JULY 2022
V22
A ‘HIGHLY REGARDED’ VINTAGE
TREATED TIMBER POSTS A THORNY ISSUE FOR GROWERS
IS CARBON CAPTURE FROM FERMENTATION OVER-INFLATED? 2022 ANNUAL THEME: SUSTAINABILITY | ISSUE THEME: VINTAGE REPORT
contents JULY 2022
ISSUE 702
JULY 2022
V22
A ‘HIGHLY REGARDED’ VINTAGE
TREATED TIMBER POSTS A THORNY ISSUE FOR GROWERS
IS CARBON CAPTURE FROM FERMENTATION OVER-INFLATED? 2022 ANNUAL THEME: SUSTAINABILITY | ISSUE THEME: VINTAGE REPORT
Cover: The July 2022 edition of Grapegrower & Winemaker explores the ins and outs of the 2022 vintge in warm climate regions. The cover image shows vintage in Hunter Valley. Photo courtesy of Elfes Images. elfesimages.com
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REGULARS 8
What’s online
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In this issue
International briefs
Ask the AWRI
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106 Producer Profile: Elena Brookes
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107 Calendar
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107 Looking Back
108 Marketplace Classifieds
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NEWS
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Winners from Australia’s first Zero Alcohol Wine Show announced Eco-bottle targets wine industry’s carbon hotspot
Wine Australia strengthens focus on sector’s sustainability Introducing Affinity Labs – a new identity for the AWRI’s commercial activities
Treasury Wine Estates switches to solar
SPECIAL FEATURE: 2022 VINTAGE REPORT PART 1 19
2022 Vintage Report – warm climate regions
GRAPEGROWING 40
43 50 52
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FEATURE Disposing of treated timber posts A technique with growing potential Exploring the advantages of sap flow pruning
WINEMAKING 73
Australian technology transforming viticulture through 5G
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Tasmania cheers for 60 pioneering years
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FEATURE The cold facts about managing vineyard frost
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Grüner Veltliner Uncorked
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Over-inflated? Are Australian wine producers keen to capture carbon from fermentation? FEATURE Added benefits Oenological management strategies for nitrogen Exploring the total cost of tank automation systems
Behind the Top Drops: Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old Para Vintage Tawny Young Gun Peta Kotz
July 2022 – Issue 702
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY 94
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FEATURE The industry’s worker shortage of Vintage 2022
Rising production costs and impacts of war a concern for producers
Hans Mick Editor
40 SALES & MARKETING 97
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FEATURE Aussie icon wines feature on Japan e-commerce page How much will preferential tariff entry into India boost Australia’s wine exports?
102 FEATURE Real gains to be made from innovating brand strategies
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As we present Part 1 of our annual Vintage Report, we’re reminded of the ups and downs of the sector at present. While many of the warmer regions have reported some excellent results for fruit this season, producers have also acknowledged the challenges they’ve had to overcome: from adverse weather events to a lack of seasonal workers to unsustainable grape prices. Despite this though, many regions say Vintage ’22 will go down as ‘highly regarded’ and we look forward to discovering the wines to emerge from this year. Read our regional vintage reports from page 20. Speaking of challenges for the winegrowing sector, we also look at the thorny issue of disposing of treated timber posts as industry addresses related health and environmental concerns (page 40). Writer Simon Madden-Grey explores the benefits of sap flow pruning (page 43), while journalist Harrison Davies examines the ‘cold facts’ about managing vineyard frost (page 52). Mark Smith writes about a significant milestone in Tasmania – 60 years of production at Moorilla, regarded as a ‘jewel’ in the island state’s ‘wine crown’ (page 56). For
our Uncorked column, we profile an ‘Austrian in Australia’, Grüner Veltliner (page 62). Heading into the winery, journalist Sonya Logan speaks to producers to find out if there’s an interest in capturing carbon from fermentation (page 73). We learn about management strategies for nitrogen (page 79) and we delve into the potential of tank automation systems to provide cost savings and greater efficiencies (page 81). For Behind the Top Drops we find out the story of Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old Para Vintage Tawny (page 86), and we also meet this month’s Young Gun, the Hunter Valley’s Peta Kotz (page 90). One of the challenges thrown up during V22 was an inability to secure seasonal picking staff and we find out how producers dealt with this widespread problem (page 94). We also learn about how much Australian wine’s preferential tariff entry into India will boost exports (page 98). There’s plenty more inside – enjoy the read!
