirra Vineyards, www.w i n eti tl es .c om.au W I N E & V I T I C ULT U R E JO UR NA L NO V EMBER/DEC EMBER 2017 V32N6 46 Wines, Zilzie Accolade Wines Australia Limited, Aravina Estate,

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Waite Diagnostics marks 20 years of service to the viticultural industry

By Nuredin Habili Waite Diagnostics, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Campus, The University of Adelaide, South Australia. Email: nuredin.habili@adelaide.edu.au

Since starting operation in 1997 as a unit within The University of Adelaide, Waite Diagnostics has provided the national and international viticultural communities with a range of diagnostic services for detecting grapevine diseases. This article pays tribute to the foresight of these founders on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of WD.

W

aite Diagnostics (WD) was founded in 1997 within the Department of Plant Science, at The University of Adelaide, by the late Robert (Bob) Henry Symons (19342006), Professor of Biochemistry, a plant virologist and a Fellow of The Royal Society (Rogers and Elliot 2008). Bob worked as the director of two key scientists, the late Dr Roderick Bonfiglioli (see below) as the adviser and myself (Dr Nuredin Habili) as the diagnostician.

I joined the WD team following my departure from CSIRO at Merbein (Victoria). As a senior research scientist, I had gained considerable knowledge on grapevine varieties, their American hybrid rootstocks and their specific viruses. At WD I applied my knowledge from the molecular detection of viruses of herbaceous plants (Habili et al. 1987) to the diagnosis of grapevine viruses by the latest molecular methods.

Supporting letters from the wine industry including one from the late South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) researcher Richard Cirami, persuaded us to work towards improving the hygiene of existing Australian grapevine varieties. We started by designing and using primers (short cDNA sequences from virus genes) needed for the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) diagnosis of two grapevine viruses (Table 1), later increasing our scope to 12 viruses

and the Australian Grapevine Yellows (AGY) phytoplasma, which was a major issue in the industry at that time. Rod Bonfiglioli’s networking in Italy and Canada facilitated the DNA extraction protocol from dormant canes as well as the sequences of the PCR primers for us to use.

Bob Symons (right) and Nuredin Habili in 1997, the year that Waite Diagnostics was founded.

One of the highlights of Bob’s achievements in grapevine virology was to organise the 13th meeting of the International Council for the Study of Viruses and Virus-like Diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG) on 12-17 March 2000, in Adelaide. On page 149 of the proceedings (Symon et al. 2000) he wrote: “The origins of Waite Diagnostics

provide an interesting story where a combination of circumstances over several years evolved into the establishment of an important diagnostic service for the Australian viticultural industry.”

The idea of establishing a grapevine disease diagnostic service came into Bob’s mind when he received a phone call from Doug Dadswell, of Lindeman’s Winery, on a Friday afternoon in October 1994 to investigate the apparent spreading of a ‘yellows’ disease in Lindeman’s Chardonnay block in Sunraysia, Victoria.

The next day, Rod Bonfiglioli, who was Bob’s PhD student at the time, was collecting samples with Len Schliefert, a viticulturist working with Doug.

Waite Diagnostics was registered as a business name on 30 June 1997 by the commercial wing of The University of Adelaide, Luminis Pty Ltd. In finding a suitable name for his diagnostics enterprise, Bob finally decided that Waite Diagnostics was the most appropriate because it was a diagnostic service located at the Waite Campus, and the name would be easily remembered by ‘blockies’.

ROD BONFIGLIOLI AT WAITE DIAGNOSTICS Dr Rod Bonfiglioli’s (1953-2009) (Andrew and Logan 2009) contribution towards the founding and running of WD was pivotal.

He was travelling all over the viticultural

Table 1. List of grapevine viruses tested over the years at Waite Diagnostics.

Year

Viruses tested

1997

LR1

LR3

1998

LR1

LR3

2005

LR1

2017

LR1

Phyto LR4

GFkV

GRSPaV

GVA

GVB

LR2

LR3

LR4

GFkV

GRSPaV

GVA

GVB

LR2

LR3

LR4/9

GFkV

GRSPaV

GVA

GVB

LR2

ArMV

ToRSV

GFLV

Phyto

LR9

RGV

GFLV

Phyto

GPGV

GRBaV

SyD

Phyto

Key: LR 1-4, Grapevine leafroll-associated viruses I to 4; RSPaV-1, Rupestris stem pitting associated virus; GVA, GVB and GVD, Grapevine Vitiviruses; GFkV, Grapevine fleck virus; GFLV, Grapevine Fanleaf virus; ToRSV, Tomato ringspot virus; GPGV, Grapevine Pinot Gris virus; GRBaV, Grapevine red blotch-associated virus; Phyto, phytoplasmas (e.g. AGY: Australian Grapevine Yellows).

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world from Canada to Chile, then across to Europe (Italy and France) to acquire the latest diagnostic technology including gene specific short sequences (primers) for the detection of grapevine viruses and phytoplasmas by PCR. In 1997 the testing was limited to GLRaV-1 and -3 and a nested PCR for phytoplasmas (Table 1). These three tests were not enough to satisfy the growers whose vines were still showing virus symptoms even though they obtained a negative result for the initial three tests. One year later WD increased the scope of the tests to include 12 viruses.

Following setting up of the laboratory, Rod visited various vineyard blocks across Australia and persuaded growers from Margaret River, in Western Australia, to Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, to send suspect samples for testing. Bob used to call Rod Bonfiglioli a ‘cavalier’. Most of the time he was bringing samples from interstate on dry ice to satisfy quarantine regulations. Whenever we obtained positive test results Rod became enthusiastic and he was immediately on the phone informing the concerned grower about the culprit viruses. His descriptive reports under the title ‘Viticultural Virology Report’ are still worthwhile reading as they seem to have been written just yesterday! I found one of them from 1998 when four viruses (GLRaV-1, GFkV, GVA and RSPaV) were detected in each of five Chardonnay samples that Rod collected from a poorly performing vineyard in Coonawarra, South Australia. His report ended as follows:

Infected cuttings would be expected to show poor results if used for grafting, and will probably not perform well generally.

Vines with similar problems that I have seen in other vineyards frequently carry no crop at all and are not worth persevering with. You should tag other suspect vines and we will assess them when I next visit. I would be very interested to discover where these vines came from, the source of these vines should be an interesting sight! If you could please refrain from removing those vines until I am able to re-visit them, I would appreciate it. If you have any further questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to call me.

Yours sincerely Roderick Bonfiglioli In 1999 Rod moved to Chalmers Nurseries at Euston, NSW, where he established a vine culture which will long

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Dr Rod Bonfiglioli in 2002, with dog Alfie. be remembered. This is what Jenni and Bruce Chalmers had to say about Rod: “In early 1999 Rod left Waite and moved to Euston, NSW, to take up a position in plant health with Bruce and Jenni Chalmers, of Chalmers Nurseries. Rod was fondly called the Mad Professor around the Chalmers workplace. He brought a wealth of knowledge with him on the benefits of using only clean propagation material and help set in place a regime of virus testing all material sourced for propagation in the nursery. The work done with Chalmers helped to bring about ground-breaking procedures from a propagation nursery’s perspective. Rod was also instrumental in introducing Chalmers to alternative vine sources in Italy and helping with the choice and importations of new Italian varieties.”

In 1999, the award-winning Mildura chef Stefano di Pieri (www.stefano.com.au), Bruce Chalmers and Rod worked together to establish the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show which has become an informative and well-attended event held in November each year in Mildura. In 2010, the Best Wine in Show award was renamed The Dr Rod Bonfiglioli Best Wine of the Show award.

Bruce said Rod was a man full of passion and enthusiasm for his work, and the health of all Australian vineyards. He will be remembered for a long time.

Rod moved to New Zealand in 2000 and continued his work on grapevine sanitation issues. An interesting discovery from his early research in New Zealand was a severe strain of Grapevine Leafroll associated Virus type 2 (GLRaV-2) which was associated with graft incompatibility.

He named the virus strain after his dog, Alfie (Bonfiglioli et al. 2003).

Professor P.G. Martelli, the president of the International Council for the Study

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of Viruses and Virus-like Diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG), dedicated his paper at University of California-Davis to the memory of Dr Rod Bonfiglioli. In his opening speech at the 17th meeting of the congress held in 2012 he noted: “I dedicated this paper in recognition of his [Rod’s] academic skills, the clear vision in any aspect of research for the wine industry and his dedicated activity for the betterment of the New Zealand grapevine industry” (Martelli 2012).

Although Rod obtained his PhD from the Department of Plant Science at The University of Adelaide, under the supervision of Bob Symons he spent most of his viticultural life in New Zealand where he was known as ‘Dr Rod’ amongst growers. He always believed that the best wines start with healthy vines. In 2011, the national industry organisation New Zealand Winegrowers established the Rod Bonfiglioli Memorial Scholarship, which has since been awarded to three PhD candidates.

THE GANG OF FOUR Bob Symons was not only interested in detecting grapevine viruses, but he was also interested in the elimination of viruses from premium grapevine varieties. For this purpose, he invited Tony Herve, who had the experience of eliminating viruses from other plants, to investigate the possibility of creating clean vine progeny. Tony then invited Geoff Hardy, David Bruer and Anne Whittall, all from South Australia, to join him. These four established Clean Plant Technology Pty Ltd in late 1999 to early 2000. Bob used to call them “gang of four” and they had regular meetings at Waite.

They bought three modern Sanyo Growth Cabinet incubators which are still in use.

The gang of four employed Dr Rodney Davies, who was a prominent plant tissue culturist, as their research technician.

Rodney established the first lot of ‘dirty’ vines into tissue culture, and one of the first outcomes of this tissue culturing was the elimination of AGY phytoplasma in all of the treated clones. In total, 30 grapevine varieties were cleaned up from viruses. With the retirement of Dr Davies in 2015, Ms. Qi Wu has continued the virus elimination work using shoot tip culture with a combination of thermotherapy and chemotherapy (Habili et al. 2015). A further 10 varieties have been cleaned up ▶ from viruses for commercial distribution.

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HIGHLIGHTS OF RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS OF WD TO VITICULTURE AND PLANT HEALTH • A nucleic acid extraction protocol for grapevine tissue has been developed and despatched as a kit to interstate and overseas clients. This protocol allows growers to send samples as extracts, rather than live tissue, which has eliminated the need for biosecurity inspection at borders and for a Plant Health Certificate to be issued to the exporter.

• The discovery of Grapevine virus A (GVA)-associated Shiraz Disease is the main highlight of the WD research. In a row of 34 Shiraz vines at the Coombe Vineyard, Waite Campus, two vines showed restricted spring growth in October 2000. These two vines alone were diagnosed with GVA. In late autumn the leaves of these vines turned crimson and wood in the canes was largely unlignified. The yield loss in the infected vines was up to 98%.

The disease at the Coombe Vineyard was similar to Shiraz Disease in South Africa which affects Shiraz, Malbec and Merlot in Australia as well as in South Africa. Many vineyard managers who top worked Shiraz on existing GVA-positive, symptomless Chardonnay vines have had to remove their unproductive Shiraz vines in less than six years. The loss has been conservatively estimated at A$70,000ha. The price for a full virus testing service (including 12 viruses and phytoplasmas) is only $200 which gives growers security in the knowledge that his or her vineyard will have a long productive life and that grape quality will be optimal for the site.

Shiraz Disease on Shiraz grafted on Grapevine Virus A infected Chardonnay.

These vines produced no yield six years after grafting (vineyard located in McLaren Vale).

