JANUARY 2024
Steel standing A stake in the future of vineyards
IT’S ONLY NATURAL
NON-SULFUR OPTIONS FOR WINEMAKERS
NET GAINS
BATTLING PEST BIRD DAMAGE 2024 ANNUAL THEME: STRATEGIC PLANNING | ISSUE THEME: FERMENTATION
contents January 2024
ISSUE 720
THE AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND GRAPEGROWER & WINEMAKER
JANUARY 2024
Steel standing
A stake in the future of vineyards
IT’S ONLY NATURAL
NON-SULFUR OPTIONS FOR WINEMAKERS
JANUARY 2024
NET GAINS
BATTLING PEST BIRD DAMAGE 2024 ANNUAL THEME: STRATEGIC PLANNING | ISSUE THEME: FERMENTATION
Cover: In the January issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker we muse over natural alternatives to sulfur, solutions to bird and weed pressures and how the wine industry can employ artificial intelligence. McLaren Vale winemaker Fabiano Minchella, pictured on the cover, tells us all about Dolce Naturale.
44
REGULARS
NEWS
5
9
5
What’s online
6
Winetitles insights
In this issue
13
International briefs
10
Wine Industry IMPACT Awards reward resilience
44
New Orange region bottling line for flat wine bottles
60
Ask the AWRI
11
76
Looking Back
12
76
77
Producer Profile: Ben Tombs Calendar
Marketplace classifieds
23
38
Top Adelaide Hills wines revealed
34 75
WINEMAKING
8
Australia wine ‘Nation of Show’ at Global Fine Wine Challenge 2023
Wine’s worst enemy: Carter combats ‘no safe limit’ claims
GRAPEGROWING 14
A love/grape relationship
22
Microbial makeup key to battling vine disease
18
23 28
Electric weed control: a new management option
Growers turn to alternative vineyard posts in the name of sustainability and durability
Ten years of hourly canopy temperature monitoring in cool climate vineyards of the Macedon Ranges
50 56
63
www.winetitles.com.au
Natural alternatives to sulfur Dolce Naturale Uncorked
Behind the Top Drops: Lowestoft La Maison Pinot Noir
WHO’s “blunt” tax increases not the answer, says AGW
New pallet wrap may prove a game changer in winery materials handling
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY 65
68 71
How to meet your legal positive duty obligations Intelligent design: AI’s potential breakthroughs for the wine industry
Tyrrell’s announces sustainability certification for Hunter Valley winery and vineyard
SALES & MARKETING 72
January 2024 – Issue 720
Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, a versatile tool to drive malolactic fermentation
Transolve Global unveils butting edge flexitank solutions
Grapegrower & Winemaker
3
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE WINE INDUSTRY SINCE 1963 Publisher and Chief Executive: Hartley Higgins
Hans Mick Editor
General Manager: Robyn Haworth Editor: Hans Mick h.mick@winetitles.com.au Associate Editor: Sonya Logan s.logan@winetitles.com.au Editorial Advisory Board Denis Gastin, Dr Steve Goodman, Dr Terry Lee, Paul van der Lee, Bob Campbell MW, Prof Dennis Taylor, Dr Mary Retallack and Corrina Wright Editorial: Meg Riley m.riley@winetitles.com.au Advertising Sales: Louise Reid sales@grapeandwine.com.au Production Sudapa Rattanonda Tim Coleman Creative Services Tim Coleman Circulation: subs@winetitles.com.au Winetitles Media ABN 85 085 551 980 630 Regency Road, Broadview, South Australia 5083 Phone: (08) 8369 9500 Fax: (08) 8369 9501 info@winetitles.com.au www.winetitles.com.au E @winetitlesmedia D @winetitles Q @winetitlesmedia C linkedin.com/company/winetitles-pty-ltd Printing by Lane Print Group, Adelaide ISSN 1446-8212 Printed on FSC Certified Paper, manufactured under the Environmental Management System ISO 14001, using vegetablebased inks from renewable resources. © Contents copyright Winetitles Media 2022 All Rights Reserved. Print Post Approved PP100004140 Articles published in this issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker may also appear in full or as extracts on our website. Subscription Prices Australia: 1 year (12 issues) $95.50 (inc. GST) 2 years (24 issues) $175.00 (inc. GST) New Zealand, Asia & Pacific: 1 year (12 issues) $133.50 (AUD) 2 years (24 issues) $255.00 (AUD) All other countries: 1 year (12 issues) $210.50 (AUD) 2 years (24 issues) $405.00 (AUD) Students (Aus only): 1 year (12 issues) $76.40 (inc. GST) Digital: 1 year $65.50
W
elcome to the first issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker for a new year!
