Yeasts, enzymes, bacteria and oak for winemakers: easy search for products
Don’t get contaminated this vintage!
Australia’s fight against acetic acid boosted by Spanish ally
Predict potential loss of colour in your red wine as it ages
Boosting the Chardonnay aroma profile with nitrogen
Keeping your cool while making the most from every last drop
Attend our seminars without leaving your desk
Spicy win in Italy for AWRI scientist
Yeasts, enzymes, bacteria and oak for winemakers: easy search for products
Want to try a new yeast, enzyme, bacteria or oak product for your wine this vintage, and not sure where to find it? Check out the AWRI’s online searchable database of winemaking products.
It’s a simple search for products available to Australian winemakers. For example, enter ‘yeast’ and your search will return the details of over 220 products and their suppliers including contact details that match your search criteria.
There are a range of products you can search for, including yeast, enzymes, bacteria and oak products. Go to our website. This database was established in response to your feedback, so keep the suggestions coming as to how we can help your business further or how we can improve this service. Please forward your feedback to us.
Don’t get contaminated this vintage!
Vintage is the riskiest period where your wine can be tainted or contaminated. Keep your wines taint free this vintage by taking simple preventative measures and precautions now.
Most vintage contaminations are due to contact of wine with refrigerant brines from cooling systems and hydraulic oil from mechanical harvesters or grape bin tippers, usually via slow leaks or burst lines. The incidence of these contaminations can be reduced by performing pre-vintage inspections and maintenance of all hoses and clamps supplying brine and machinery oils.
Most vintage taints are due to aromatic hydrocarbons that originate from particular paints, or paint thinners, used on grape bins and other transport vessels. These taints can be avoided by using food grade, two pack epoxy paints and by avoiding the use of chlorinated rubber-based paints. It is imperative that the paint be properly cured and should ideally be left seven to 12 days before the painted object is used, depending on the product specifications.
Using tainted additives has also been a prominent cause of tainted wines. You may not be aware that suppliers are not necessarily bound to provide you with taint-free additives and processing aids (more information about this can be found here)
Better to be safe than sorry, so purchase and assess your additives now before vintage to ensure you’re ready for a taint-free year.
A more extensive discussion of vintage taints and contaminations, and how to avoid them, can be found in the February 2009 issue of Technical Review (#178, pages 22–27), which can be found here.
Australia’s fight against acetic acid boosted by Spanish ally
The pungent nail polish remover smell is bad enough in the beauty salon, but it’s a travesty in wine. Australia’s fight against this enemy in wine has received a boost from visiting scientist, Dr Estibaliz Mateo from Spain.
Spanish visiting scientist, Dr Estibaliz Mateo, has used her acetic acid bacteria (AAB) expertise to help identify the Australian vineyard and winery AAB isolates with the AWRI’s Dr Eveline Bartowsky and Jane McCarthy. Esti is a researcher at Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona Spain, and spent her sabbatical at the AWRI (May-September 2011). Using classical and molecular techniques, she has studied over 600 isolates from a survey of vineyards in the Adelaide Hills region and wine isolates in the AWRI Wine microorganism culture collection. About 80 different profiles have thus far been identified. This collaboration will continue to identify the AAB isolates to species and strain level and further characterise the isolates to better understand how they survive through winemaking.
Predict potential loss of colour in your red wine as it ages
If you haven’t yet joined the growing numbers of winemakers using the AWRI’s Tannin Portal, here’s another reason to get on board. You can now predict potential colour loss of your red wine as it ages.
We’ve expanded the functionality of the AWRI Tannin Portal. Winemakers can now gain an insight into issues surrounding colour stability in red wines and ferments, by allowing measurement of free anthocyanins and pigmented tannins. These two parameters are known to relate to stabilisation of colour as red wines age. By measurement at an early stage in the wine’s life, potential colour loss issues over time can be predicted.
The AWRI Tannin Portal is a web-based tool that can be used to predict levels of tannins, phenolics and pigments in red wines and ferments. Wine producers who subscribe to the Portal are able to generate data in real-time using their own UV-Vis spectrophotometer.
The Portal now contains over 6,000 wine samples incorporating a variety of vintages, varieties and regions from various countries. Users can apply these data to benchmark the levels of tannins, phenolics and colour in their own wines.
Click here for more information on the Portal, or please contact Neil Scrimgeour, Commercial Services (telephone 08 8313 0892).
Boosting the Chardonnay aroma profile with nitrogen
Is your Chardonnay juice a little lacking in lustre? We compared moderate and high additions of inorganic (diammonium phosphate) and organic (amino acid) nitrogen supplementation of Chardonnay grape juice and found the results ranged from improved aroma intensity with ‘fruity’ attributes through to undesirable ‘solvent’ notes. Find out how nitrogen management can be a valuable tool for the winemaker.
In the comparison of inorganic (diammonium phosphate) and organic (amino acid) nitrogen supplementation of (Chardonnay) grape juice, we showed that moderate additions increased both the aroma intensity and ‘fruity’ attributes whilst reducing ‘complex’ attributes.
However, high addition of inorganic, but not organic nitrogen, produced a ‘solvent’ or ‘estery’ taint.
Nitrogen management provides an important additional tool for modulating wine flavour and style.
(AWRI publication #1300 Curtin, C.D.; Bellon, J.R.; Bartowsky, E.J.; Henschke, P.A.; Chambers, P.J.; Herderich, M.J.; Pretorius, I.S. Harnessing AWRI’s yeast and bacterial research to shape ‘Next-Gen’ Chardonnay Part 2: Influence of yeast, nutritional management and malolactic fermentation. Wine & Viticulture Journal 26(2), 15-24.)