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• In 2012, Mr. Hikmat Malk, a masters student of Professor John Randles, modified a virus elimination thermotherapy protocol which involved the frequently lethal temperature of 42 oC by combining it with chemotherapy. The maximum temperature could thus be reduced to 35oC with a higher rate of plant survival in vitro (Malk et al. 2012) and a high rate of success in curing desirable vine cultivars of virus infection.

Commercial, premium grapevine varieties are being cleaned up.

• Waite Diagnostics prepared and convened an international course on molecular diagnosis of viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas supported by the Economic Cooperation Work Program of the ASEAN-AustraliaNew Zealand Free Trade Agreement under an AusAID-funded regional program (Habili et al. 2014). The aim of the project was to enhance ASEAN specialist proficiency in diagnostic techniques for plant pathogens. The project ran from October 2013 to March 2014 and included a short three-week intensive laboratory course and lectures to five students from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam.

Professor John Randles, who replaced Bob as the WD director, believes, “Growers have the right to know what is going on in their vineyards and Waite Diagnostics is here to serve them”.

We are committed to serving Australian and international grapevine growers by improving their precious propagating material through detecting and eliminating viruses that might be a threat to the industry. WD continues to make a major contribution to Australian grapevine production and to plant health in general through the ability of its scientists to access international research, use the GenBank database of genome sequences of plant pathogens, and design and use specific PCR diagnostic tests for the highly sensitive detection of disease causing microorganisms. It acts as a centre for teaching and training both locally and internationally.

On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, Waite Diagnostics is testing five plants (one sample) of Pinot Gris for Grapevine Pinot Gris virus at 50% of the cost.

REFERENCES Andrew, R. and Logan, S. (2009) In memoriam: Roderick Bonfiglioli. Australian Viticulture 13(4):16-17.

Bonfiglioli, R.; Edwards, F. and Pantaleo A. (2003) Molecular studies on a graft incompatibility syndrome

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Mr Mitchell Schneider, from Yalumba Nursery, collecting virus eliminated Gamay vines from Waite Diagnostics.

Virus-infected Gamay plants were brought to the lab a year earlier for virus elimination by shoot tip culture. in New Zealand vineyards yield another probable variant of Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 2.

Extended Abstracts, 14th ICVG Meeting, September 2003, Locorotondo, Italy, 141.

Habili, N.; McInnes, J.L. and Symons, R.H. (1987) Non-radioactive, photobiotin-labelled DNA probes for the routine diagnosis of barley yellow dwarf virus. J. Virological Methods 16:225-237.

Habili, N.; Wu, Q.; Sta Cruz, F.; Li, K.H.; Jormasie, J.; Lanisa, N.B. and Randles, J.W. (2014) ASEAN regional diagnostic network: Results of a survey on the detection of viruses and virus-like pathogens in selected ASEAN countries. 11th Australasian Plant Virology Workshop, Brisbane, Australia. 13-15 August 2014, 39.

Habili, N.; Wu, Q. and Davies, R. (2015) Grapevine virus elimination by Waite Diagnostics: Road testing a rapid anti-virus program. The Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker 612:34-35.

Malk, H.; Davies, R.; Habili, N.; Herve, T. and Randles, J.W. (2012) Elimination of viruses from different varieties of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) using thermotherapy and chemotherapy. Proceedings of the 17th Congress of the International Council for the Study of Virus and Virus-like Diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG), Davis, California, USA, 7-14 October 2012, 266–267.

Martelli, G.P. (2012) Grapevine virology highlights: 2010-2012. Proceedings of the 17th Congress of the International Council for the Study of Virus and Virus-like Diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG), Davis, California, USA, 7-14 October 2012, 13-31.

Rogers, G.E. and. Elliott W.H. (2008) Robert Henry Symons 1934-2006. Historical Records of Australian Science 19:191-213.

Symons, R.H. (2000) Waite Diagnostics, a service to the viticultural industry. 13th meeting of the International Council for the Study of Viruses and Virus-like Diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG), Adelaide, 12-17 March 2000, 149.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful for the information kindly provided by Ruby Andrew, Jenni and Bruce Chalmers, Rodney Davies, Tony Herve, Len Schliefert and George Rogers. John Randles acted as the director for a few years and provided excellent professional WVJ support.

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V I T I C U LT U R E

Turning distinctive Barbera into wine of distinction at Coriole

By Mark Lloyd, Coriole, McLaren Vale, South Australia

B

arbera is a variety with distinctive structural elements that set it apart from other varieties. It is medium bodied but with deep colour.

It can have extremely high acidity with modest tannins. Thus the wines are often bright and aromatic while quite soft with fresh acidity.

All this leads to exciting possibilities when matching the variety with particular foods.

Barbera is grown all around the world. However, the most notable region is in Peidmont in northern Italy in the vicinity of Asti and Alba, just south of Turin.

Historically, the variety may have been known as the people’s wine - the wine to consume easily and cheaply compared with the hero of the region, Nebbiolo.

However, styles continue to evolve and wines grow in complexity. This may in part be due to the limitations on the volume of Nebbiolo leading to producers looking to put more effort into developing their Barbera styles.

The first vineyard was established at Coriole with two imported clones - 424 and 84. A third clone was introduced at the same time but destroyed in quarantine presumably due to an inappropriate virus. We planted a third clone, F6V4, which was introduced into the country from Davis California in the ‘60s or ‘70s. However, this performed

BACKGROUND Barbera was first planted at Coriole in 1998. We had planted our first new European variety, Sangiovese, in 1985.

We were hunting for other varieties that would complement this wine.

In 1989 Libby Tassie, from Charles Sturt University, had introduced into Australian quarantine new clones from Italy of each of the varieties Barbera, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Arneis. These became available in South Australia in the late 1990s from the Nurioopta Research Station just before it was closed. We had visited and tasted wines in Piedmont where these varieties all have a base. We selected Barbera and Nebbiolo to plant as Dolcetto and Arneis looked as though they may suit a cooler climate.

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Coriole general manager Mark Lloyd with some of Coriole’s Barbera vines which the winery first planted in 1998. poorly and was removed. There had also been a clone of Barbera imported into Mudgee, in New South Wales, probably in the 1970s. We never planted this clone.

Libby Tassie supplied the following notes from the original supplier of the clonal material: “Clone 84; medium vigour and yield, small cluster, high wine quality, moderate acidity, suitable for ageing.

Clone 424; high vigour and yield, medium large cluster, high wine quality, suitable for ageing.”

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The first few vintages were deemed not to be standalone wines as they showed some green characters and lack of texture.

Finally, the first Coriole Barbera was released from the 2004 vintage.

VITICULTURE Coriole has two Barbera vineyards.

The first is at Coriole. This site is not ideal. Vines are on a west-facing slope and the soils are rather bony with pebbly ironstone and clay. The depth of soil varies along the row. This site is frequently mulched with compost. Vines are pruned on a fixed cordon to about 8-9 spurs per metre. The aim with this vineyard is to get good early growth and sustain the vigour of the small block.

Vineyard floor management has moved to mechanical weeding and cultivation of every second row. With this combination we hope to achieve the balance of growth required.

Barbera can be a vigorous grower with a tendency for a ‘downright’ habit. Pruning is to a single cordon with vertical shoot positioning and two sets of lifting wires used.

The second vineyard, grafted onto Shiraz around 10 years later, is situated at Sandalwood against the hills at McLaren Flat. This site is a little cooler and more protected with deep red alluvial soils with rows running down the hill from south-east to north-west.

Growth can be extremely vigorous.

Again, a combination of mechanical weeding, cultivation, preferential irrigation, if any, and a natural sward is used to try and get the balance of the vine we require.

Barbera is thin skinned with large bunches. It is prone to heat stress with bunches collapsing even if enclosed in a protected canopy. Two out of three vintages are excellent. McLaren Vale

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ALTERNATE VARIETIES

BARBERA

By Peter Dry Emeritus Fellow, The Australian Wine Research Institute

can really deliver a high quality wine getting a great balance of extract and flavour and featuring the excellent characteristics of the variety with wines winning gold medals. However, the required quality cannot always be guaranteed. We occasionally take some fruit from a vineyard in the Adelaide Hills just a short distance away and yet around 200-300 metres higher. The condition of this fruit is more reliable although it doesn’t always demonstrate the good features that are available in the McLaren Vale region.

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BACKGROUND

VITICULTURE

Barbera (bah-BEH-rah) is a red grape variety said to have originated in central Piedmont, however, DNA analysis reveals that it has little relationship with other varieties of Piedmont. Therefore, its origin may have been elsewhere as a natural cross. The first reliable reference to Barbera was at the end of 18th century near Asti, but it did not become important in Piedmont until after the arrival of phylloxera. Nevertheless, it is now said to be most ‘typical’ variety of Piedmont, comprising one-third of the regional planted area. It is also prominent elsewhere in northern Italy (Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna), and a little is grown in the south. Synonyms include Barbera a Peduncolo Rosso, Barbera a Ruspo Verde, Barbera Amaro, Barbera d’Asti, Barbera Fina, Barbera Grossa, Barbera Nera, Barbera Nostrana, Barbera vera, Berberone, Gaietto, Lombardesca and Sciaa. Barbera Bianca and Barbera de Sannio are not genetically related.

The global area of Barbera is 24,178ha (2010) of which 85% is in Italy—but there has been a significant decrease since the mid-1980s. California has 2798ha, where it has been popular since the 1970s, particularly in the hot inland San Joaquin Valley. It is also important in Argentina. There are small areas in Slovenia, Greece, Israel and South Africa. Australia has 116ha (2010) and at least 101 wine producers, mainly in the Hunter Valley, McLaren Vale, King Valley, Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley.

Budburst is early to mid-season and maturity is mid-season. Vigour is moderate with a semi-erect growth habit. Bunches are medium and can range from well-filled to compact with medium berries. Yield is moderate to high. Cane pruning is most often used in Italy but spur pruning is successful in Australia. Barbera is moderately susceptible to mildews and bunch rot.

WINEMAKING Barbera ripens two to four weeks after Shiraz. Fruit is picked based on flavour and conditions. Acid is also extremely high so this is also taken into account when picking decisions are made. A typical analysis at picking is 14-14.5 Be, 3.2 pH and 10-11 TA. Malic acid is, of course, high so acid does show a little more balance at the end of fermentation. However, levels remain high at over seven grams per litre.

Fairly standard winemaking applies.

W I N E & V I T I C ULT U R E JO UR NA L NO V EMBER/DEC EMBER 2017

WINE Barbera wines have high acidity, good colour and tannin. Descriptors include spice, nutmeg, cherry, mulberry, plum, liquorice and freshness. It is used for both dry and sweet red wines and sparkling in Italy—best known in DOCG wines of Barbera d’Asti (allows up to 15% of Freisa, Grignolino or Dolcetto), and DOC wines Barbera d’Alba and Barbera di Monferrato. It is useful in blends for contribution of acidity.

For further information on this and other emerging varieties, contact Marcel Essling (marcel.essling@ awri.com.au or 08 8313 6600) at The Australian Wine Research Institute to arrange the presentation of the Alternative Varieties Research to Practice program in your region.

Fruit is destemmed and pumped to open fermenters. Fermentation is run at a steady temperature for six to eight days to dryness with gentle extraction. Wines complete a natural malolactic ferment and then often pressed to wood. The high acid and low tannin of Barbera raises the possibility of using a small proportion of new oak to advantage. This helps if the wine is to be aged but in some vintages can be useful for achieving a wine with good balance. There are also good opportunities for co-fermentation and blending with other varieties.

WVJ

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BUSINESS & & MARKETING MARKETING BUSINESS

The price determinants of Australian Rieslings

By Lucinda Staley1, John Blackman1,3 and Eddie Oczkowski2,3

What effect does grape variety have on wine pricing? Australian researchers have used Riesling to examine the effect of variety on price-determining factors.

