Wine Industry Newsletter

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.

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.