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2015 wine vintage research underway at DAFWA

The capacity of the Department of Agriculture and Food’s winemaking laboratory has been enhanced to facilitate new and increased winemaking research activities.

The wine laboratory at the department’s Bunbury office has been boosted with a new 80kg capacity press.

Department viticulture research officer Richard Fennessy said arrival of the new equipment was timely and provided significant processing efficiencies for the winemaking component of viticulture research activities.

“The department is contributing to two national research projects that require us to make 38 batches of wine from 1 600kg of fruit,” Fennessy said.

“Batch sizes range from 15kg to 50kg. Prior to the arrival of the new press we processed all grapes using a 15kg capacity press. It suited small volumes of fruit but caused bottlenecks when processing larger volumes.

“The new press will reduce the time it takes to process batches larger than 20kg, and increase productivity in the laboratory.”

Grape pressing is expected to be completed by about mid-April.

The department’s wine research activities contribute to nationwide projects on the genomic basis of clonal variation in Cabernet Sauvignon wine grapes and assessing clonal variability in Chardonnay and Shiraz for future climate change.

Fennessy said the viticulture team was also making wine for a new project examining the impact of different crop loads on Tempranillo wine quality from fruit grown in Margaret River.

Tempranillo is a Spanish red wine grape variety gaining popularity in Western Australia.

“The aim of the Tempranillo project is to determine whether cropping at 4t/ha, 6t/ha and 10t/ha influences wine character and quality,” he said.

“This project requires just 90kg of fruit to make into wine which, compared to our other projects, is hoped to make for an easy squeeze.”

The one-year Tempranillo project is funded from the Australian Grape and Wine Authority regional program co-ordinated by Wines of WA.

The department is making the wines in collaboration with a viticulture consultancy which is managing the project for Wines of WA.

All wines produced from the department’s 2015 vintage will undergo chemical and sensory analysis by industry experts.

Bottling is expected to occur in August and sensory assessments in November or December to allow the wine time to rest in the bottle before tasting.

Findings from all research will be shared at industry workshops.

 

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