T

he development of models to explain wine prices has a long history. A significant number of hedonic statistical regression models have been estimated. These models explain how wine prices vary with regard to a wineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s characteristics such as expert quality scores, vintage, variety, region, sensory and chemical attributes, reputation, weather, producer attributes, and other factors. Important models developed in the Australian context include Oczkowski 1994, Blair and Burley 1998, Wade 1999, and Schamel and Anderson 2003. For a summary of models and a meta-analysis see Oczkowski and Doucouliagos 2015.

Typically, hedonic wine price models focus on a wide spectrum of available wines reflecting different varieties from different regions. This broad approach 1

may mask important factors that affect individual varieties. Most previous models analyse all available wine varieties and it is assumed that the impact of pricedetermining factors is identical across varieties. To examine the peculiarities of a single variety we focus on Australian Rieslings to estimate the effect of factors that explain variations in the prices of a cross section of wines. Riesling was chosen for this investigation for several reasons, the first of which is that the variety is commonly regarded as being able to convey characteristics and quality derived from their provenance (Robinson 1999). Riesling is also considered as a vastly under-valued product by wine writers, winemakers and researchers (Schamel and Anderson 2003), with few examples priced at the same premium levels of other varieties such as Shiraz

or Chardonnay. A typically more uniform winemaking procedure, albeit with some notable exceptions, to produce a wine style with less stylistic influences due to winemaking artefact, was also considered important in an attempt to minimise other causes of possible price variation.

HEDONIC PRICE FUNCTION FRAMEWORK To examine the drivers of the prices of Australian Rieslings we assume that wine prices are determined by expert quality scores, the vintage from which grapes were harvested, cellaring potential, alcohol content, region from which the grapes were sourced and whether or not the grapes were sourced from a single vineyard. Ratings given by wine writer James Halliday (Halliday 2015)

School of Agriculture and Wine Science, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales School of Accounting and Finance, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

2

National Wine and Grape Industry Centre, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

3

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Table 1. Riesling descriptive statistics.

Mean

Std Dev

Min

Max

Recommended Retail Price

24.78

6.53

8

60

Quality Rating

92.7

2.73

84

98

Cellaring Potential (years)

9.83

5.01

0

37

Alcohol Content (% alc. vol)

12.0

0.61

9.5

13.5

Single Vineyard

Yes

52.4%

No

47.6%

Vintage

2013

54.1%

2014

45.9%

Notes: N = 802

were employed for quality scores and cellaring potential recommendations.

Expert quality scores are typically used in models to reflect the quality of the wine, while the use of a particular expert can be motivated by an assumption that the expert’s ratings reflect the preferences of wine consumers or provides opinion leadership in the market. The use of Halliday ratings are important in this context as the Australian Wine Companion is often viewed as the most authoritative and highest selling wine guide (Port 2015).

Of the other variables, alcohol content and single vineyard are rarely used in hedonic models. The use of a single

vineyard variable is particularly novel and may capture consumers’ preference for single vineyard wines and/or the reduced costs associated with larger volume wines blended from multiple vineyards.

SUMMARY STATISTICS FOR AUSTRALIAN RIESLINGS The summary statistics for the core data are provided in Tables 1 and 2. The data relate to 802 wines available during 2015 and come from the 2013 and 2014 vintages. Prices average just under $25 and on average have a cellaring potential of up to 10 years. The average alcohol

content level is 12%. Approximately half the wines are sourced from a single vineyard and, importantly, this information is not always provided on the label. The researchers identified 44 regions that had at least five wines assessed. Regions with less than five wines assessed were classified to ‘other’ state categories.

Sub-regions (both official Australian Geographical Indication sub-regions, such as those in the Great Southern, or commonly used sub-regions. e.g.

Watervale or Polish Hill River, from the Clare Valley) were assessed separately if the group also contained more than five wines. Most wines came from Eden Valley (n =128), Clare Valley (n = 113) and the Clare sub-region of Watervale (n = 75).

Wines with the highest average prices were from Coal River ($34.88), Polish Hill River ($32.07) and Mudgee ($31.86). The higher growing costs and premium quality of Coal River and history of quality of the Polish Hill wines are reflected in these prices. The Mudgee result was initially surprising, but closer examination of the data revealed that the price of two vintages of a Reserve wine from a highly

Table 2. Regional Riesling summary data.

Region/ Sub region

Adelaide Hills Albany Barossa Valley Bellarine Peninsula Canberra District Clare Valley Coal River Coonawarra Demark Eden Valley Frankland River Geelong Grampians Great Southern Great Western Heathcote Henty King Valley Macedon Ranges Margaret River McLaren Vale Mornington Peninsula

N

Average Price

Average Quality Rating

26

22.56

92.2

N

Average Price

Average Quality Rating

Mount Barker

39

26.56

93.9

Region/ Sub region

5

30.60

95.8

Mudgee

7

31.86

91.4

10

19.90

89.8

Nagambie Lakes

5

21.00

91.4

5

26.40

89.4

North East Victoria

7

24.86

89.0

40

26.15

93.9

Northern Tasmania

19

28.48

93.6

113

23.03

92.8

Orange

28

23.42

92.3

8

34.88

94.8

Other Australia

8

20.75

89.8

13

21.08

90.9

Other New South Wales

5

22.40

88.0

7

26.40

93.4

Other South Australia

10

16.60

89.4

128

23.39

93.0

Other Tasmania

5

29.20

94.0

21

26.33

94.9

Other Victoria

8

24.50

90.8

6

24.33

92.2

Pemberton

8

24.25

91.5

6

22.33

94.3

Polish Hill River

15

32.07

95.3

17

24.65

93.5

Porongurup

27

26.48

94.8

5

26.20

94.0

Southern Highlands

6

30.67

91.5

5

29.80

90.2

Southern New South Wales

7

22.29

92.0

11

31.45

94.9

Southern Tasmanian

21

26.43

92.9

10

19.60

91.5

Strathbogie Ranges

10

25.00

91.8

10

26.90

93.1

Tamar Valley

6

28.00

95.2

5

22.90

90.0

Upper Goulburn

8

23.13

90.1

8

17.13

87.0

Watervale

75

25.36

92.9

8

28.63

90.1

Yarra Valley

11

25.82

91.0

Notes: 44 regions/ sub regions with at least five wines

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regarded producer had significantly skewed the results due to the relatively low number (7) of Riesling wines from the region. The lowest average prices were from Other South Australia ($16.60), McLaren Vale ($17.13) and King Valley ($19.60). Wines with the highest average quality scores came from regions/subregions renowned for high quality Riesling production. Leading regional ratings included Albany (95.8), Polish Hill River (95.3), Tamar Valley (95.2), Frankland River (94.9), Henty (94.9) and Coal River (94.8). The lowest average quality scores were from McLaren Vale (87.0), Other NSW (88.0) and North East Victoria (89.0) warmer climate regions better known for other varieties.

PRICE EFFECTS OF DRIVERS FOR AUSTRALIAN RIELSING The hedonic regression estimates are provided in Table 3. The model employed the log of price and, as such, the estimates represent the proportionate effect on prices. For the region variables, estimates were interpreted as the

proportionate differences from average prices. The findings indicate that for each Halliday quality point, prices increased by 2.4% on average. In general this is less than most previous estimates from Australian studies which examined a wide variety of wines and typically suggested a Halliday rating point increased prices by between 3% and 4% (see Schamel and Anderson 2003 and Oczkowski 2016). In general, this suggests that higher quality scores appear to be less important for increasing prices for Riesling compared with Australian wines in general. This is in agreement with anecdotal wine industry discussion which talks of the great value for high quality Riesling wines.

Both cellaring potential and vintage are important price drivers and imply on average that each additional year of cellaring potential increases prices by 1.3%, and the 2014 vintage had 3.7% lower prices than the 2013 vintage when other factors are controlled. While a nation-wide vintage summary is clearly imprecise, 2013 was slightly more highly regarded for Riesling production than the 2014 vintage. Consistent with previous studies,

alcohol content was an unimportant price driver both statistically and in economic terms, implying that a 1% increase in alcohol increases prices by only 1.4%, or by 35 cents at average prices.

Interestingly, the effect of wines made from a single vineyard was particularly strong, increasing prices by 8.9%. This is an important and unique finding and is possibly driven by the relatively large number of smaller producers trying to capture the unique terroir of single vineyard Riesling in small wine batches.

Approximately 40% of the regions identified statistically different prices from average prices once all the factors were controlled. The most important regional price premiums and discounts are listed in Table 4. Interestingly, no South Australian regions are listed among the 10 highest price premiums regions.

The highest premiums are scattered throughout NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.

The most obvious reason for this is due to the fact Riesling is typically a niche product in these regions. The bulk (70%) of the regions listed with the highest discount came from South Australia.

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Table 3. Riesling wine price proportionate estimates.

Regions Constant

74.73***

Adelaide Hills

-0.053

Heathcote

0.242

Other South Aus

-0.250***

Quality Rating

0.024***

Albany

0.046

Henty

0.076

Other Tasmania

0.094**

Cellar

0.013***

Barossa Valley

-0.063

King Valley

-0.125**

Other Victoria

0.113* 0.013

Vintage

-0.037***

Bellarine Peninsula

0.190*

Macedon Ranges

0.013

Pemberton

Single Vineyard

0.089***

Canberra District

0.022

Margaret River

0.056*

Polish Hill River

0.108

Alcohol Content

0.014

Clare Valley

-0.060***

McLaren Vale

-0.104

Porongurup

-0.045 0.305**

Coal River

0.266***

Mornington Peninsula

0.252***

Southern Highlands

Coonawarra

-0.059

Mount Barker

0.020

Southern NSW

-0.034

Demark

0.054

Mudgee

0.248**

Southern Tas

0.075*

Eden Valley

-0.058***

Nagambie Lakes

-0.107

Strathbogie Ranges

0.069

Frankland River

-0.026

North East Victoria

0.173**

Tamar Valley

0.013

Geelong

0.023

Northern Tasmania

0.120***

Upper Goulburn

0.062

Grampians

-0.107**

Orange

0.006

Watervale

-0.003

Great Southern

-0.006

Other Australia

-0.100

Yarra Valley

0.146***

Great Western

0.065*

Other NSW

0.152***

Notes: ***, **, * denotes statistical significance at the 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively. N = 802. R2 = 0.434

The two largest sampled regional areas of Eden Valley and Clare Valley attracted price discounts of about 6% compared with average prices. An aspect of healthy competition is possibly one of the reasons for this result. The high quality and low price of both high volume, single and multi-regional blends from generally warmer regions is seen in the generous 25.0% price premium discount for the Other South Australia wines. Value from well-regarded regions such as King Valley, Grampians and the Nagambie Lakes is also illustrated in Table 4.

CONCLUSIONS The findings addressed in this paper aim to assist in guiding wine producers on product positioning in the market to achieve the best possible returns for their wines. The study looked at a range of variables and their associated

effect on wine price in the Australian market. Previous studies have not looked at the effect of single vineyard wines which makes the results from this study particularly novel. The analysis of the Australian data found that wines made from single vineyard grown grapes attracted a premium of $2.18 to average prices. This is a significant premium and one that must be capitalised on, if not already being done so. Wine producers may benefit from promoting their use of grapes grown in a single vineyard, appealing to consumers by signifying a unique wine reflecting ‘a sense of place’. The other particularly interesting outcomes of this research are the identified price premiums and discounts.

All areas with a price premium seemed to be a result of relatively small production scale, higher costs, or a combination of both factors in some regions. The price of Riesling, already commonly regarded as

Table 4. Largest regional riesling price premiums and discounts.

