New Wine Australia regional program for WA
Wine Australia's new Regional Program seeks to actively encourage and support innovation, extension and adoption of R&D in the Australian wine sector. The program aims to help grapegrowers and winemakers adopt new tools and research findings to support a competitive Australian wine sector.
A new round of WA activities has been granted funding. Managed by Richard Fennessy (WA Regional Program Partner), these activities have been endorsed by the Wines of Western Australia (WoWA) technical committee. In 2019-20, a range of new activities will be undertaken, including:
Virus symposium
Grape vine viruses pose a significant risk to the productivity, quality and sustainability of Australian vineyards. Many within the industry believe this disease is a great threat, especially when considering the costs incurred in other world wine regions such as Marlborough and Napa Valley due to virus.
This symposium aims to heighten the awareness of grapevine viruses. The latest scientific understandings of biology, translocation and transmission of common and exotic viruses will be presented as well as practical management strategies. Speakers will include State-based, interstate and international experts in virology, pathology and viticulture.
This activity is proposed to run in conjunction with a similar activity in the Limestone Coast which is also funded by the Wine Australia Regional Program.
The symposium is planned to be held in Margaret River in June 2020.
Demonstrating clonal performance
This activity plans to utilise commercial inter-block clonal plantings from a multitude of regions and undertake berry/bunch measurements and small lot winemaking to demonstrate and compare the performance of selected clones under WA conditions. Varieties targeted will include Pinot Noir, Merlot, Tempranillo and Shiraz. The number of clones per variety will range between three and five.
There are numerous clones available for the key varietals grown in Western Australia, however information on the performance and suitability of said clones is limited. A number of vineyards across WA have planted multiple clones within uniformed blocks, thus presenting an opportunity to demonstrate and compare the clones. The information presented will allow producers to make a more informed decision when it comes to selecting clones for new plantings or reworks.
Demonstrating water additions to manage high Baumé red must
This activity is inspired by the recent AWRI winemaking trial tasting workshop on Cabernet Sauvignon, specifically demonstrating the impact of diluting high Baumé red musts. With an ever increasing trend of compressed vintages and extreme weather events, the management of elevated ripeness of red fruit is becoming a regular practice for Australian winemakers. In 2017, the standard 4.5.1 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code was changed to allow the addition of water to high sugar must to 13.5°Be. There is research showing high Baumé musts can be managed by diligent additions of water without detriment to wine quality.
Shiraz from Swan Valley and Frankland will be picked at varying maturities and treated with a number of different water dilutions. The same approach will also be taken with Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon. These small-lot wines will then be provided to producers in the respective regions to assess via a series of tasting workshops.
These workshops will demonstrate to winemakers’ practical techniques to dilute high sugar red must through the permitted addition of water, and provide an opportunity for WA winemakers to taste examples of regional wines that have been diluted to varying degrees. It's hoped that the workshops will give winemakers confidence on a practical technique that could be used in years of compressed vintages and heatwaves that produce riper than average fruit.
Workshopping collaboration to achieve logistic efficiencies
Many small wine producers struggle to build the scale that can increase their profits and market reach. The intent of this regional presentation is to inform producers how they can leverage ‘collaborative’ business models or build consortiums in order to better leverage price discounts from shipping and transportation providers, while building scale to increase domestic and international market reach. Hence, expected practice change is in the means and mechanisms of shipping wine for domestic and export reach.
This activity will present the findings of Incubator Project CUT 1701 (“How can small producers in Western Australia achieve economies of scale efficiencies in logistics and distribution?”) in conjunction with industry participants presenting collaborative transportation solutions for wine producers. Research findings from Incubator Project CUT 1701 demonstrate that there are advantages for individual producers collaborating to gain scale efficiencies and cost savings in the shipping and transport of wine. Kristina Georgiou and Dr Jeremy Galbreath (Curtin University) will present their project findings, along with logistic providers to present collaborative transport options. Presentations to be held in Swan Valley and Margaret River in October 2019.
For more information on these upcoming activities, contact Richard Fennessy.