Future Leaders 2019 applications close next Friday!

Wine Australia is calling on the grape and wine community to share the word and ‘tap a friend on the shoulder’ for Future Leaders 2019. Applications are closing on 15 March 2019.

In a first for the program, this year’s Future Leaders will be strengthened by the experience of Australian agribusiness service provider Elders, which has become a sponsor of Future Leaders.

Liberating winemakers at the press

Dr Rocco Longo is on a quest to liberate sparkling winemakers from the laborious task of tasting juice at the press.

Recently announced as the recipient of the Wine Australia-supported Science and Innovation Awards 2019, Dr Longo is developing a device that uses spectroscopy to determine the concentration of phenolic compounds in the juice.

Counting down to Australia’s top mildew resistant vines 

Researchers are one step closer to discovering the nation’s top mildew resistant vines. After five seasons – and an original field of 1200 downy and powdery mildew resistant vines – a CSIRO team has narrowed the field to 20 red and 20 white berried ‘superior’ vines that are capable of fostering a range of wine styles and flavour and aroma profiles.

Now, a series of regional field trials will be conducted to evaluate these selections and determine the best performing vines under a range of Australian viticultural climate conditions.

Upgraded tool highlights solution to tricky rootstock selection

Wine Australia has released an upgraded Grapevine Rootstock Selector tool that will arm Australia’s winegrape growers with enhanced knowledge about the rootstocks that suit their individual vineyards.

The free Grapevine Rootstock Selector tool has refined the vineyard selection criteria and highlights phylloxera tolerance among the identified rootstocks to ensure that growers can better determine the rootstock that will best suit their vineyard.

New weather data: how the 2017–18 viticultural growing conditions compared with long-term averages

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, 2018 was the third hottest year on record for Australia, but how did Australia’s wine regions fare? 

Recently, our Market Bulletin looked at newly published climate and weather indices calculated specifically for each GI region to see how the 2017–18 viticultural growing conditions compared with long-term averages.

Playing birds at their own game

Playing birds at their own game in the vineyard – albeit with a hi-tech twist – is showing early promise for grapegrowers in regional New South Wales.

The NSW Regional Program has been trialling an innovative bird control method, using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that mimics bird behaviour across three separate wine-growing regions in NSW.

New phylloxera detection in Victorian Phylloxera Risk Zone

Vinehealth Australia and Australian Grape & Wine advise that phylloxera has been detected in a commercial vineyard located at St Andrews in a Phylloxera Risk Zone in the Yarra Valley.

In brief

• Wine Australia has launched ‘Market Explorer’ – an online, interactive tool for current and potential wine exporters, providing unprecedented access to export market data.

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• The 2019 ASVO Scholarship to attend the Advanced Wine Assessment Course (AWAC) administered by the AWRI is now open. The ASVO Scholarship is a nationally competitive scholarship that offers high-achieving individuals an opportunity to undertake professional development in wine assessment.

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• Wine Australia Senior Market Analyst Kirstin Hannan will present on the key wine trends in China at the upcoming China–Australia Wine Marketing Summit on 4 April in Sydney. 

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• On 22 March in Sydney, Wine Intelligence will be holding the workshop ‘The Evolution of Wine Drinkers in Australia and Beyond’ and will explore how wine drinkers are evolving and what will drive their wine behaviours in the future.

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• Registrations are now open for the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference to be held in Adelaide from 21–24 July.