Premiums

%

Discounts

%

Southern Highlands

30.5

Other South Australia

25.0

Coal River

26.6

King Valley

12.5

Mornington Peninsula

25.2

Grampians

10.7

Mudgee

24.8

Nagambie Lakes

10.7

Heathcote

24.2

McLaren Vale

10.4

Bellarine Peninsula

19.0

Other Australia

10.0

North East Victoria

17.3

Barossa Valley

6.3

Other New South Wales

15.2

Clare Valley

6.0

Yarra Valley

14.6

Coonawarra

5.9

Northern Tasmania

12.0

Eden Valley

5.8

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under-valued, is further discounted in a number of important areas. For example, highly regarded regions such as the Clare and the Eden Valleys, responsible for a significant number of individual wines, are among those that appear to be priced too low. The large price discount for Other South Australian wines is an indication of larger wineries being able to produce a quality product in a cost-effective manner. For all regions and price-points, consumers of Australian Riesling, rather than producers, continue to be the chief beneficiaries of current pricing.

REFERENCES Blair, D. and Burley, H. (1998) A preliminary pricing analysis of Australian red wine. Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal 13:414-416 Halliday, J. (2015) Australian Wine Companion.

2016 ed, Hardie Grant Books: Richmond.

Oczkowski, E. (1994) A hedonic wine price function for Australian premium table wine. Aust. J. Agri. Eco. 38:93-110.

Oczkowski, E. (2016) Analysing firm level price effects for differentiated products: the case of Australian wine producers. Aust. Eco. Papers 55(1):43-62.

Oczkowski, E. and Doucouliagos, H. (2015) Wine prices and quality ratings: a meta-regression analysis. Amer. J. Agri. Eco. 97:103-121.

Port, J. (2015) The Wine Companion: The world of James Halliday. Meininger’s Wine Business International 02.

Robinson, J. (1999) The Oxford Companion to Wine: Oxford University Press.

Schamel, G. and Anderson, K. (2003) Wine quality and varietal, regional and winery reputations: hedonic prices for Australia and New Zealand. Eco. Rec. 79:357-369.

Wade, C. (1999) Reputation and its effect on the price of Australian wine. Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal 14:82-84.

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Ties that bind: building strong importer and retailer relationships to drive premium wine export sales

By Armando Maria Corsi1, Roberta Crouch2, Vinh Lu3, Lara Agnoli4, Steve Charters4

A project focussed on the UK and US markets is aimed at delivering an online toolkit Australia’s wine exporters can use to understand how best to approach the various stakeholders in the export supply chain.

T

he latest release of the Wine Australia’s Export Report (Wine Australia, 2017) gives us the opportunity to talk about a project that is currently being conducted on the US and the UK markets. The official title of the project is ‘Ties that bind: building strong importer and retailer relationships to drive premium wine export sales’, but we usually refer to it as the ‘TTB project’.

This research focusses on the relational aspects between producers and buyers (i.e. importers/distributors/ retailers) in the US and UK markets for premium wines (USD12 and above, or GBP20 and above).

The idea behind this project originated from the Advance Australia Fair project (Crouch and Lu 2016) which highlighted the need in the US and UK to improve the strength of relations between Australian producers and the various stakeholders in the export supply chain.

Sustained relationships not only create satisfaction and loyalty from international partners, but they also allow exporters to take full advantage of partners’ knowledge of foreign business practices, distribution networks and customer preferences.

By fostering win-win relationships, exporters will further strengthen export performances, reputation, market competitiveness and, ultimately, long-term success. In other words, building sustainable relationships with

foreign importers and distributors offers a primary source of competitive advantage for exporters, leading to higher margins, establishment of trust and commitment, communication quality, reciprocity, long-term

orientation product support and, critically, positive word-of-mouth endorsements and blocking of competitors. Being able to establish such strong business networks and alliances can mean the difference between success and failure – particularly for higher priced products.

The TTB project involves three stages. First, a series of in-depth interviews with key importers, distributors and retailers in the US and UK is going to help us identify the critical elements buyers consider important in establishing a solid relationship with a producer. These elements are going to be included in a questionnaire, which we are going to administer to 100 importers/ distributors and 100 retailers in each of the countries. This second stage is going to give us a quantifiable ranking of importance buyers give to the various elements, as well as a better understanding of the relationships between these elements. This will help producers understand what elements of the relationship they have to nurture more, and how each aspect of the relationship is going to impact the other aspects.

Lastly, the results of these two stages will feed an online toolkit producers can use to understand how best to approach different types of stakeholders in the US and the UK. The first stage of the project took place between the end of 2016 and the first half of 2017. We conducted 11 in-depth interviews in the US, and 17 in-depth interviews in the UK, and these are the main conclusions we can draw: • The nature of the relationship with the producer and the producer’s philosophy to wine and management style are considered to be

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute - University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

1

2

University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

3

CEREN, EA 7477, Burgundy School of Business - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

4

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paramount. A lack of responsiveness or regular contact, or perceived unfair leveraging of bargaining power, can be a ‘deal breaker’ despite other favourable factors relative to wine quality, price or brand. Additionally, there were many indications that retailers wished to have a relationship with producers directly – as well as the more traditional channel hierarchy where all interactions are initiated and managed by importers or wholesalers.

• Regular visits to the importers, distributors and retailers are necessary. However, while this conclusion was fairly homogeneous across the UK, we found some differences in the US. In San Francisco, on the doorstep of their country’s premier wineproducing regions, a higher level of engagement and visits seemed to be required. It was a different situation in Dallas, where importers, distributors and retailers seem to have a much stronger reliance on imported wines and, therefore, they understand more the challenges coming from long distances. Finally, in New York City, the constant ‘traffic jam’ importers/distributors/ retailers face given everyone (or the vast majority) wants to be in the Big Apple, leads buyers to be very selective in which producers they want to host.

• A third key element is the brand story. Buyers want producers who communicate distinctiveness and differentiation with respect to a producer’s originality or ‘special qualities’. It is felt that these attributes allow for clear

communication of the producer’s passion for their wines – these can then be communicated to all value chain participants and allows sellers to more strongly influence consumers’ buying decisions.

Together with this, several buyers seem to prefer producers who are willing to accept small orders (at least until market demand can be determined). There was a perception of higher risk in taking on Australian wines compared with European wines, both in quality and cost. The higher costs involved in shipping and returns and, at present, low customer demand for Australian wines (outside of supermarkets etc.) were cited as reasons for hesitancy by some interviewees. A common comment was along the lines of: ‘my customers never ask for Australian wine. When they want to buy that kind of wine, they go to the supermarket’.

• Packaging and labelling are also critical. A bottle of wine should have a quality appearance and convey the story well. This is especially critical for millennials who are driven by information. The style the producer embraces needs to cut across all marketing collateral, particularly the company website, which should be of the highest possible quality. Everyone interviewed said they browse through websites before meeting producers or tasting wines.

• Payments do also play a role, as everyone needs and deserves to be paid, but the payment terms seem to be fairly negotiable. Shorter or longer payment terms are very much linked to the level of trust between the parties, with a shorter

BUSINESS & & MARKETING MARKETING BUSINESS

time period (e.g. 30 days or less) more typical of newer deals, and longer payments accepted with solid, ongoing relationships.

• One last factor that wasn’t mentioned much in the interviews, but we heard from several sources to be a given standard practice in the producer/ distributor relationship is the use of promotions, which can come in various forms: price discounts per cases sold, free product per cases sold, or other forms of personal incentives to the sales representatives (i.e. full paid trip to visit the producer).

As mentioned above, we’re going to imbed these results in a questionnaire we are going to administer to 100 importers/distributors and 100 retailers in the US and UK. We’ll keep the industry informed of the further outcomes of this project through the Wine & Viticulture Journal.

REFERENCES Crouch, R. and Lu, V. (2016) Advance Australia Fair? Determining the country of origin associations for Australian wine in emerging and established markets. https://www.wineaustralia. com/research/strategy-3/customer-insights/ua1206 Wine Australia (2017) Market bulletin – Issue 81. Available at: https://www.wineaustralia.com/ news/market-bulletin/issue-81

Associate Professor Roberta Crouch is the chief investigator of the TTB project while Dr. Armando Maria Corsi, Associate Professor Vinh Lu, Professor Steve Charters, and Associate Professor Lara Agnoli are the primary investigators.

WVJ

The wine industry’s leading online job site

more jobs more winery positions more viticulture positions more industry positions MORE OFTEN… and listed with DailyWineNews For further information contact Andrew Dawson at jobs@winetitles.com.au or by phoning +618 8369 9500 or post your ad online at winejobs.com.au Post your classified listings on the wine industry’s most trusted website, www.winetitles.com.au created and managed by

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EXPORTING

Exporting wine – how Wine Australia can help

By Mark Rowley, Senior Analyst, Wine Australia

I

t’s not an unusual scenario: a small wine business with a secure domestic market is looking to expand sales into export markets. But how do you go about making an informed decision about what and where to export, and where can you get the information you need?

Let’s say the winery has decided to focus on a particular market rather than take a scatter gun approach. While all commercial decisions have risk, there is information available to help make an informed decision about the best markets to explore. Some market attributes to consider are: • Australia’s current market position: this indicates whether other wineries are having success in a market. Data and reports are available in the Market Insights section of the Wine Australia website1. They are freely available to wineries and wine exporters.

• Trade barriers: trade barriers and local regulation may limit exports – particularly when it comes to an alcoholic product. More information can be found in Wine Australia’s Export Market Guides.

• Economic and political climate: some countries may be dangerous to travel to, and/or economic conditions make wine consumption possible only for a small number of wealthy consumers.

Sources such as Smart Traveller2 may be useful to determine this.

• Proximity: this reduces costs in terms

of flights and also lowers opportunity costs involved in timely shipping.

• Existing relationships: good relationships in business are critical in many markets and cultures. A relationship with a wine buyer can be the key reason a market is selected.

• Market preferences: just like people, markets have different tastes and preferences. For example, generally USA consumers prefer sweeter wines.

A winery’s style may have a natural home abroad. This information is generally more difficult to source.

Using these market attributes, let’s look at the Japanese market: • Established market: Australia exported $8.6 million worth of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to Japan in the past year • Growing export market: using Wine Australia’s export report builder, it was determined there was growth in exports of Australian Pinot Noir and Chardonnay within relevant price segments that align with the winery’s offering3 • The recent Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement, which will reduce tariffs on bottled wine to zero by 1 April 2021, hopefully leading to a longer-term upturn in sales • Imports of Australian wine increased 3 percent to US$29 million (sixth largest source). Meanwhile, imports from four of the top five sources declined • Exports of Australian Pinot Noir

increased by 39% to $1.8 million and Chardonnay exports 8% to $6.8 million • Half of all regular wine drinkers are aged over 55 (Wine Intelligence) • Pinot Noir is enjoying long-term popularity growth. It is the third most frequently consumed red wine with those drinking the variety up from 24% in 2014 to 28% in 2017 (Wine Intelligence) Before taking the next steps it’s possible to do more homework, leveraging the expertise of the Wine Australia market insights team that can provide useful tools, such as an FOB to retail pricing calculator.

Table 2 shows, working from the FOB price per litre, how much a bottle will need to retail for to take account all taxes, charges and retail and distribution margins.

From there, the calculated retail price can be fed into Wine Australia’s Ready Reckoner4 along with some basic information on winery size and location, route to market, production and storage costs. The Ready Reckoner tool calculates that the trade will have a gross margin of 46.29% – which is just below the recommended target 50% gross margin.

