Wine & Viticulture Journal Spring 2023 FREEVIEW

SPRING

• Maturation: have the options improved?

• Aerial spraying of vineyards - never say never!

• Alternative packaging - should we move beyond the green bottle?

• Tasting: Field blend whites and other white blends

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION COLUMNS

10 AGW / WINE AUSTRALIA: :One Sector Plan to get us back on track

11 ASVO (Andy Clarke): New editor in chief for the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research

WINEMAKING

12 RACHEL GORE: Maturation recap: have the options improved?

18 Understanding the effect of barrel-to-barrel variation on the colour and phenolic composition of a red wine

22 Consumer response to wine made from smoke-affected grapes

28 AWRI REPORT: Vintage 2023 - observations from the AWRI helpdesk

VITICULTURE

42 Aerial spraying of vineyards - why you never say never!

48 Advances in grapevine viral disease detection: use of optical imaging technology for virus surveillance in vineyards?

53 Managing botrytis sustainably: investigations of dsRNA silencing technology

54 Frost - causes and mitigation strategies for established vineyards

59 Future success in wine industry growth and sustainability relies on improved plant material

64 How does a variable and changing climate impact budburst timing of winegrapes?

67 ALTERNATIVE VARIETIES: Savagnin

BUSINESS & MARKETING

70 TOWARDS NET ZERO: Alternative packaging and wine: should we move beyond the green bottle?y

74 The journey to better understanding the direct-to-consumer channel

76 Top-line results from Vintage 2023

80 The consumer preference for lower alcohol: are there lessons from beer?

TASTING

88 Field blend whites, and other white blends

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As I write this editorial (late August), a series of workshops are being held around the country giving members of the Australian wine industry the opportunity to identify the collective challenges facing the sector and how they might be addressed. That feedback will be used to formulate strategies for a One Sector Plan (OSP), which is being jointly led by Australian Grape & Wine and Wine Australia in acknowledgement of the “perfect storm of issues” that have impacted the sector since 2020 and are being “felt by everyone in the community”.

Members of industry are also encouraged to complete a short online survey to put forward their thoughts on which of the following themes the plan should focus on: people, consumers, customers and communities, product and place, environmental, social and governance (ESG), markets or systems.

A draft OSP is expected by December 2023. In a joint column, Wine Australia CEO Martine Cole and Australian Grape and Wine CEO Lee McLean speak more about the One Sector Plan which you can find on page 10.

Underlining the challenges facing the industry that the OSP aims to address are the figures from the 2023 vintage (which Peter Bailey from Wine Australia takes a deep dive into on page 76) and the export stats from the 2022-23 financial year (see page 7).

Also in this issue of the Wine & Viticulture Journal, we present the fourth and final article in our Towards Net Zero series. With packaging and transport being such a significant contributor to the wine industry’s emissions, we asked the Australian Wine

Research Institute to compare the carbon footprint of different packaging options, and the technical considerations that producers should bear in mind when weighing them up.

Sticking with the theme of climate change, over in Viticulture, we are celebrating the return of former regular writer Tony Hoare who from this issue onwards will be providing a series of articles on managing extreme weather events. In keeping with the season, Tony’s first article takes a look at frost (page 54). Then we have researchers from the University of Newcastle revealing the results of their investigations into the influence of changing springtime temperatures on budburst across Australia’s wine regions (page 64).

With extreme weather events, such as fires, forecast to become more frequent and intense due to climate change, information to help guide producers on what to do with grapes that have been exposed to smoke from a nearby fire is paramount. While there has been significant inroads into understanding whether or not and to what degree a wine exposed to smoke will be smoke-affected, there has been little research into exactly how consumers perceive these wines. The AWRI has undertaken some research into the consumer acceptance of smoke characters in wine and present them in an article in Winemaking which starts on page 22.

Also in Winemaking, our regular scribe Rachel Gore reviews current methods for maturing wine, balancing their quality outcomes against their price (see page 12).

Enjoy delving into these articles and more in the following pages.

