Grape and wine composition
A major challenge for Australian wine producers is to actively meet the demands of consumer tastes in wine.
Technical innovation gives producers the capacity to tailor wines to match broad and changing preferences. This will be essential if Australian wine is to continue being highly competitive on the world market in the years ahead.
Wine quality is highly dependent on climate and this is the basis for the success of all the great wine regions of the world. It is likely that for any particular region, climate change and increased climate variability - encompassing changes in temperature, carbon dioxide levels, salinity and water availability - will significantly affect grape production, fruit quality and taste and style of wines.
A large body of past research conducted at the AWRI has enabled us to understand how some wine compounds contribute to characteristic aromas and flavours, texture and colour and also how they are formed, enhanced or degraded in wine. Nevertheless, many key compounds of wine, both desirable and undesirable, remain poorly explained or yet to be identified, and the factors affecting their concentration, as well as how they are perceived by consumers, are not well understood.
Knowledge of what components are responsible for particular sensory properties of wine, and the reasons for their variability, is crucial to generate practical methods for producers to manage these sensory characteristics.
Current AWRI research studies by interdisciplinary teams with skills in the biosciences, in chemistry, and in sensory and consumer science, are strongly addressing this question.
Further emphasis of the AWRI’s research will be on identification of compositional and sensory drivers of wine style which are linked to climate variability.