FINDING A BUYER When stepping into a new market Austrade’s website5 provides comprehensive information on how to

Table 1. Exports of Pinot Noir (A$126pc–A$144pc and A$63pc–A$81pc) and Chardonnay (A$45pc–A$63pc and A$99pc–A$117pc) Value million AUD (Sept 2017)

60

3-year change (million AUD)

3-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR)

United Kingdom

$3.95

-$1.06

-8%

Mainland China

$3.50

$1.06

13%

Canada

$3.35

-$0.44

-4%

USA

$3.08

$0.54

7%

Hong Kong

$1.11

$0.10

3%

Japan

$1.08

$0.26

10%

Singapore

$0.76

-$0.34

-12%

Denmark

$0.43

$0.10

9%

Korea

$0.42

$0.34

78%

Belgium

$0.39

$0.16

20%

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export and select export markets most suitable to your product or service. You can register to receive alerts and updates from Austrade in your areas of interest, which include international trade shows and missions where you can showcase your products overseas.

Wine Australia’s website lists upcoming trade events around the world6.

For example, the Australian Wine Grand Tasting (AGT) Tokyo provides a forum for importers to expose their Australian wine portfolio to a large number of key trade in a variety of channels; and also allows Australian wineries seeking importers in Japan to promote their product and engage with prospective importers and other members of the trade in one spot, with the view to develop mutually beneficial business relationships in market. (The event took place in September 2017 and is one of the longest-standing Wine Australia events held globally. The AGT Tokyo, along with the evening consumer event, received more than 850 guests. Participating wineries paid $1600 plus GST to showcase 10 SKUs).

SHIPPING AND COMPLIANCE Wine Australia can also help identify critical shipping and compliance issues.

The Japan Export Market Guide7 is a

BUSINESS & & MARKETING MARKETING BUSINESS

Table 2: Wine Australia FOB to retail calculator FOB to retail

JAPAN Retail price

Yen per bottle

2,230

Retail price

Yen per litre

2,973

Regulatory charge – consumption tax

Yen per litre

220

Regulatory charge – consumption tax

%

8%

Retail price pre-consumption tax

Yen per litre

2,753

Retail margin

%

30%

Wholesale price

Yen per litre

1,926.8

Distribution margin

%

20%

Post-recycling fee

Yen per litre

1541.5

Recycling fees

%

10%

Landed cost in-market

Yen per litre

1,531.5

Regulatory charge – liquor tax

Yen per litre

80

Regulatory charge – Customs Duty

Yen per litre

101

Advertising & Promotion Allowance

Yen per litre

0

Landed cost in bond

Yen per litre

1,350

Exchange rate

AUD:Yen

88.1

Landed cost

AUD per litre

15.33

Shipping insurance and in-land haulage

AUD per litre

0.33

FOB price per litre

AUD per litre

15.00

one-stop shop to make this happen and includes information on import procedures, duties and taxes, labelling requirements and wine standards. Wine destined for Japan (and many other markets) needs its

own specific label developed to comply with Japanese or other labelling requirements.

(Wine Australia publishes these guides – which are regularly updated – for 35 wine markets as a service to levy payers.)

Table 3a and b - Results of the Ready Reckoner.

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EXPORTING

Any Australian business seeking to export wine requires approval from Wine Australia. The approval process includes the following steps: • Licence to Export • Product Registration • Export Permit.

The Wine Australia Compliance Guide8 specifies all the required information for wine exporters.

CASHFLOW AND GRANTS • Exporting can put financial strain on a business as timing between expenses and payment can stretch out to longer than usual. There is assistance available.

• EFIC9: is a specialist financier that delivers simple and creative solutions for Australian companies when their bank is not able to help. Its aim is to enable small businesses by helping them to win business, grow internationally and achieve export success. It has many products available, however, the product most suited to wineries is the Export Working Capital Guarantee that can help a winery with finance to fulfil a winery’s first export contract or purchase order

• Export Market Development Grants10: encourage small and medium-sized Australian businesses to develop export markets. The grant reimburses up to 50% of eligible export promotion expenses above $5000 provided that the total expenses are at least $15,000.

The grant provides up to eight grants to each eligible applicant.

• State-based grants: various state governments have grants available to help businesses access export markets. TradeStart11 is best placed to advise on all grants available to exporters.

Financial advice should also be sought from your usual advisers, banking partners and insurers. Various insurance and currency hedging products can be purchased to guarantee the financials of the trade and lower the risk of the transaction.

financial support. If exporting is a goal make sure you take advantage of the wealth of support available – call or email Wine Australia on 08 8228 2000 or enquiries@wineaustralia.com.

FURTHER INFORMATION 1 Wine Australia Market Insights: www. wineaustralia.com/market-insights

Smartraveller: http://smartraveller.gov.au

2

Wine Australia Report Builder: www. wineaustralia.com/market-insights/australian-wineexports-report-builder 3

Ready Reckoner: rr.wineaustralia.com

4

Austrade: www.austrade.gov.au

5

Marketing programs: www.wineaustralia.com/ whats-happening/marketing/marketing-programs 6

7 Japan Export Market Guide: www.wineaustralia. com/selling/by-market/export-market-guide-japan 8 Compliance guide: www.wineaustralia.com/ getmedia/81cbe0c6-491b-46ed-8b82-4f5af51c44d4/ Wine-Australia-Compliance-Guide-June-2016.pdf

EFIC: www.efic.gov.au

9

EMDG: www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Export/ Export-Grants/About/what-is-emdg 10

11 TradeStart: www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/ How-Austrade-can-help/Trade-services/TradeStart

PLANNING AND BUDGETING Any good business plan requires clear budgets and strategies to achieve success.

Wine Australia can help by providing market insights, Ready Reckoner as a price guide, and platforms for promotion, while other government agencies can provide business introductions and

WVJ

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For business solutions across all platforms, call + 61 8 8369 9500 or visit www.winetitles.com.au

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The highs and lows of making Pinot This issue’s tasting comprised Australian Pinot Noirs made from fruit grown at 600m or more above sea level and south of 37.5 degrees latitude. Our panel identified wines from both sources as the best in the tasting (see page 67 for full results), and we invited the producers of those wines to tell our readers about how those Pinots came together.

DUNCAN COOK & CHRIS DERREZ, WINEMAKERS, COOKS LOT ORANGE, NEW SOUTH WALES Wine: Cooks Lot 2016 Handpicked Pinot Noir (RRP $35.00/bottle)

VITICULTURE The fruit is sourced from two gentle-sloping, north-facing vineyards in Orange. Featuring red basalt soils, the vineyards are approximately 960m above sea level and have an MJT of 19.2°C. The MV6 clones on rootstocks are hand-pruned on VSP trellises, while irrigation is kept to a minimum.

Bunch thinning is carried out to achieve approximately four tonnes per hectare.

The high altitude and long sunshine experienced in the vineyards helps retain natural acidity in the fruit, but both vineyards are susceptible to frost and mildew, especially in the cooler vintages. The fruit is handpicked in the early morning and further hand sorted at the bins. Picking is determined on a balance of baume, pH and flavour.

Cooks Lot winemaker Duncan Cook.

fermentation, typically eight to 10 days, with hand plunging carried out four times a day. The free run juice and pressings were barrelled separately in a range of 500L French puncheons with lees stirred every six to eight weeks.

Oak impact is carefully managed with very tightly-grained barrels used and toasting levels typically light and long to preserve fruit purity or ‘pinosity’ while providing structure for the wine. The wines are given extended lees stirring and racked at nine months from onethird new barrels into older puncheons and aged for a further three months before being minimally fined and filtered at bottling.

WINEMAKING The fruit was handpicked early in the morning and transferred straight to the winery. It was then de-stemmed and crushed with approximately 10% whole-bunches retained. The juice was then transferred to small open fermenters. The wine was given a short

MARKETING Cooks Lot produces three ranges of Pinot Noir: our Estate, Handpicked and Iconique Barrique ranges.

The Handpicked range is our middletier, or so-called ‘reserve’ wine. It is produced in most vintages, but not always. It is aimed at the consumer wanting something premium with more

Fruit being picked at a vineyard in Orange destined for Cook’s Lot Pinot Noir production.

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One of two vineyards in Orange that supply fruit to Cook’s Lot for Pinot Noir production. Both vineyards are over 900m above sea level.

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VA R I E TA L R E P O R T

depth and complexity than everyday drinking wines. The label is similar to our estate range in the sense that it shares the same logo to keep the brand image in consumers' minds, but it is bottled in premium Burgundy bottles with a smaller label denoting the Handpicked premium range.

Cooks Lot Pinot Noir is distributed Australia wide but predominantly throughout New South Wales to a mix of restaurants, bars and retailers.

DUNCAN COOK & CHRIS DERREZ, WINEMAKERS, COOKS LOT ORANGE, NEW SOUTH WALES Wine: Cooks Lot 2016 Iconique Barrique Pinot Noir (RRP $50.00/ bottle)

VITICULTURE The fruit is sourced from two gentle-sloping, north-facing vineyards in Orange with red basalt soils and elevations of approximately 960m and 1050m above sea level. The MV6 clones on rootstocks are hand-pruned on VSP trellises, and irrigation is kept to a minimum. Bunch thinning is carried out to achieve approximately four tonnes per hectare. The high altitude and long

sunshine experienced in the vineyards help retain natural acidity in the fruit, but both vineyards are susceptible to frost and mildew, especially in the cooler vintages. The fruit is handpicked in the early morning and further hand sorted at the bins. Picking is determined on a balance of baume, pH and flavour.

WINEMAKING The fruit was handpicked early in the morning and transferred straight to the winery. It was then de-stemmed and crushed with approximately 20% whole bunches and whole de-stemmed berries retained.

The fruit was cold soaked for three days and fermented in small open and rolling fermenters. The wine was given a short fermentation, hand plunged or rolled three times per day with a threeday, post-ferment maceration.

The free run juice and pressings where barrelled separately in a range of 500L French puncheons and lees stirred every six to eight weeks.

Oak impact is carefully managed with very tightly grained barrels used and toasting levels typically light and long to preserve fruit purity or ‘pinosity’ while

providing structure for the wine.

The wine was racked at 12 months from 50% new barrels at which time individual barrels may be downgraded to the other ranges. The best barrels are then re-barrelled and aged for another six months before being minimally fined and filtered at bottling.

MARKETING Cooks Lot produces three ranges of Pinot Noir: our Estate, Hand-picked and Iconique Barrique ranges. The Iconique barrique range is our flagship range and is only produced in the best vintages.

The Iconique Barrique range enjoys its own unique minimalistic label to differentiate it from our other ranges. It features the barrique we use to ferment the wines in and the winemaker. It is bottled in a larger, heavier Burgundy bottle with individual bottle numbers.

It is aimed at the wine connoisseur looking for unique, ultra-premium wines to cellar.

Cooks Lot Pinot Noir is distributed Australia wide but predominantly throughout New South Wales to a mix of restaurants, bars and retailers.

The Moorooduc Estate home vineyard in Moorooduc, in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

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Moorooduc Estate’s winemakers Richard McIntyre and Jeremy Magyar.

RICHARD MCINTYRE, PROPRIETOR, MOOROODUC ESTATE MORNINGTON PENINSULA, VICTORIA Wine: Moorooduc Estate 2015 Pinot Noir (RRP $38/bottle)

VITICULTURE The wine was made from fruit grown in three vineyards around Moorooduc and Tuerong in the northern part of the Mornington Peninsula, all within 10 kilometres of each other. The soils in the vineyards are duplex sedimentary sandy loams on clay. One vineyard is unirrigated (high vigour); the other two require some irrigation (as required). The elevation of the vineyards is in the range of 60-90m above sea level.

The Pinot clones planted are MV6, 115, Abel, Pommard, 667 and 777.

