Cabernet hang-time proves a hot topic
International speaker Associate Professor Jim Harberston, School of Food Science from the Washington State University started the forum off with a review of hang-time experiments conducted in Washington State. These trials were based on Merlot and had the following findings:
- Maturity didn’t effect tannin extraction regardless of alcohol or ripeness.
- Riper fruit yields more colour and tannins.
- Extended maceration increased astringency.
- Seed tannin extraction was not effected by fruit maturity.
- Aroma profile in high alcohol wine is characterised by riper characteristics and greater viscosity.
- Alcohol is driving the sensory profile rather than fruit maturation.
Associate Professor Harberston also provided a snapshot of the growing conditions that contribute the high quality wines produced from Washington State. The region is characterised by:
- lean soils
- persistent winds
- cold winters
- a dry climate attributed to a rain shadow effect (~250mm)
- diurnal shift that benefits phenolic ripeness with balanced acidity
- plenty of sunlight, 300+ days.
Dr Keren Bindon from the Australian Wine research Institute (AWRI) presented research findings from a trial examining the impact of hang-time on Cabernet phenolics. The work showed:
- Berry volume can shrivel, plateau or increase during ripening.
- ~52% of skin tannin is extractable.
- Generally, extractable tannin increases during ripening and results in higher wine tannin.
- Addition of anthocyanins aids in phenolic extraction.
- A transition from ‘fresh green’ to ‘dark fruit’ can be observed together with changes in phenolics.
Chief Viticulturist at Burch Family Wines, David Botting presented a local view on achieving optimal fruit ripening and maturity in Margaret River Cabernet. David’s key points were:
- Hang-time doesn’t work for all seasons.
- Fruit needs to be ripe (sugar/acid) for it to benefit from added hang-time.
- Any degree of berry damage makes hang-time difficult due to disease pressures.
- Hang-time is not seen as critical when compared to other factors such as as site, season, aspect, row orientation, canopy, cropload, fruit condition, clone, vine age and other extraneous factors.
This presentation was complimented with a winemaker’s opinion, Virginia Willcock from Vasse Felix provided her views on hang-time, including:
- How does the term ‘hang-time’ reflect on a late ripening variety like Cabernet?
- There needs to be a focus and understanding on how long on the vine is required for fruit to achieve optimum ripeness.
- Season and site is the most important factors of quality.
- Viticulturists and winemakers need to work together.
- The desired style will influence the time on the vine.
In a slight change of topic AWRI Senior Engineer Simon Nordestgaard gave a review of grape sorting technologies and discussed key points on how they impact upon wine quality.
- Sorting can result in lowered tannin extraction and lower final alcohol.
- Automated sorting only suitable for destemmed fruit.
- Reds ideally sorted in the vineyard where as whites are best sorted in the winery.
- When choosing a sorter consider cost, ease of cleaning and throughput.
Dr Michael Considine from UWA provided an update on his research project examining the genomic variation with Cabernet clones. The project is nearing completion with Dr Considine reporting he and his team have successfully sequenced 10 clones and have discovered many variations and associated challenges.
This forum was made possible through Wine Australia’s Regional Program funding and in collaboration with Wines of WA, Curtin University, Department of Agriculture and Food WA, Perth NRM and the AWRI.
Vintage begins at DAFWA
The 2017 vintage is showing to be a patience testing year with varieties across regions within WA reporting to be two to three weeks later than ‘typical’ vintages. Department wine researcher Richard Fennessy has begun picking and crushing grapes for this year’s wine research projects. The two projects being undertaken include the evaluation of Chardonnay and Shiraz clones and evaluating the performance of alternative varieties.
The Chardonnay and Shiraz clone project is in its fourth and final year, this year only Chardonnay clones will be required to be made into wine. The Western Australian component of this project includes sites in Margaret River and Mount Barker.
Considering the nature of this vintage it is interesting to compare the harvest dates from the last four years. The below table shows the harvest dates of five Margaret River grown Chardonnay clones from the last four years. At the time of writing the Mount Barker Chardonnay clones were not yet picked.
|
| Harvest date | |||
| Clone | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
| 76 | 2 Mar | 10 Feb | 6 Feb | 18 Feb |
| 95 | 8 Mar | 15 Feb | 4 Feb | 13 Feb |
| 96 | 8 Mar | 15 Feb | 6 Feb | 18 Feb |
| 277 | 8 Mar | 15 Feb | 4 Feb | 18 Feb |
| Gingin | 2 Mar | 10 Feb | 4 Feb | 13 Feb |
The wines from this vintage as with the previous vintages will be made available to local producers to taste in upcoming workshops.
The other project involving a wine making component is the evaluation of a number of alternative varieties planted in a demonstration block at the WA College of Agriculture – Harvey. This evaluation is a collaboration between the department, Western Australian Vine Improvement Association (WAVIA), WA College of Agriculture and Wine Australia.