Keeping your cool while making the most from every last drop
Feeling a little hot under the collar while spending too much on keeping cool? Could you be responsible for the nasty neighbourhood pong? Maybe it’s time to invest in understanding your refrigeration and winery wastewater processes? The AWRI is now running practical, case study orientated one day workshops which explore wastewater management, water re-use and improving winery refrigeration.
The full day program will equip people from both small to large wineries with the skills and practical know-how to implement simple changes within their winery. Participants will be guided through the recently-released GWRDC winery wastewater management and recycling project publications: Business fundamentals, Operational Guidelines and Resource Kit, available online here.
Cleaner production opportunities, best practice treatment options, problem solving and water reuse will be discussed through a series of case studies delivered by the AWRI’s Karl Forsyth.
Refrigeration can be responsible for up to 70% of winery energy consumption. How to improve winery refrigeration efficiency will be explained through a series of selective case studies.
Preview content will be available through the AWRI’s free of charge webinar (online seminar) on 6 December. Register here now. To request a workshop for your region contact rtp@awri.com.au
Attend our seminars without leaving your desk
We know what it’s like – it is sometimes too hard to get away from work to keep up with the latest developments. Here’s a way to keep up to date and you don’t have to leave your desk – and the best news is that it is free!
A weekly seminar over the web (webinar) delivered to your desktop by the experts at the AWRI. The AWRI’s webinars cover a range of winemaking, winery management and viticulture topics. Each webinar consists of a presentation followed by an interactive Q&A session. Grab your coffee and get in front of your computer each Tuesday at 11:30 am (Australia Central Summer Time) to join in.
Topics include sustainability, minty flavours in red wines, terroir and cleaner production strategies covering water reuse and winery refrigeration efficiency. Our last webinar for the year will be held on 6 December. Register now.
Wines of France
You told us you want more educational classes about international wines – so we’ve turned to France! We’ve enlisted the help of two MWs and our Advanced Wine Assessment Course team have sourced 80 bottles of French wine not found in Australia. The first one-day course has been sold out, but there are still limited places available in Day 2.
- A comprehensive one day tasting experience to give you a valuable insight into the diverse regions and unique wine styles of France.
- Led by two Masters of Wine professionals.
- The tasting will include leading benchmarks, examples of wines from the lesser known appellations and wines that have never been seen before in Australia.
- This will be a unique session brought to you from the team that stages the AWRI’s Advanced Wine Assessment Course (AWAC).
- This program has been tailored to suit wine professionals with advanced tasting skills.
- In total, eighty wines will be presented blind and evaluated in a wineshow style format.
- Seats are limited so act quickly to secure your place.
Click here for more information.
Spicy win in Italy for AWRI scientist
The AWRI’s work on the spicy black pepper character in wine (rotondone), in collaboration with the University of Auckland, was presented recently at the viticulture conference GiESCO 2011 in Asti, Italy. AWRI Senior Scientist, Tracey Siebert, and the University of Auckland’s Gerard Logan were awarded the Italo Eynard Award for best paper.
Recent literature
John Fornachon Memorial Library at the AWRI delivers journal articles and loans books to Australian grapegrowers and winemakers. Books can be searched and requested via the Library catalogue – or you can email us with your request.
- To order AWRI staff publications and articles from Technical Review 194 please contact the Library
- Articles and books on specific topics can be searched for and ordered via the Library Catalogue
- To request a Literature search on a specific topic contact the Library via email or telephone (08) 8313 6600.
Recent AWRI staff publications
Blair, R. After the outbreak. WBM (August): 46-47; 2011.
Capone, D.L., Pardon, K.H., Cordente, A.G., Jeffery, D.W. Identification and quantification of 3-S-Cysteinylglycinehexan-1-ol (Cysgly-3-MH) in Sauvignon blanc grape juice by HPLC-MS/MS. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry. 59 (20): 11204-11210; 2011
Hayasaka, Y., Baldock, G., Parker, M., Herderich, M., Pretorius, I. Seeing through the haze: the discovery of chemical markers for smoke exposure. Wine & viticulture journal 26 (5): 26, 28-31; 2011.
Schmidt, S.A., Dillon, S., Kolouchova, R., Henschke, P.A., Borneman, A.R., Forgan, A., Chambers, P.J., Pretorius, I.S. Grape juice and wine yeast: happy marriages and how to avoid getting stuck with the wrong partner. Wine & viticulture journal 26 (5): 30-34; 2011
Robinson, E., Francis, L., Cozzolino, D. Cutting through the confusion around Pinot G. Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower & winemaker (567) : 48-52, 54; 2011.
Ugliano, M., Kwiatkowski, M., Capone, D., Siebert, T., Dieval, J-B., Aagaard, O., Waters, E.J., Vidal, S. [Effect of wine composition, oxygen exposure and closure-derived oxygen on Sauvignon blanc key sulphur aroma compounds.] Effet de la composition d’un vin, de l’exposition à l’oxygène et de l’oxygène issu du bouchage sur les composés aromatiques soufrés principaux d’un Sauvignon.
Disclaimer: The material contained in this publication is comment of a general nature only and is not and nor is it intended to be advice on any specific technical or professional matter. In that the effectiveness or accuracy of any technical or professional advice depends upon the particular circumstances of each case, neither the AWRI nor any individual author accepts any responsibility whatsoever for any acts or omissions resulting from reliance upon the content of any articles. Before acting on the basis of any material contained in this publication, we recommend that you consult appropriate technical/professional advisers.