The spacing of the vines varies between 2.2m and 3m, while rows are 1.5m apart. The plantings mostly have a north-south row orientation.

An inter-row sward is maintained.

However, we are introducing directseeded cover crops to the vineyards.

We’re also reducing the width of herbicide strips and the frequency of herbicide applications. We are planning to trial a permanent cover crop strip under vine.

All the vines are trained to a VSP with

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a mix of spur and cane pruning carried out.

Shoot thinning is done in early spring, as well as bunch thinning prior to veraison if required to limit the crop to two tonnes per acre (very little bunch thinning was required in the 2014-15 season).

Three pairs of moveable catch wires are employed, with leaf plucking carried out on the east side of rows.

Vines are trimmed once, then netted from veraison.

The fruit is hand harvested, with the timing of harvest based on sugar, flavour and phenolic ripeness, hoping to avoid over-ripe characters.

There were no significant disease issues in the 2014-15 season.

WINEMAKING Sulfur at 60-80ppm was added to the fruit, which was then cooled overnight.

The fruit was then destemmed direct to two-tonne, open, stainless steel fermenters. The juice is analysed after 24 hours after maceration and a pH correction made if necessary.

There is no yeast inoculation, with pumpovers carried out with aeration once fermentation is active (usually three to five days). Hand plunging is also carried out twice daily while active.

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Maceration takes between 19-21 days, before the juice is pressed to tank and racked to barrels after 24-48 hours (20% new French 228L).

Natural MLF takes place in the spring, then 100ppm of SO2 added.

The wine is assembled and bottled, usually without fining or filtration, after 15-17 months in barrel.

We’re also trialling 100% whole bunch ferments. We start with a 200ppm SO2 addition to the fruit. It is then cooled for longer if warm. Twenty bunch samples from the fruit bins are then analysed. The fruit is gently transferred to two-tonne, open, stainless steel fermenters which are covered and left for seven days. After that period, they are walked on daily, then twice daily. They are plunged twice daily when soft enough.

The juice is then pressed when the ferment is nearly finished – usually 14-16 days in the fermenter. After that, the juice is treated as above.

MARKETING This wine is in the middle price point of our brand. Significant quantities are sold via direct sale, mainly through cellar door.

Quantities are also sold via wholesale distribution to the eastern states. Export ▶ sales to USA, UK and Hong Kong.

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VA R I E TA L R E P O R T

DARREN BURKE, WINEMAKER, YES SAID THE SEAL BELLARINE PENINSULA, GEELONG, VICTORIA Wine: Yes Said The Seal 2015 Pinot Noir (RRP $35.00/bottle)

VITICULTURE The fruit is sourced from our own Leura Park Vineyard. The clone used is 115 which was planted in the mid 1990s on own roots.

The vines are planted on a gentle, north-facing block with a north-south orientation and a planting density of approximately 2000 vines per hectare.

The vines are trained to a VSP and hand pruned. The vineyard has an elevation of only 50m above sea level and is situated at a latitude of around -38.18S. The soil in the vineyard is a deep sandy loam over an orange clay base.

Over the growing season we experience temperatures as low as 8째C and occasional peaks of 40째C. The average temperature is around 24째C. Bunch thinning and leaf plucking are carried out as required during the growing season.

During the 2015 season, 224mm of rain fell. Irrigation is used as required but generally each vine receives around 19 litres per week during the growing season.

Yes Said the Seal winemaker Darren Burke.

The vines are netted post-veraison as birds are a significant issue on the Bellarine Peninsula.

This block tends to produce crops on the larger side, commonly around seven tonnes per hectare. We like to pick between 12.5 and 13.0 Baume when we have vibrant flavour and lignified seeds.

This clone provides elegance and delicacy.

WINEMAKING Fruit is handpicked then refrigerated overnight. It is destemmed to picking bins, then tipped to appropriately sized fermenter(s) for natural/ambient/wild fermentation. Only a small component

of whole bunch is used in some seasons (5-10%).

Fermentation normally really only kicks off after about five days post destemming. Once the ferment kicks I like to keep the temperature below 28째C to optimise fragrance. Once active, the ferment is gently plunged once per day only, with no pump-overs. If there is evidence of H2S, a gentle splashing of the juice is done.

When fermentation is complete, the must is drained and the skins pressed.

The free run and pressings go together and are settled post-press for a few days then cleanly racked to oak (French oak only, 25% new, 300-litre barrels).

The wine goes through natural malolactic fermentation in barrel, then is sulfured post-malo around mid-year.

Elevage in oak is for around 10 months when the wine is racked, blended, then prepared for bottling. The wine is bottled unfined and is filtered.

MARKETING Wine is bottled in Premium Burgundy, antique green bottles with a BVS closure. It is sold at cellar door, mail order, via our website and a small amount wholesaled to fine wine stores and restaurants.

WVJ

Leura Park Vineyard on the Bellarine Peninsula in Geelong, Victoria, which at a latitude of around -38.18S grows the fruit for the Yes Said the Seal Pinot Noir.

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Australian Pinot Noir from great heights and southerly sites

By Sonya Logan

This issue’s tasting comprised more than 30 Pinot Noirs sourced from Australia’s most elevated or southerly situated vineyards.

I

t is commonly accepted that cooler climates draw out the best in Pinot Noir, so for this issue’s tasting we decided to taste examples from the extremes of those climates in Australia.

Wines eligible for the tasting had to be sourced from vineyards situated at 600m or more above sea level, or below latitude 37.5 South. The tasting drew 35 entries - comprising 17 from the elevated category and 20 from the southerly latitude classification, with two wines from Hanging Rock in Victoria's Macedon Ranges having a foot in both camps from Orange and the Southern Highlands in New South Wales, Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas and Macedon Ranges in Victoria, Mount Gambier in South Australia, and Tasmania.

Making up the tasting panel were winemaker Darren Burke, from Leura Park Estate and Yes Said The Seal in Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, whose 2016 Yes Said the Seal Pinot was named best wine at this year’s inaugural Australian Pinot Noir Challenge organised by the Mornington Peninsula Vignerons Association; winemaker Michael Schreurs, from The Lane Vineyard in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills; and winemaker Peter Leske, from Revenir Winemaking and La Linea. They were joined by Marcel Kustos, a PhD candidate in food and wine pairing and sensory marketing from The University of Adelaide.

Darren Burke said he was impressed with the overall quality of the wines in the tasting, adding that the older vintages seemed to display more whole bunch characters than their younger counterparts. “Perhaps those characters show more with age, but to me there seemed to be less stem and bunch work in the 2015s and 2016s and I think they are better wines for it,” Burke said.

Peter Leske said he was surprised at how many of the Pinots had dominant palates.

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The panellists for our Pinot tasting were (from left) Darren Burke, from Leura Park Estate and Yes Said The Seal in Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula; Peter Leske, from Revenir Winemaking and La Linea; Michael Schreurs, from The Lane Vineyard in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills; and Marcel Kustos, a PhD candidate in food and wine pairing and sensory marketing from The University of Adelaide.

“One of the things about drinking Pinot is the perfume and half a dozen times I’ve written, ‘this wine is more about the palate than the nose’, which is surprising because an attractive nose is very much part of Pinot,” Leske said.

All tasters remarked at the youthfulness of the 2013 Bream Creek Pinot Noir, which was numbered 35 in the blind tasting.

“Whatever drug they used to make wine 35 … I want some,” Leske joked. “It’s a ball-tearer for its youthfulness,” Burke echoed Leske’s comments, but said, “It was too big and powerful for me.

I want more fragrance and elegance in Pinot. But it’s a good wine and it’s great to see it looking so vibrant and youthful.”

The tasting panel agreed the following four wines were the best of the 35 in the line up: the Cooks Lot 2016 Iconique Barrique Pinot Noir, Cooks Lot 2016 Handpicked Pinot Noir, the 2015 Yes Said The Seal Pinot Noir, and 2015 Moorooduc Estate Pinot Noir. That meant that line honours went to wines from high elevations and southerly latitudes,

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with the Cooks Lot wines hailing from vineyards in Orange with elevations of more than 900m above sea level, with the latter two sourced from Victoria’s Bellarine and Mornington Peninsula’s respectively, with almost identical latitudes of 38.17S and 38.2S. While the panellists admitted they were unable to determine any discernible difference between the wines that might indicate whether they were from either high elevations or southerly latitudes, for a bit of fun the Wine & Viticulture Journal averaged the scores allocated to each wine by primary panellists Burke, Schreurs and Leske to determine if these average scores revealed a subconscious preference for either locale. The average scores showed: • nine wines achieved a silver medal, with seven of those from south of latitude 37.5 and three from vineyards with elevations of 600m or above (one wine fell into both camps) • 15 wines achieved a bronze medal, with eight each from both locales (again, WVJ one wine fell into both camps).

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COOKS LOT 2016 ICONIQUE BARRIQUE PINOT NOIR

Orange, New South Wales Elevation: 960m/1050m Latitude: 33.3S Clone: MV6 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$50.00/bottle Best of tasting: Medium red brick in colour. Intriguing nose is ripe and spicy – almost grenadine like – with toasty oak, earthy notes, some char and nice complex fruit characters.

Medium weight palate with good concentration; also shows complex fruit characters as well as secondary notes, fresh acid, herbs, and strong oak; good length. “I like it a lot,” noted one taster.

COOKS LOT 2016 HANDPICKED PINOT NOIR

Orange, New South Wales Elevation: 960m Latitude 33.3S Clones: MV6, 114 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle Best of tasting: Medium red brick in colour. Clean nose with good complexity: lifted red fruits – “pure fruited”, described one taster – along with sarsaparilla, plums, toasty oak, some mint and a slight stemmy character. Lovely oak on the palate which is juicy and vibrant and has nice weight and varietal structure; strawberry/cherry fruit characters evident. “Big structured wine which works,” noted one taster.

YES SAID THE SEAL 2015 PINOT NOIR

Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 48m Latitude 38.17S Clone: 115 12.8%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle Best of tasting: Light red in colour. Floral nose with wholebunch and stemmy characters along with some toasty oak, and some secondary herbal notes. One taster detected dimethyl sulphide and suggested shaded fruit could be the culprit. Creamy, silky palate with cherry notes and a nice stemmy character; lovely weight and fine tannins; good varietal flavours and texture “Quite fresh for its age,” noted one taster.

“Bit dry and green,” noted another taster.

MOOROODUC ESTATE 2015 PINOT NOIR

ALEX RUSSELL WINES 2017 CAZADORA

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 90m Latitude: 38.2S Clones: Mainly MV6, some 667, Pommard, Abel 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$38.00/bottle

Tasmania Elevation: 120m Latitude: 41.22S Clone: 115 12.0%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle

Best of tasting: Slightly brick red in colour. Mature and lifted nose of spicy oak and herbs; slight eucalypt character; touch of earth brings complexity; some stalky green notes also present; a slight VA lift. Impactful, wellstructured mouth with good complexity and evident tannins that soften with time in glass; notes of darker fruits and spice; dense/earthy core; good acidity and length; slightly dry finish. “Very varietal,” noted one taster. “It’s got age ahead of it,” noted another.

Luminous ruby red in colour. Fairly simple nose of strawberries, cherries and rhubarb; some spice and greenish fruit characters also apparent. Soft and rather simple palate which is fresh and lively and has good balance; slightly stewy fruit; lacks density; middle palate is somewhat hollow; short and spicy finish.

More of a rosé than a serious Pinot Noir.

