Wine Industry Newsletter

DAFWA 2016 vintage summary

Picking grapes in Mount barker
The grape and wine project team at DAFWA have had another busy vintage of hand picking, crushing and pressing wine grapes all in the name of research.

This year saw a continuation of the three trials undertaken last vintage.

The three trials consisted of:

Other than logistical challenges of harvesting Chardonnay clones in Mount Barker and Shiraz clones in Margaret River on consecutive days, the vintage went smoothly for the DAFWA wine research team.

The number of batches and amount of fruit processed in 2016 is summarised in the following table.

Region

Variety

Treatment

Total kilograms

Margaret River

Chardonnay

5 clones

500

Margaret River

Shiraz

4 clones

400

Great Southern

Chardonnay

6 clones

600

Margaret River

Cabernet Sauvignon

4 clones

120

Margaret River

Tempranillo

3 crop loads

 45

 

1665

This vintage sees the completion of the winemaking component for the Chardonnay and Shiraz clones and Cabernet Sauvignon genomic variation trials. Wines produced from the 2016 vintage will be used for chemical and sensory analysis and also for industry workshops and tastings.