2024 will hopefully bring greater certainty for the grape and wine sector and fewer pressures on those operating businesses within it. After the many challenges that have been piled on over these past couple of years, it would now be prudent to take a long, hard and careful look at where we’re situated and how best to traverse the economic landscape that lies ahead. For this reason, our annual theme for the next 12 months is Strategic Planning. This recognises the difficult business conditions that many may currently find themselves operating in. Crucially, it also provides a focus on uncovering options for successfully moving forward – at an industry, state, regional and individual business level. We know it’s hard out there, and so we’ll continue to present the industry’s best ideas, practices and solutions. In this January issue, we start doing that by visiting a number of solutions to address the damage to vineyard crops from pests such as birds and weeds. In particular we take a look at the relationship between troublesome avian nuisance, the silvereye, and marri tress in WA (page 14). Staying in the West, we also examine trials of new technology for electric weed control (page 18). We talk to growers about their choices of vineyard posts (page 23), and find out about temperature monitoring research in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges (page X28. For winemakers, we learn about the benefits of using Lactiplantibacillus plantarum for fermentation (page 38), and we present a report from Wine Business Monthly in the US on natural alternatives to sulfur additions (page 44). Speaking of natural winemaking, journalist Meg Riley talks to McLaren Vale producer Fabiano Minchella about his embrace of the traditional Italian wine known as Dolce Naturale (page 50). We’re also introduced to Lowestoft La Maison Pinot Noir for Behind the Top Drops (page 56). Meantime, HR consultant Ilga Horvat shares her expertise on the ‘positive duty obligations’ of wine businesses when it comes to workplace cultures (page 65), while Paul Le Lacheur gets theoretical about artificial intelligence and how this may be better understood and utilised by wine industry practitioners (page 68). There’s plenty more inside too, so enjoy the read!
E @winetitlesmedia @winetitles Q @winetitlesmedia C linkedin.com/company/winetitles-pty-ltd
EQDC Find us @winetitles
grapegrowing
Pest & Bird Control
A love/grape relationship Marri trees, silvereyes and grapegrowers By Meg Riley
M
arri trees are a revered fixture of the Western Australian bushland, renowned for their white summer blossom and large gum nuts. The gum nuts and seeds inside are popular with local parrots and cockatoos, whilst the sweet nectar from the marri blossom is adored by another bird: the silvereye. The tiny silvereyes make their homes in marri trees, benefiting from the 14
Grapegrower & Winemaker
protection of the dense canopy and the access to the tasty blossoms. Many viticulturists are also attracted to marri trees, looking to the tall gums as a signifier of fertile soil. “In Western Australia, since probably the first vineyards were planted in the mid 1800s, they identified the marri tree as the perfect indicator of a site’s potential www.winetitles.com.au
for viticulture,” explained Robert Mann, winemaker and founder of Corymbia in WA. “Where the tree grew tall and strong meant enough fertility but also enough drainage: marris don’t like wet feet, so they won’t grow in any waterlogged or sandy soil, they grow typically in gravelly, loamy soil.” January 2024 – Issue 720
grapegrowing
The electric weed control machine being used in DPIRD’s viticultural trials: The XPower with XPS applicator, powered by Zasso™. The weed control treatments were applied at budburst (mid-September).
Pest & Bird Control
Innovation
A
Electric weed control: a new weed management option Australian-first trials of a device that uses electricity to kill weeds are yielding promising results, particularly for combating herbicide-resistant weeds.
project being undertaken in Western Australia and now in its second year aims to assist growers and community land managers develop sustainable, non-chemical weed control solutions. The WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) is leading the project in association with AGXTEND, a brand of CNH Industrial, testing the XPower machine, powered by Zasso™, under Australian conditions.