Of the 22 varieties planted in the block a select few is being harvested and made into wine for sensory evaluation and for industry tastings. At the time of writing Savagnin, Scheurebe, Pignoletto, Dolcetto and Fiano had been harvested. There are plans to run a number of workshops and tastings focusing on the opportunities of alternative varieties of which details will be provided in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
For more information on these projects contact Richard Fennessy.
Biosecurity planning for the future
Biosecurity planning on how to react to exotic pest detections may not be sexy or show obvious immediate returns and we could just hope that one never occurs that will affect us. However, as the recent biosecurity incidents affecting the horticulture industries in the last year have shown, the risk is real (Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus and Tomato potato psyllid).
The WA viticulture industry is in a beneficial position of being free of a range of grape pests that affect growers in other states of Australia. This can be beneficial by meaning better quality produce, reduced pest control costs or market benefits.
The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA), through a Royalties for Regions funded project — ‘e-surveillance for pests and diseases in the WA grape industry’, is working with the viticulture industries in WA to build their biosecurity preparedness. As a result of this work, the industry now has a field pest guide of local and exotic pests of grapevines — MyPestGuide Grapes and an easy pest reporting tool for expert identification verification — MyPestGuide Reporter. These tools are designed to help growers of grapes to learn about and identify pest – both those known to occur in WA and those not.
However, being able to identify and report exotic pests is not the end of it, merely the start of being biosecurity prepared. What happens next is equally important. To assist with this, DAFWA and industry have identified all pests of grapevines known to occur in Australia but not WA. This list of pests has then been reviewed and the pests ranked according to the likely impact they may have on the WA viticulture industries. The review identified 7 high priority pest threats and a further 39 priority pest threats (see ‘Western Australian Viticulture Industry Biosecurity Plan’).
The next step (due for completion by the end of June 2017) is to develop a pest profile on each of the high priority and priority pests. The pest profiles will provide detailed identification and damage information along with possible management options.
Alec McCarthy can be contacted for more information.
Wines of WA update
UK buyers visit the fine wine regions of WA
Facilitated by Wines of WA, the buyers visited Peel, Geographe, Margaret River, Blackwood Valley, Pemberton, Manjimup, Great Southern and Swan Valley.
Yapp Brothers’ Meirion Williams said, “Margaret River and the Great Southern are known in the UK, but other regions less so. The group wanted to learn more about the fine wine regions of WA.”
Wines of WA chief executive Larry Jorgensen said Britain was in the top five markets for WA producers. The group, comprised of independent on and off-premise business were a perfect fit for many WA producers.
“They were looking for wine with provenance made by people with authenticity in their brand. In one sense there were no surprises, because the group were aware of the quality coming out of WA. But in another sense there were many surprises because the group couldn’t believe the consistent quality of the wines and diversity of styles across our regions. I believe that good business relationships will develop as a result of the visit”, he said.
"The group was able to experience the different cultures of each region on the trip, which was funded in part by a export market development grant from the Department of Agriculture and Food WA. WoWA’s role in the trip was to facilitate and join the dots for Regional Associations. Each Association organised the activities for their region. It is a fantastic example of the value of collaboration”, Mr Jorgensen said.
Chinese New Year celebrates the fine wine regions of WA
Wines of WA (WoWA) collaborated with the WA Fishing Industry Council (WAFIC), the Office of Multicultural Interests, Tourism WA and the Department of State Development to host a group of four influential online food, wine and lifestyle journalists from China for a fine wine and seafood experience. The influential opinion leaders were flown to WA as part of the State Government’s $1million marketing strategy built around the Chinese New Year.
The event, “Journey of Discovery – The Fine Wine Regions and Premium Fisheries of Western Australia” was held on Friday 3 February at Matilda Bay Restaurant as a part of the WA State Government’s 2017 Chinese New Year program, celebrating 30 years of sister state relationship with Zhejiang Province – see event program.
WoWA CEO, Larry Jorgensen explained that the concept was simple: “The fine wine regions and premium fisheries of WA are amazing, so get a beautiful venue, a great kitchen, fantastic produce and amazing wine, then get out of the way.”
Attending the event were leaders of the WA Chinese community including Mr Khoon Tan, President of the WA Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Mr Ding Shao Ping from the Chung Wah Society.
Mr Ding said, “… an amazing fine wine and seafood “Journey of Discovery” experience. We all had a fantastic time. I believe that all of us will never forget this experience. We have the best wine and seafood in the world.”
Ms Anlin Sun, Deputy Consul-General of the Chinese Consulate in Perth who also joined the group was also impressed: “the journey of discovery will always be in my memory. It gave me a chance to learn more about WA, I hope more Chinese people will share your beautiful state and your delicious seafood.”
WA seafood ambassador, Don Hancey explained each dish to the group. In typical Don style he summarised the event stating, “Stunning dinner last night, food and service impeccable. Our special guests most impressed.”
John Harrison, CEO of WAFIC said, “the evening was a great way to showcase the excellence of WA’s seafood while at the same time offering an opportunity to educate key opinion leaders about the State’s fisheries and wineries.”
Mr Jorgensen noted that the primary focus from a wine perspective was to demonstrate the synergy between white wine and seafood.
