Wine Industry Newsletter

Wine Australia’s Regional program

Summary of 2016/17 activities for regional Western Australia

Grapes

The Regional Program is a key initiative of Wine Australia to actively encourage and support innovation, extension and adoption of R&D in the Australian wine industry.

The program allows grape growers and winemakers to:

  • identify their region’s highest priority innovation, extension and adoption issues
  • evaluate new concepts and technology in their own region to measure regional benefits of adoption
  • identify aspects of production to ensure the region is sustainable into the future
  • assist with uptake of new tools and research findings.

The $50 000 program is managed by Wines of WA and the West Australian Wine industries technical committee, and is aligned with the West Australian Wine Industry Strategic Plan 2014 - 2024 (Focus area - Innovative research, development & extension). Future plans will include reference to the WA Wine industries newly-formed Agricultural Produce Committee.

The following sections provide a summary of the four activity areas in the 2016/17 program:

1. Updating growers on managing Garden weevil
Garden weevils present an ongoing management problem for producers in the Great Southern and Margaret River regions. With the availability and ongoing use of the insecticide `Indoxacarb' (Avatar®) for control of garden weevil, some producers consider there is an over-reliance on this one insecticide, which presents an inherent risk of insecticide resistance developing in Garden weevil.

The project will examine alternative strategies to managing garden weevil through a review of current and emerging practices, and support a group of producers to trial and demonstrate identified alternative practice management strategies with potential to replace Indoxacarb. This will encourage practice change for managing Garden weevil through the identification and demonstration of a broader range of management options.

The DAFWA entomology team will undertake a desktop review to determine emerging best practice management for Garden weevil, and contact appropriate research providers for additional information relevant to conducting trials in West Australian vineyards. These trials/demonstrations will be used to extend research findings to the broader wine grape producing audience.

2. Evaluating and demonstrating alternative varieties
Approximately 80% of Western Australia's wine grape production comprises of five 'noble' French varietals. Reliance on such a small collection of varietals to sustain the profitability of the WA wine industry, while considering challenges such as climate change and market trends, poses potential limitations. One tool available to growers to ensure continuation of optimum production while addressing issues such as increasing temperatures, compressed growing seasons, limited water availability, is through varietal selection.

This project aims to change the way growers think when considering varieties that best suit their region by pairing varieties with climates (current and forecasted). Demonstrating the potential of such varieties through wine tastings and field walks is an integral pathway to adoption.

This project provides funding for DAFWA to collect vine performance data, small-lot wine making, and sensory analysis of a number of select “alternative varieties” currently grown at Harvey Agriculture College.

3.  Benchmarking and extending information on improving fertiliser management
This activity will build the capacity of producers to better understand and interpret soil, irrigation water and petiole sample analysis results to improve fertiliser and irrigation management practices. This activity uses the skills of an independent agronomist to work one-on-one with a number of wine grape producers in the Geographe region to evaluate their irrigation and nutrition regimes via water, soil and petiole tests and vine performance records.

The aim is to help wine grape producers improve nutrition and irrigation practices to achieve targeted yield and quality outcomes.  Results will be benchmarked against regional and industry standards.

4.  Cabernet Hang-time forum
Funding for this activity will be used to host forum in Margaret River in January 2017, themed around Cabernet Hang-time. This forum builds on the preliminary vineyard trials, small batch winemaking and sensory evaluation work conducted by Curtin University, AWRI and DAFWA. The forum will include a guest speaker from California and updates on current research on Hang-time being conducted throughout other regions in Australia and overseas.

The forum will encourage local grape growers and winemakers to participate in the discussions while gaining a better understanding of the most appropriate time to leave Cabernet fruit on the vine to achieve the required fruit/wine quality.

If you would like more information on any of these activities please contact Wines of WA - Larry Jorgensen; ceo@winewa.asn.au or Keith Pekin; keith.pekin@perthnrm.com

Keith Perkin
Perth NRM