TAMBURLAINE 2017 SINGLE VINEYARD PINOT NOIR Orange, New South Wales Elevation: 650m Latitude: 33.0555S Clone: 777 13.3%v/v – screwcap RRP$24.99/bottle Deep red purple in colour. Subdued nose of dark berries, faint minty notes and a slight earthy character; plum and anise characters also present along with some char and toasty oak. Good weighted palate featuring sappy varietal tannin, Satsuma plums, raspberries, cherries, rhubarb and tight acid; good persistence. “Good, fresh, simple,” noted one taster.

SEE SAW WINES 2016 PINOT NOIR Orange, New South Wales Elevation: 749m Latitude: 33.4S Clone: MV6 12.5%v/v screwcap RRP$25.00/bottle Slightly developed red brick colour. Sulfide on the nose initially which eventually gives way to characters of meat, earth, leather, stems and some herbs. Palate is quite ripe but lacks some fruit and structure; slightly fungal finish; slight bitterness.

“Lacks charm,” noted one taster.

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FREYCINET 2016 PINOT NOIR Tasmania Elevation: 100m Latitude: 42.0S Clones: predominately G5V15 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$75.00/bottle Bright, vibrant medium red in colour.

Nose is fresh, oaky and fragrant with notes of cherries, confectionary, some herbs, and a slight green character.

Palate is also fresh and lively with good mouthfeel and depth; nice dusty tannins and oak. “Lots going on,” noted one taster of the palate. “Quite sappy and herbal but with some complexing ripe plum characters,” said another

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QUEALY WINEMAKERS 2016 MUSK CREEK PINOT NOIR Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 180m Latitude: 38.4S Clone: MV6 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$40.00/bottle Medium red purple in colour. Good berry fruits on the lifted nose along with some confit, herbs, rhubarb, stemmyness and stalkyness.

“Very varietal and attractive,” said one taster. Good weight and structure on the palate which has nice dark fruit notes and some complex earthy tones; good mid-palate depth; firm tannins and some toasty oak too. “Young and a bit raw but a wine of real quality,” said one taster.

TAMBURLAINE 2016 SINGLE VINEYARD PINOT NOIR Orange, New South Wales Elevation: 860m Latitude: 33.1557S Clone: 777 13.6%v/v – screwcap RRP$24.99/bottle Medium red in colour.

Toasty oak on the nose along with some ripe, tarry/brambly fruit; quite reductive. Quite concentrated fruit on the palate which starts full with berry fruits and has a core of sweet rhubarb and cola; good tannin structure; overly oaky.

One taster found the fruit on the nose to be somewhat masked by the presence of mercaptan, and a sulfide bitterness to dominate the mouth.

“A big, dry red,” noted one taster.

DEXTER WINES 2016 PINOT NOIR

ARTEMIS WINES 2016 PINOT NOIR

LEURA PARK 2016 PINOT NOIR

MERRICKS ESTATE 2016 PINOT NOIR

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 80m Latitude: 38.35S Clones: MV6, D5V12, D2V5 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$55.00/bottle

Southern Highlands, New South Wales Elevation: 600m Latitude: 34.4S Clones: MV6, 777, 115 13.2%v/v – screwcap RRP$25.00/bottle

Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 48m Latitude: 38.17S Clone: MV6 12.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 72m Latitude: 38.23 S Clones: MV6, 115 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$50.00/bottle

Dark red brick in colour. Bacony oak dominates the nose, where some green/ stalky and whole bunch characters are also evident; potato leaf and tomato vine notes along with some spice follows. Palate is short and lean while the acid is somewhat high; lacks balance and complexity.

Mid red-purple in colour. Aromas of ripe plums, mulberries and red fruit complemented by some complex earth/ leafy characters and quite charry oak; spice is almost peppery.

Palate is quite fleshy and spicy with good weight, nice fruit structure and a touch of earthy complexity; herbs and berries also present. Tight acid and even tannin.

Good length. “Lacks fruit freshness on the palate,” noted one taster. “Quite ripe and oaky but handles it well,” said another.

“Showy but good,” said yet another.

Bright light red in colour. Lifted red fruits on the nose, including cherries and strawberries, as well as a hint of green fruit, lifted spice, a stalk character, and slightly dusty oak. Vibrant, big fruited, juicy, mouthwatering palate of cherries and other berries; more stalk character here too; good balance.

“Good, big fruit style,” said one taster. “Good example of a wine of this type,” said another.

Light red brick in colour. Creamy red fruits, including cherries, on the nose, along with some spice, powerful green characters and some soy and horseradish complexity. Each taster also noted either an oxidation, medicinal/microbial or VA character. Full, soft palate with distinct herbs, tomato leaf, cooked tomato, and slight developed/stewy and sappy notes.

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ROTHERWOOD ESTATE 2016 PINOT NOIR

CUTTAWAY HILL 2016 PINOT NOIR

TRACTORLESS VINEYARD 2016 PINOT NOIR

CAROLINE HILLS 2016 PINOT NOIR

SCOTCHMAN’S HILL 2015 PINOT NOIR

Southern Highlands, New South Wales Elevation: 690m Latitude: 34.0-35.0S Clones: 114, 115, 777, MV6 13.3%v/v – screwcap RRP$38.00/bottle

Southern Highlands, New South Wales Elevation: 713720m Latitude: 34.0S Clones: MV6, 114, 115 13.0%v/v – screwcap RRP$30.00/bottle

Southern Highlands, New South Wales Elevation: 720m Latitude: 34.0S Clone: MV6 13.3%v/v – screwcap RRP$45.00/bottle

Mount Gambier, South Austrlia Elevation: 40-45m Latitude: 37.31S and 37.51S Clones: pred. MV6 and D5V12 13.4%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle

Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 144.6m Latitude: 38.1S Clones: MV6, 114, 115 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle

Medium red in colour with a hint of brick.

Ripe nose with stalky/ sappy notes, plums, herbs and spices – almost Grenache-like, noted one taster; good varietal character with supporting toasty oak, noted another.

Lean and savoury palate with ripe fruit, spice, toasty oak and some complex earth tones. “Cooler on the palate than the nose suggested,” said one taster, adding “good core of late-palate fruit with serious structure/ tannin.” “Lacked depth,” noted one taster. Another taster detected an aldehyde character on the nose and palate.

Mid-red brick in colour.

Slightly developed nose of cola and tea; touch of oxidation.

Palate a bit flat, simple, tired, slightly oxidised and lacks fruit and freshness; tannins somewhat extracted.

Possible presence of some residual sugar.

Dark red in colour.

Nose is dense, complex and richfruited with characters of earth, greens/ stalks and spice.

Palate is tight, green, stalky and tannic with charry oak, a sweet dark-fruit core and a slight bitterness on the end. Good persistence.

“Lacks some balance and charm but the Burgundianlike tannins are in balance,” noted one taster. “A very complex, interesting wine,” said another taster.

Vibrant ruby red in colour. Bigperfumed, lifted nose of spice, oak, vanilla, raspberries, strawberries, ripe cherries, and leafy/ herb notes. Core of sweet fruit on the finely balanced palate which is soft, full and silky and has some complex tannins and “a riot of red fruits and oak”, as one taster put it. “Good example of a big, commercial style Pinot,” said one taster.

“When fruit bomb meets oak bomb,” described another taster.

Dense mid-red in colour. Slightly muted, ripe, green nose; plum and mushroom notes evident along with some oak. Palate features a ball of fruit in the cola/rhubarb spectrum, in other words, ripe yet green; some complex earth and spice tones also apparent; firm acid and tannin; good length.

HANGING ROCK 2015 MACEDON RANGES PINOT NOIR Macedon Ranges, Victoria Elevation: 650m Latitude: 39.994S Clones: D5V12, Mariafeld, 777 13.6%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle Deep, dark, brooding red in colour.

Dark cherries and strawberries on the nose with some spice, a hint of mint and some greenness perhaps suggesting the influence of stems; developed characters apparent. Palate is a bit simple and although has a savoury feel features a core of mid-palate fruits, particularly cherries and raspberries; tight acid and some slightly green tannins; good tannin and acid length.

“This wine is all about the palate,” noted one taster. “Lacks freshness; a muscular style,” noted another.

PATRICK OF COONAWARRA 2015 PATRICK ESTATE MOUNT GAMBIER PINOT NOIR Coonawarra, South Australia Elevation: 43m Latitude: 37.54S Clones: MV6 (20% D5V12) 12.9%v/v – screwcap RRP$29.00/bottle Vibrant, dark red in colour. Aromas in the cooler climate spectrum but aren’t overly green; cherry, spice, earth, forest floor and slight mint notes also apparent, resulting in good complexity. Palate is vibrant, silky, expressive and has good weight with ripe, expansive fruit characters, and a slight mint note (one taster found the mint character was too dominant); nice fine tannins.

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PASSING CLOUDS 2015 PINOT NOIR Macedon Ranges, Victoria Elevation: 742m Latitude: 37.0S Clone: MV6 13.0%v/v – screwcap RRP$75.00/bottle Bright, dark, ruby red in colour. Ripe nose of cherries, fruitcake, panforte, confit, orange peel and oak. Nice sappy/ stalky notes on the palate which also has characters of mint, patchouli and oak; lacks some freshness; finishes a bit short. “A dry, oddly-flavoured wine,” said one taster.

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QUEALY WINEMAKERS 2015 SEVENTEEN ROWS PINOT NOIR Mornington Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 50-60m Latitude: 38.4S Clone: MV6 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$50.00/bottle Bright colour of mid red-brick. Red fruits, plums and spice on the nose together with some whole bunch/stalk characters, and some camphor, clove and dusty oak. Palate is rich, ripe, dense, fullbodied and textural with sweet somewhat concentrated fruit and some spice; good acid; slightly hot and short finish. “A party in the mouth,” noted one taster. “Bit too much oak,” said another.

ROTHERWOOD ESTATE 2015 PINOT NOIR

COOLA ROAD 2015 PINOT NOIR

Southern Highlands, New South Wales Elevation: 690m Latitude: 34.35S Clone: 114, 115, 777, MV6 12.9%v/v – screwcap RRP$40.00/bottle

Mount Gambier, South Australia Elevation: 22m Latitude: 37.8S Clone: MV6 12.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$28.00/bottle

Dark red brick in colour. Lots of red berries on the nose along with earth and black tea notes. “A good blend of ripe berries and greens”, noted one taster.

“Some complex, developing characters and spicy oak. Two tasters detected a slight sulfide character on the nose. Palate is lively, creamy and fresh (although one taster thought the palate lacked freshness and vibrancy) and has nice weight with some concentrated brambly fruit and firm, sappy tannins; red berries on the middle palate.

“Good fruit core,” noted one taster.

Vibrant colour of mid-red. Lowintensity nose of red berry fruits, rhubarb, herbs, stalk and bunch characters and dusty oak.

Palate is balanced, has moderate weight, nice spice and texture, firm tannins and some complexity; berry characters evident.

“Good, dense, dry style yet compact and concentrated,” noted one taster. One taster felt the wine fell away at the end.

TERTINI 2015 PINOT NOIR Southern Highlands, New South Wales Elevation: 690m Latitude: 34.4S Clones: 115, MV6 13.6%v/v – screwcap RRP$48.00/bottle Bright colour of medium red. Ripe red fruits, including cherries, and herbs on the nose along with some spice and earth/mushroom characters. Dense yet lively and silky in the mouth; good acid and balance with lingering fruit. “Palate is dry and the acid line slightly forced, but a good package of age and fruit, but drink now,” noted one taster. “Good weight of fruit with sappy varietal structure and good persistence,” noted another.

