The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) has a helpdesk that responds to technical issues encountered by Australian grapegrowers and winemakers, identifies the root causes of problems and provides research-based, practical, up-to-date solutions.
Monitoring the technical trends encountered across the nation’s wine regions over the growing season is a useful way to identify when information or assistance is required, at either a regional or national level. Support is then provided via eBulletins, the AWRI website, webinars or face-to-face extension events.
During vintage 2021 (between 1 January and 1 May) the helpdesk received more than 400 enquiries and conducted 37 small-scale investigations to identify the underlying cause of technical issues reported by winemakers and growers.
The top five queries to the helpdesk concerned: 1. Winemaking practices (15 per cent) 2. Smoke (13 per cent) 3. Packaging, storage and transport (8.5 per cent) 4. Taints and contaminations (8 per cent); and 5. Microbiological faults (7 per cent).
In terms of ‘winemaking practices’ these calls related to wineries seeking information on practices including carbonic maceration, skin contact, water addition, fortification, sweetening, use of dried grapes in ferments, fining, aeration of red ferments and nutrient management and requirements of ferments.
Looking forward to vintage 2022, AWRI says that although the El Niño-Southern Oscillation system is currently neutral, a negative Indian Ocean Dipole has forecast warmer sea surface temperatures in the eastern Indian ocean and north of Australia. This is likely to lead to wetter-than-average conditions this winter and into spring for south-eastern Australia (BOM Climate Outlook July-September 2021).
To read the report in its entirety, please go to: https://www.awri.com.au/information_services/publications/wine-viti-journal-awri-reports/
To contact the helpdesk, please email: helpdesk@awri.com.au
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