18
Grapegrower & Winemaker
The project also has investment from Wine Australia, the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation with in-kind support from AHA Viticulture and the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA). DPIRD research scientist Miranda Slaven said the technology was already used in Europe, with the project team seeking to prove its use for the Australian environment. www.winetitles.com.au
“Last year’s [2022] trials have shown that electric weed control is effective when used at the right application speeds and under the right environmental conditions,” Slaven said. “In the 2022 trials, effective control was achieved for annual ryegrass, kikuyu, wild radish, capeweed, soursob and medic at application speeds of one to four kilometres per hour. “The trials found that broadleaf weeds are easier to control than grass weeds due to differences in plant structure. January 2024 – Issue 720
winemaking
Behind the Top Drops
Lowestoft La Maison Pinot Noir
It was just a couple of issues ago that we featured the Evans & Tate Redbrook Estate Shiraz in this column after it took out the Max Schubert Trophy for Most Outstanding Red Wine of Show at the 2023 Royal Adelaide Wine Show. Another wine brand in the Fogarty Wine Group portfolio has since taken out another major gong, this time the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for Best Young Red at Melbourne Royal Wine Awards for its Lowestoft 2022 La Maison Pinot Noir from Tasmania. This is just the third time a Pinot Noir has claimed the trophy in the 60 years it has been awarded following the wins of Home Hill Winery in 2015 and Yabby Lake Winery in 2013, so Sonya Logan asked Lowestoft’s chief winemaker Liam McElhinney to explain what makes this one so special. Before we get into the ins and outs of the Lowestoft La Maison Pinot Noir, briefly tell us the Lowestoft story and the part that the Fogarty Wine Group has played:
Lowestoft was built circa 1850 on land acquired by Thomas Lowes in 1830. Lowes was one of the first to plant vines
in or near Hobart and in 1848 won first prize at the Hobart Horticultural Society Show for two wines he produced near Lowestoft. In the late 1800s most of the vines in Tasmania were pulled out as conditions were considered too cold for winegrape production and vineyard workers left Tasmania for the Victorian
gold rush. In1986 the then owner of Lowestoft, Bernard McKay, was asked to plant vines and supply fruit to Alcorso’s Moorilla Winery, located on the current Mona site, opposite Lowestoft. The 3 hectare site was planted to 100% Pinot Noir sourced from Moorilla cuttings. When Moorilla was sold, viticulturist
The Lowestoft Vineyard is planted to 100% Pinot Noir and sits on the banks of the lower Derwent River, just outside of Hobart, with a plant density of just over 8000 vines per hectare.
56
Grapegrower & Winemaker
www.winetitles.com.au
January 2024 – Issue 720
business & technology
IT & Technology
Innovation
I
Intelligent design: AI’s potential breakthroughs for the wine industry Winemaker and writer Paul Le Lacheur recently attended an industry conference in Adelaide which raised issues related to artificial intelligence and how this may lead to benefits for the wine sector. Here, he leaves his comfort zone to try to get his head around this revolutionary technology and what it may mean for wine professionals.
t seems inevitable that every time we grapple with understanding the latest grape and wine sector technology innovations offered from the artificial intelligence universe, we become more overwhelmed with the sheer breadth and depth of innovations currently available, and how adoptable they may be in the immediate future. A recent conference, held in lateSeptember in Adelaide, heard from experts in both the AI and legal fields. Titled ‘The Taste of Tomorrow employment innovation and inclusion’, the audience heard quality input from various knowledgeable stakeholders that included the South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA), corporate and commercial lawyers Finlaysons, the SA Department of Education and Prof Javen Shi, from the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) at The University of Adelaide. Among the subjects under discussion were related to legal and HR obligations of wine businesses, while some attention was given to one specific topic of interest: breakthroughs in AI. In many cases, although the related technologies have already been trialled, tested and immediately adopted, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are not sprinting to take them up in droves. Larger companies with the appropriate economies of scale are the real early adopters. In terms of their potential benefits, I asked Prof Shi to talk in context, and in greater depth, about what the brave new world of AI may have install for us wine industry types. ChatGPT was first cab off the rank. This is best described as a conversational AI model which is trained to make
68
Grapegrower & Winemaker
it possible for the system to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests. Using reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), the model learns from previous interactions and data sets.
learn over time, becoming more intelligent than its human counterpart? The answer was a resounding ‘yes’! “Machines will become smarter than humans. Just because a machine has become more intelligent than its human
“ChatGPT is the platform which seems to perform best, especially the latest fourth version (GPT4),” explained Prof Shi. “You can ask it to answer your questions, even to program […] The questions you ask of it are called prompt engineering, and the resultant ‘trace questions’ and ‘trace of thought’ form a ‘chain of thought’ which amounts to the reasoning for answers. “The prompts are in the form of natural language, making the interface easier”. Professor Shi went on to explain that ChatGPT – like all AI – has proven to be an excellent knowledge advisor, seamlessly engaging in natural conversations with humans. “ChatGPT is part of a big family called generative AI. Another generative AI model such as stable diffusion allows users to produce incredibly realistic images from texts,” he explained. The next issue in my long conversation with Prof Shi was about the sources of funding for AI research. “Funding should come from both government and industry,” he said. “In Australia, there’s a lack of government funding, but [AI] doesn’t require a huge investment. However, the government view of funding is changing in a positive way and it is changing the way industry funds AI too” he enthused. I couldn’t resist the urge to ask Prof Shi the one perennial question everyone wants to ask an AI expert, but never gets the chance to do so – i.e. can a machine
www.winetitles.com.au
January 2024 – Issue 720