Highlights of the Year 1999
- The Industry Services of the Institute coordinated and
initiated one of its most comprehensive projects ever – the
‘closure trial’. This trial will examine the
technical performance of thirteen different wine closures,
including four cork or cork-based products, eight synthetic
closures and a screw-cap, for up to ten years. The research will
assist to define relevant performance specifications and test for
different closure types.
- Expanded sensory evaluation confirms a good correlation
between grape glycosyl-glucose content and resultant wine flavour
intensity.
- The practical impermeability of wine corks in bottles to
externally applied TCA has been demonstrated.
- Demonstration of the ease and rapidity with which stored wine
corks can absorb airborne TCA.
- Laboratory experiments and an industry trial have shown that
ascorbic acid addition to white wine at bottling can accelerate
browning during medium to long term bottle storage, and can
diminish the anti-browning effects of sulphur dioxide.
- Trials show that ‘stuck’ red ferments can be
restarted in the presence of relatively high acetic acid
concentrations up to 2g/l.
- Institute staff co-authored 30 publications; gave 52
seminars/talks (plus the Roadshow seminars); presented 49
posters; conducted 10 workshops; gave 29 lectures and supervised
17 students during the year.
- Collaboration with BRL Hardy confirms the enormous potential
for Near Infrared Spectroscopy for rapid measurement of grape
quality parameters such as colour and glycosyl glucose.
- A very extensive Roadshow was conducted, when six senior
staff spent a period of six days visiting the Swan Valley,
Margaret River, Albany and Pemberton in Western Australia.
- The Analytical Service launched three sophisticated new
quantitative commercial analyses: Oak flavour analysis,
TCA analysis and Ethyl carbamate analysis.
- The tenth and eleventh Advanced Wine Assessment Courses were
held in September and December, with another sixty experienced
wine industry personnel further developing and assessing their
sensory evaluation skills.
- An application for a new Cooperative Research Centre for
Viticulture in which the Institute is a partner was
successful.
- The Institute and ASVO, through its partnership in AWITC,
staged the Tenth Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference in
Sydney during August 1998, which proved to be the largest
Technical Conference held. Some 1391 delegates attended, 56
speakers gave the formal presentations (nine from overseas) and
there were 59 poster break out speakers, with over 130 poster
presentations and over 100 exhibitors featured at the Trade
Exhibition.
- Institute staff gave eight invited formal presentations, 12
poster break out presentations and 47 posters at the Tenth
Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference.
- At the Tenth Australian Wine Industry
Technical Conference, the GWRDC sponsored awards for the
‘best’ posters. Institute staff co-authored three of
the five posters selected from over 130 posters for awards:
- Group of ‘Fermentation and
Yeast Molecular Biology’ posters presented by the Institute
with Dr Miguel de Barros Lopes and Dr Paul Henschke as
co-authors;
- Group of posters covering the
‘Tannin project’ in collaboration with staff from The
University of Adelaide; and
- Analysis of oak lactone in wine by stable isotope dilution
analysis authored by Alan Pollnitz, Dr Graham Jones (from The
University of Adelaide) and Dr Mark Sefton.
- The Institute’s popular ‘Agrochemicals
Grid’ was launched in August 1998 as a comprehensive
website with information on international MRLs regularly updated
(www.waite.adelaide.edu.au/AWRI/).
- Dr Mark Sefton accepted the Wine Industry Innovation and
Achievement Award for 1998 for his work involving ‘cork
taint’.
- The Director, Peter Høj, accepted the invitation to be a
member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and
Innovation Council.
- Institute staff hosted 164 international visitors during the
year from countries such as Argentina, Chile, China, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, South Africa, United Kingdom and
United State of America.
- Construction of the Institute’s new eastern pavilion,
measuring ca 576 m2, commenced at the end of February
1999. It is anticipated that works will conclude at the end
August 1999.