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DE SALIS 2014 LOFTY PINOT NOIR

HANGING ROCK 2014 JIM JIM PINOT NOIR

Orange, New South Wales Elevation: 1038m Latitude: 33.3S Clones: MV6, 114, 115 and 777 13.4%v/v – screwcap RRP$65.00/bottle

Macedon Ranges, Victoria Elevation: 650m Latitude: 39.9S Clones: MVS, D5V12, Mariafeld 13.4%v/v – screwcap RRP$50.00/bottle

Slightly cloudy colour of medium red with some brick. One taster described the nose as “funky and cool”, another as “developed and tired”; earthy notes combine with aged herbs, balsam and anchovies. Palate is lean, dry and oaky and features spices, cherries, whole bunch characters and green. “A bit hollow and acidic,” said one taster. “For an unfiltered, hipster wine, I liked it,” said another taster.

Bright colour of medium red. Youthful, lifted, dusty nose with earth notes and spice, some cedary oak and gamey characters and a bit of sulfide.

Lovely dark red fruits on the soft, balanced palate which is somewhat reserved and has a hint of sulfide; ripe tannins.

Good spice, structure and length. “Great youthfulness,” noted one taster.

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TERINDAH ESTATE 2014 TERROIR SERIES ROAD BLOCK PINOT NOIR

HERBERT VINEYARDS 2014 HERBERT MOUNT GAMBIER PINOT NOIR

TERINDAH ESTATE 2014 TERROIR SERIES HILL BLOCK PINOT NOIR

Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 80-100m Latitude: 38.8S Clone: MV6 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$45.00/bottle

Mount Gambier, South Australia Elevation: 70m Latitude: 37.8S Clone: D5V12 13.0%v/v – screwcap RRP$26.00/bottle

Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria Elevation: 80-100m Latitude: 38.8S Clone: MV6 13.0%v/v – screwcap RRP$45.00/bottle

Dark red brick in colour. One taster noted the colour was slightly cloudy.

An initial odd green, almost Cabernetlike, character on the nose which blew off; some berries, bunch, smoke, charry oak and mint notes also apparent. One taster also detected creamed corn. Palate is angular and somewhat out of balance with green flavours resulting in a sweet and sour wine; tight acid and serious tannins.

Light red brick in colour. Aged aromas on the nose along with confected berries, red fruits, a subtle whole bunch character and a slight oxidative note.

Supple, balanced and mature palate which is somewhat tired; loose knit berries and herbs with stewy, oxidative development. “Time to drink; was prettier when younger,” noted one taster.

Dark red brick in colour with evidence of browning. Earth, mint, bracken, anchovies and aged characters on the nose; touch of camphor. Soft, supple palate of sweet fruit with fresh, tight acid and some mint. “Drink now; forward but bloody nice,” noted one taster.

DE SALIS 2014 BLUE LABEL LOFTY PINOT NOIR Orange, New South Wales Elevation: 1038m Latitude: 33.3S Clones: 114, 115, 777 13.4%v/v – screwcap RRP$90.00/bottle Light red in colour.

Oaky, earthy, savoury, aged aromas on the slightly tired nose, along with some leather and mushrooms. Soft, spicy, savoury, fragrant palate which has some nice sappiness and development; herbal and earthy notes apparent; tight but slightly excessive acid.

BREAM CREEK 2013 PINOT NOIR

CAROLINE HILLS 2013 PINOT NOIR

Tasmania Elevation: 65m Latitude: 42.8S Clones: D2V5, D2V6, D5V12 13.8%v/v – screwcap RRP$37.00/bottle

Mount Gambier, New South Wales Elevation: 40-45m Latitude: 37.31S Clones: pred. MV6, D5V12 12.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$35.00/bottle

Dense, dark red in colour. Remarkably fresh nose which is ripe and complex with good primary fruit characters, including plums and rhubarb, as well as an earthy element, some herbs and dusty/charry oak.

One taster thought the nose was a bit Grenache-like. Lovely ripe, sweet core of dark fruit on the palate which has excellent varietal and developed characters; a fleshy, extracted feel but with the volume of fruit to match; dense dry tannins. “Stunning wine for its age,” said one taster. “Wow, for a 2013,” said another.

Light brick red to brown in colour.

Nose is developed, stewy, stemmy, green and sappy. Palate is creamy, soft and round but is tired, flat and developed.

PEGERIC 2007 PINOT NOIR Macedon Ranges, Victoria Elevation: 635m Latitude: 33.32S Clone: pred. MV6 13.5%v/v – screwcap RRP$80.00/bottle Brown in colour.

Nose is oxidised with little more than oak discernible. Sweet, aged and over-ripe characters on the palate which is dense, dry and tannic yet has a caramel sweetness; somewhat hot. “Past its prime,” noted one taster.

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A&G expands manufacturing into South Australia’s Barossa Valley

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or more than 50 years, A&G Engineering has been the Australian wine industry’s premier supplier of quality stainless steel storage tanks and fermentation vessels.

In addition to existing manufacturing facilities in Griffith, New South Wales, and Mildura, Victoria, A&G has announced the commencement of manufacturing in Angaston, in the heart of South Australia’s Barossa Valley.

Manufacturing started in November, with the facility concentrating on the production of all types of storage and fermentation vessels, providing the Barossa Valley and

surrounds with cost-effective and high-quality stainless steel tanks for all winery applications.

A&G can provide complete design, manufacturing and installation services for vessels of all sizes, along with access items such as ladders, catwalks and platforms. A&G’s dedicated transport and installation team is also on hand to deliver infrastructure projects on time and within budget.

For further information visit www.agengineering.com. au, contact our sales team on (02) 6964 3422 or email sales@ agengineering.com.au

Braud’s Noria basket collection system – gentle on vines and grapes

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t New Holland Braud, respect for vines and grapes is a design priority in our harvesters.

The proven NORIA basket collection system, with its polyurethane baskets, ensures the most gentle treatment of vines and harvested crops, without ground losses.

Grapes are shaken directly into baskets—no bouncing or sliding off fishplates where grapes and juice can be lost. The soft NORIA baskets wrap around vine trunk as the harvester passes down the vine row where they act as a seal around the trunk; no rubbing or chafing of the vine trunk.

The NORIA basket system revolutionised the mechanisation of grape harvesting and continues to offer the most gentle treatment of vines and grapes. The system is matched with a large conveyor system and highperformance cleaning fans and can come with a destemmer fitted on the top of each hopper to deliver outstanding harvest quality.

For further information contact Braud dealers in Adelaide (08 8139 7222), Summertown (08 8390 3017) or Naracoorte (08 8762 0123) or visit www. braud.com.au

The Braud Noria basket collection system.

New Landini Rex tractor range

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andini’s Rex 4 series specialist tractor range has been revamped.

There are now four 2WD and 4WD versions in the range with up to four different engine ratings per version. The various configurations ensure the Rex 4 series is suited to a wide variety of jobs in vineyards with maximum productivity.

The new offerings in the Rex 4 series includes: 70 to 111HP engines, new transmissions with mechanical or hydraulic reverse shuttle, new axles and suspensions, and unbeatable ease of handling.

The bonnet and cab have also been completely redesigned to provide the highest standards of comfort, ergonomics and safety.

For further information contact Landini Central dealers in Adelaide (08 8139 7222), Summertown (08 8390 3017) or Naracoorte (08 8762 0123) or visit www.landinicentral.com.au V3 2N 6

Landini’s new series Rex 4.

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Pellenc Optimum delivers first-class performance and harvest quality

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he self-propelled Pellenc Optimum harvester has been developed to meet the expectations of wine growers and winemakers looking for efficient and quality-driven solutions.

The machine features exclusive technological innovations, generating a 25 percent boost in productivity and an unmatched quality pick that removes 99% of petioles, MOG and other waste.

The ‘power-on-demand’ system of the Optimum engine delivers a fuel saving of up to 43% per hectare. Other major innovations to be integrated into the harvester include: an ergonomic piloting system based on intuitive and quick controls; revolutionary steering capable of easily manoeuvring around one row after another; hydraulic easy coupling of multifunction tools; and a gentle shaking mechanism for vines and fruit.

For further information visit www. pellenc.com.au/optimum

Pellenc’s self-propelled Optimum harvester.

Whitco – high-quality, durable hedging and trimming systems for vineyards

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anufactured in Australia by family-owned company Whitlands Engineering, Whitco hedging systems provide economical, versatile and innovative solutions to trimming and pruning work – keeping costs down without compromising the job.

Available in medium duty for summer trimming and heavy duty for winter pruning, Whitco’s efficient and robust ‘double-acting reciprocating’ cutting mechanism allows impressive ground speeds. Both models are available in four lengths and either right hand or left hand configuration.

They are a modular type system which allows operators to start with a single cutter bar and add on to create either double, triple or quadruple hedging systems to suit their particular trellising system and canopy style.

Custom masts and mountings are also available, in addition to features such as the ‘Around the Post Swing Back System’, which will cut just above the cordon and between posts. This is used as a minimal pruning operation or as a pre-pruning clean up to remove most of the cane debris before finishing off by hand.

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www.w i n eti tl es .c om.au

Whitco’s triple (left) and double bar hedging configurations.

Tried and tested in the company vineyard in Whitlands, in north east Victoria, for more than 10 years, Whitco is distributed across Australia and New Zealand by certified dealers or can be ordered directly through Whitlands Engineering. As a testament to the

W I N E & V I T I C ULT U R E JO UR NA L NO V EMBER/DEC EMBER 2017

quality, durability and reliability of the machinery, all products are backed by a one-year warranty.

For further information contact your nearest distributor, visit www. whitcovinquip.com.au, or phone Whitlands Engineering on 1800 702 701

V32N6

THE

MUST HAVE GUIDE TO EVERYTHING IN THE

WINE INDUSTRY 35th Annual Edition

• • • • • • • •

Australian & New Zealand Wine Producers Australian Grapegrowers • Industry Suppliers Buyers’ Guide • Brands Overview, Facts & Figures Distributors & Retailers Writers & Media Online Industry Resources Calendar, Wine Shows & Courses • Organisations, Teaching & Research Institutions

2017

ORDER AND S E A RC H TO DAY Order today and get the most current and comprehensive access to wine and grape industry professionals, products and services across Australia and New Zealand.

Easily search our Directory for winery profiles, locate a vineyard consultant in your area or identify potential new customers. Our Buyers’ Guide catagory listings make it easy to find the suppliers and service providers you need to help your business run smoothly.

BUYERS’ GUIDE

BUYERS’ GUIDE ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN APP Search the app store for North East Media or visit widbuyersguidedigitaledition.com.au

The easiest way to purchase is to visit www.winetitles.com.au

Melbourne

Adelaide

WA

NSW

New Zealand

EXCITING

NEW TECHNOLOGY

FROM

SMART LEES SMART LEES is a tangential cross flow unit utilising spinning ceramic discs for the filtration of Lees from Juice and wine.

It is suitable for the filtration of products with a high suspended solids including those with Bentonite. The action of the filter ensures a high quality permeate and allows for a recovery of up to 97%.

MMR PLUS – DEGASSING The Juclas MMR Plus enables the control of gases including the reduction and impregnation treatment of gases in wine… the reduction of oxygen and carbon dioxide in young wines, deoxygenation of wines prior to bottling or addition of carbon dioxide to refresh whites or roses when bottling. The MMR Plus can also be used for dealcoholisation.

For further details, contact us on: New South Wales Melbourne Adelaide Western Australia New Zealand

2/40 Bradmill Ave Rutherford 59 Banbury Rd, Reservoir 12 Hamilton Tce, Newton 5/1 Ostler Dve, Vasse 3M Henry Rose Place, Albany, Auckland

Ph. 02 4932 4511 Ph. 1300 882 850 Ph. 08 8365 0044 Ph. 08 9755 4433 Ph. 0800 699 599

E. sales@winequip.com.au www.winequip.com.au www.winequip.co.nz