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news
what’s ONLINE Pernod Ricard’s NZ sustainability roadmap Tracey Marshall can frequently be found in cross-globe video calls, discussing the carbon, circularity, waste and wellbeing targets of Pernod Ricard’s 2030 Sustainability and Responsibility Road Map. But her favourite topic of conversation is far closer to home, amid Marlborough’s flourishing Kaituna wetland, where 13 years of planting and pest work are rewarded with an abundance of trees, raupō, birds and insects. Source New Zealand Winegrower
Aussie wine heading to India as China tariffs hurt winemakers Winemakers are feeling the pinch of supply chain pressures 15 months after China introduced tariffs on their products, an industry leader has revealed. China, Australia’s top wine export market, placed tariffs of 116-218 percent on bottled Australian wine imports in March last year. Mitchell Taylor, the managing director of South Australian-based winery Taylors, said the industry was blindsided by the move. Source: 9 News
Villa Maria parent company receivers seeking NZ$5m for court fees Lawyers for New Zealand wine-making pioneer Sir George Fistonich argue the demand to retain NZ$5 million is “very unusual”. The receivers of the Villa Maria wine empire are seeking to retain NZ$5 million from the receivership proceeds to fund their legal defence against claims brought by the wine business’s former owner. Source: Newsroom
In this issue
“Viticulture here is challenging. Our soils are pretty diverse. We have four metres and more of deep, silty clay. But there’s also risen siltstone bedrock on only a few centimetres of sand. Those growing conditions not only bring massive differences in vine size, vigour and fruit composition, they result in significant yield differences.” - Conor van der Reest, p. 60 “It appears to be suitable to replace part of the inert gas usage in wine transfer and ullage management with minimal filtration. However, we need more information on the level of filtration required for it to be used for sparging and carbonation purposes.” - Mark Davidson, p. 75 It was a long slow ripening period for McLaren Vale, so those vintages always work smoothly as there isn’t any rush for picking that happens in heat wave years. This was probably lucky that it was a cooler ripening period given the lack handpicking labour access. Our vineyard crew was similar to usual as we were able to spread out the machine picking and didn’t need to do so much night work to avoid the heat of the day given the cooler conditions.” - Corrina Wright, p. 96 India has a whopping 150% tariff on all wine imports, but has agreed to reduce that on Australian bottled wine from the outset of this agreement coming into force. The tariff will be immediately lowered to 100% for bottles in the US$5 to $15 range and to 75% for bottles above US$15. - Kym Anderson and Glyn Wittwer, p. 100
Daily Wine News is a snapshot of wine business, research and marketing content gleaned from local and international wine media sources, with a focus on Australian news and content.
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July 2022 – Issue 702
grapegrowing
Tasmania cheers for 60 pioneering years
Picturesque riverbank setting of Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). Photo: Image credit: MONA/Jesse Hunniford
From its early humble beginnings, Moorilla is today regarded as a ‘jewel in Tasmania’s wine crown’. It’s been six decades since the first wines were produced from the site overlooking the Derwent River. That milestone was recently celebrated, as Mark Smith writes.
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f you hadn’t heard of Tasmania’s David Walsh before January 2011, the opening of his Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) at Berriedale on the outskirts of Hobart is bound to have grabbed your attention. The professional gambler and art collector received countless plaudits for the way in which he changed how Australians looked at art and indeed Tasmania itself. The curation of his vast collection of antiquities, books and contemporary artworks was — and remains — innovative and unconventional. Decades earlier, the 9ha site overlooking the River Derwent witnessed an act of creative expression that was similarly innovative and unconventional — the foot stomping of six cases of homegrown winegrapes.
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Italian immigrant Claudio Alcorso and his three-year-old daughter Caroline had bared their feet to make a little wine for family and friends. It turns out their tiny batch of 1962 vintage Riesling also made
As a child, I walked past many times. Had I entered, I would have encountered Claudio’s earliest vintages. When the family company foundered, I bought Moorilla on a whim in 1995. David Walsh www.winetitles.com.au
history. Today, Alcorso and his beloved Moorilla are regarded as Tasmanian wine pioneers. Back in mid-April, Walsh marked 60 years of Moorilla winemaking with a day of celebration on the busy property, 10km north of Hobart. Before COVID-19, MONA had been welcoming 360,000¹visitors annually. (Tasmania’s population is 519,000²). Guests come to experience Australia’s largest private museum. Many enjoy on-site food, wine, entertainment and luxury accommodation. Moorilla’s 2ha vineyard is home to a modern winery that deals with the practicalities of processing fruit for still and sparkling wine production. July 2022 – Issue 702
winemaking
Sustainability
Over-inflated?
Are Australian wine producers keen to capture carbon from fermentation?
Winery operations manager for Taylors Wines, Clinton Taylor.
Although carbon dioxide emissions from fermentation are currently excluded from carbon calculators for the wine industry, this hasn’t stopped experimentation in capturing and sequestering such emissions. As previously reported in the Grapegrower & Winemaker, one such winery to experiment in this area is Spanish-based Familia Torres which announced late last year it had designed a system to capture and reuse the CO₂ from fermentation tanks at its Pacs del Penedès winery. Sonya Logan spoke with four Australian wineries to gauge their current and future interest in such systems as they seek to improve on their environmental performance.
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here are two schools of thought when it comes to the question of what to do about carbon emissions from fermentation. One is nothing given that the CO₂ is captured from the
July – Issue 702
atmosphere by vines so its impact on the overall production of wine is net zero; hence, fermentation emissions are currently not included in carbon calculators for wine. The other view www.winetitles.com.au
is that CO₂ emissions are not trivial – UC Davis professor Roger Boulton has described them as being five times more concentrated than planes and cars – and should be sequestered by wineries. Grapegrower & Winemaker
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