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Cover image: Wine Australia

New editor in chief for the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research

By Andy Clarke, President, Australian Society of Viticulture & Oenology

The Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research (AJGWR) has a new editor-in-chief following the retirement from the position of long-serving Dr Terry Lee OAM.

Professor Stefano Poni was an outstanding choice for the role. He is an experienced editor, with high integrity, superb judgement and a real affinity with the AJGWR and our purpose. I’m thrilled he will be leading the AJGWR and its talented editorial team.

Professor Poni takes up the role of editorin-chief from Terry Lee who stepped down at the end of June 2023 after a highly successful 11 years in the role.

On behalf of the ASVO board, I’d like to thank Dr Lee who has been an outstanding leader, seeing the AJGWR through considerable change. He has made a tremendous contribution to the publication, the grape and wine community and industry. His pre-eminent publishing achievements led to an all-time high impact factor, and he leaves the AJGWR in strong shape. During his tenure, he upheld the highest quality standards of a leading journal and significantly increased the AJGWR profile and reputation.

Professor Poni is the Professor of Viticulture at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy. He is also director of the one-year Master VENIT and is coordinator of the Master of Science in Sustainable Viticulture and Enology. He has authored over 320 scientific publications, 159 of which were edited in international refereed journals. His H-index is currently 41 in the Scopus database.

Poni has been an invited speaker at 55 international congresses, he was awarded with the Perdisa Prize in 1994, the ‘Enotecnici’ Prize in 2004, and the Rudolph Hermanns Foundation Prize in 2011. He also won the prize for the best paper published in 2013 in the viticulture section of the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture (AJEV). Poni has been an associate editor for the AJEV since 1 January 2006 and associate editor for the AJGWR since 1 January 2012.

“It is indeed a great honour and privilege

to be appointed as editor-in-chief of the prestigious Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research,” Poni said. “As a representative of Old World viticulture, the link to Australia as a New World viticulture and oenology leading country is such a stimulating task. My effort will primarily be to attract even more original scientific work about the challenges that the wine chain is facing, starting with climate change-related issues. Moreover, I will try to add further motivation to all actors involved in the process of submission-evaluation-decision for improved interaction between the quality of the selected research and speed of publication.”

ASVO 2023 AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE

The annual ASVO Awards for Excellence is a prestigious event to promote industry excellence, foster leadership and encourage innovation and sustainability in the Australian wine industry.

The awards have a long and proud history of recognising individuals in the Australian grape and wine community who are champions of change and are willing to go the extra mile to help others.

The Awards for Excellence event includes presentations of the ASVO Viticulturist and Winemaker of the Year, the Wine Science and Technology award, recognition of the best viticulture and oenology papers from the AJGWR, presentation of the Dr Peter May award for most cited paper from the AJGWR in the last five years and an announcement of new ASVO Fellows.

The 2023 awards will be held at the National Wine Centre, Adelaide, on Wednesday 8 November. For more information on this year’s event and to register

visit https://www.asvo.com.au/events/2023awards-excellence

ASVO 2023 AWAC SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT

The ASVO board of directors is delighted to reveal that the winner of the 2023 ASVO scholarship for Advanced Wine Assessment Course (AWAC) is Emma Shaw from the Canberra wine region.

Emma is the general manager at Collector Wines and also runs her own business, Pique-Nique, which offers wine appreciation classes and events to encourage consumers to develop their understanding of and comfort with wine, and their appreciation of Canberra wines. Emma also volunteers her time with industry associations across the broader region and is close to completing a Bachelor of Wine Science at Charles Sturt University.

Emma was an outstanding applicant for the scholarship, with her very clear passion for teaching others how to appreciate wine.

The ASVO exists to foster excellence in viticulture and oenology, and a key element of this is to encourage and facilitate education to the highest standard. The AWAC scholarship covers the fees for one ASVO member each year to receive this formal education in wine tasting which will not only further the recipient’s career but also contributes to excellence in the Australian wine industry.