“We know the Chinese love seafood and we know that white wine currently accounts for only 13% of the wine that WA exports to China. Events like this will help to change that. Riesling, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, Verdelho and Chardonnay shone on the night”, he said.
Bacchus and VinSites project update
Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark provides the following update on Project Bacchus and VinSites system pilot.
Vineyard data collection
In 2016, as part of Project Bacchus, Wine Australia undertook a proof of concept to test whether we could develop a cost-effective in-house vehicle to collect key vineyard data (location by region, hectares and variety) using automated software and direct grower input of data. The testing involved pilot projects in Western Australia and the Riverland.
We had great success in the use of a prototype system that could determine vineyards size, row and location from publicly available satellite imagery, and we were delighted with the ability to automatically collect vineyard location and area. We were also able to link that with land title cadastre data. This will enable future identification of vineyards to be linked to tools such as prescribed burn management registers. The Western Australia pilot data has been provided to the Department of Agriculture and Food - WA for that purpose.
Collecting the variety information directly from growers voluntarily proved difficult and we determined that it would not be a reliable way to collect comprehensive information and maintain it over time. However, the information that was provided gave us great insights into the value that this national data set could provide to the sector at all steps along the value chain.
Next steps
We are still committed to the collection of key vineyard data and we are currently examining alternative ways to collect this information such as working directly with wineries to source hectare, variety and yield data by region for a statistically significant portion of the vineyards, and adding this information to our existing data, including data from the crush and production surveys.
We are also investigating opportunities to capture the vineyard hectare data using technology similar to the pilot. We will be seeking input from other organisations and data providers to assist us in this next phase to source a scalable and commercially viable service.
Amendments to the levy collection laws last year have brought us one step closer to establishing a grower register, which may provide us with the opportunity to collect key vineyard data directly from growers. We are working with the Department to establish how grower information will be collected to give practical effect to these amendments.
Your data
I wish to thank you for your participation in the initial design and pilot and to assure you that all data you submitted will be kept confidential.
If you have any queries about Bacchus and the work we are doing, please contact the program manager Bruce Hampton at Wine Australia.
Future events
State Horticulture Update
Supporting Western Australian horticulture businesses to achieve international competitiveness and industry growth.
This inaugural event focuses on strategies that WA horticulture businesses can use to become internationally competitive. The forum supports DAFWA’s key goal to enable the agriculture and food sector to double in value by 2025.
The event will provide WA growers with access to timely market information, grower case studies and industry research to explore new market opportunities. It will feature a presentation on the ‘Pathways to competitiveness’ report, commissioned by DAFWA and available to view here; panel discussions on areas including achieving international competitiveness, removing barriers to export growth, biosecurity and market access including a strategic update on response to tomato potato psyllid; and the opportunity to hear from leading horticulture businesses and industry representatives.
When: 10.00am – 4.00pm Thursday 6 April 2017
Where: Crown Perth Convention Centre
RSVP: More information and to register visit the event webpage.
Chardonnay and Shiraz clone regional tasting
Grape growers and winemakers interested in clonal variation of Chardonnay and Shiraz are invited to attend a tasting held by the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia. The tasting will consist of up to five clones of Chardonnay from the Riverland, Margaret River and Great Southern for comparison. Also included will be six clones of Shiraz sourced from the Barossa, Margaret River and Grampians wine regions.
The wines for this tasting have been supplied through the national research project assessing the clonal variability in Chardonnay and Shiraz for future climate change. Attendees will gain a better appreciation of how clonal selection can influence wine style and how clones perform in contrasting climates.
When: TBC (after vintage)
Where: Margaret River
Further details will be provided closer to the event but early expressions of interest can be sent to Richard Fennessy.
Margaret River Viticultural & Horticultural Trade Day
The Trade Day will feature a full schedule of trade exhibitions, demonstrations and a light lunch, along with informative presentations by expert speakers.
When: 9.30am – 3.30pm Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Where: Cowaramup District Social Club
ASVO Seminar
The Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology (ASVO) is proud to announce that it will bring together the leaders in data, science, technology and engineering at its annual seminar in Mildura in August 2017. The global technological landscape is changing and the wine industry is responding. Local and international guest speakers will explore the present and emerging opportunities for the wine industry in an engaging and interactive format.
The seminar program will be headlined by Dr Mike Briers AO, CEO of the Knowledge Economy Institute, and Dr Maria Paz Diago, of the Institute of Grapevine and Wine Sciences (ICVV) Universidad de La Rioja, Spain. Briers was named in the Knowledge Nation 100 as Australia’s chief evangelist for big data and the internet of things (IoT) and brings his vision to empower Australia’s food industry to grow its comparative advantage through digital transformation. Dr Diago’s research is focused on the application of new technologies to the vineyard and she will share her insights into digital measurement of yield, canopy porosity, fruit composition and soil mapping and monitoring.
When: 2 – 3 August 2017
Where: Mildura, Victoria
More information: https://www.asvo.com.au/events