The AWAC was founded in 1992 by the Australian Wine Research Institute. It is an intensive four-day course designed to provide training to potential new wine show judges by developing the sensory analysis capabilities and vocabulary of Australian wine industry personnel at an elite level. The scholarship covers the course fee which in 2023 is $5390.

“I am thrilled,” said Emma when told the news. “I am sure the AWAC course will push my knowledge of wine assessment to new heights. Receiving support by way of a scholarship is greatly appreciated. Thank you to the ASVO board for selecting me amongst the many deserving applicants.”

Stefano Poni, the new editor-in-chief of the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research, and Emma Shaw

Maturation recap: Have the options improved?

By Rachel Gore, Director and Principal Consultant, Free Run Consulting

Rachel reviews existing methods for maturing wine — both barrels and alternatives — in light of the current squeeze on capital expenditure and reflects on how quality expectations can be achieved at a cost-effective price.

Given today’s financial pressures that seem to be squeezing us from every direction, is now the right time to reassess our winemaking protocols to see whether we can achieve the same quality parameters but in a different way? We now have access to an array of maturation options that have improved substantially over the last decade so there’s no time like the present to take a closer look.

Wines that have had some influence from oak are, in general, preferred by many wine consumers around the world, however, the practice of barrel maturation is costly due to the price of oak barrels and the extended period of time that the wine must stay in them. To save money and shorten the period of time in contact with wood, the use of cheaper

alternatives, now more than ever, have become more popular.

Wines are normally aged in oak wood barrels for the purpose of improving overall sensory attributes. During the maturation process, wine undergoes many changes due

to the reactions between wine components, the oxygen that slowly diffuses through the oak barrel surfaces and the compounds that are released from the oak itself. Barrels have been used for centuries for preserving and ageing wines, acting as storage vessels that are capable of releasing compounds that affect and improve a wine’s individual characteristics. During the period of maturation in oak, wine undergoes oxidative processes that alter its composition and organoleptic profile due to the transfer of oxygen, phenolic and aromatic compounds from oak to wine. While oxidation usually involves negative implications, the term ‘oxygenation’ suggests the liberation of oxygen and its contact with wine — a technique used in winemaking to improve colour, aroma and texture.

“Ten years ago you could taste the ‘plankiness’ in a wine and could identify that alternatives had been used. These days the sourcing has improved and the focus on the quality of the raw material has really progressed.”

Aerial spraying of vineyards Why you never say never!

By Liz Riley, Viticulturist, Vitibit Pty Ltd, Hunter Valley, New South Wales

Hunter Valley-based viticulturist Liz Riley was presented with the Outstanding Contribution of an Individual Award at this year’s annual Hunter Valley Legends Awards. The award acknowledged her voluntary efforts in coordinating the aerial spraying response in the region after flooding events in 2022 prevented ground spraying in many vineyards across the lower Hunter Valley. We asked Liz to recount her experience with coordinating the technique with a view to informing other growers and regions that may wish to consider it in the future.

When I moved to the Hunter in the early ‘90s I’d heard stories about aerial spraying of vineyards for disease control and I could never quite get my head around why you would do that mid to late season. I really couldn’t understand how you could get coverage and keep disease at bay. So I admit it, I dismissed it out of hand as a poor option for disease control, and didn’t ever give it another thought…until winter 2022.

Winter 2022 saw in excess of 300mm of rain fall in July with major flooding occurring across parts of the lower Hunter, resulting in many vineyards in Broke and parts of Pokolbin being fully submerged. While rainfall was modest in August and September the ground was waterlogged; there was significant debris present within vineyards and there were sites that were inherently unsafe to access. Ground spraying was not going to be an option for many of these sites with budburst rapidly approaching.

A few chats locally saw aerial spraying thrown up and, unlike the good old days, there was a need for this to be planned for and executed in a very careful way. There were several key considerations that came to mind: efficacy (it needed to be effective), legal (what and how we sprayed needed to be legal) and local stakeholders (we aren’t just an agricultural area anymore, we have cellar doors, accommodation, livestock farmers, organic farmers and others who needed to be