The Australian Wine Research Institute

The AWRI celebrated two particular milestones during 2007/2008:

1. The publication of the AWRI’s 1,000 staff paper. Titled 'The prediction of total anthocyanin concentration in red-grape homogenates using visible-near-infrared spectroscopy and artificial neural networks' it is a reflection of how far grape and wine research has come in the past 53 years.
2. The AWRI held its 200th meeting of its Board of Directors on 6 May 2008. A function was held to celebrate this milestone.

Other highlights from the year include:

1. In a world first, the genome sequence of a wine yeast has been determined and compared to the genetic blueprints of other, non-wine, strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This analysis is leading to fresh and exciting insights into what makes a wine yeast tick, and will provide a powerful resource for wine yeast strain development programs.
2. A large consumer sensory study conducted in China evaluated preferences of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou consumers for Australian red wines. The results will provide the industry with direction regarding red wine sensory properties that drive liking for Chinese consumers, and give a foundation for increasing export sales to this expanding market.
3. Commercialised wine yeast strains that make less hydrogen sulfide. Non-GM strategies have been used during the past year to develop novel yeast strains with the ability to ferment robustly while producing minimal or undetectable quantities of hydrogen sulfide. Two of these strains have been commercialised under the names Maurivin Distinction® and Maurivin Platinum®, with the latter trialled in several wineries during the 2008 Australian vintage.
4. Research into the benefits of co-inoculation strategies has contributed to development of commercialised blended yeast products: Anchor Alchemy I® and Anchor Alchemy II®. Trials conducted during the 2007 vintage confirmed that wines resulting from co-inoculation are different, in chemical composition and sensorial attributes, from wines generated using single yeast strains or wines produced by post-fermentation blending. Consumer trials demonstrated a preference for 2007 Sauvignon Blanc that was made using co-inoculation, compared to the single strains by themselves.
5. Significant funding for a three year program of research on the role of oxygen in wine development was attracted from Nomacorc LLC. In addition to the financial benefit, the project also builds on and extends our international partnerships through being part of an international research program that includes UC Davis, Montpellier, Geisenheim and Universidad Católica de Chile.
6. The Thirteenth Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference was successfully held from 28 July to 2 August 2007. Many staff members contributed to all aspects of the conduct of this event. The Proceedings of the 13AWITC were edited, produced and distributed to delegates within six months of the event.
7. The AWRI-Microbial Metabolomics facility was established. The AWRI operates the South Australian node of Metabolomics Australia. Metabolomics Australia is a nationwide, government-funded facility established to enable the development of, and access to, state-of-the-art metabolomic analysis.
8. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) supplementation of low nitrogen red musts is routinely used to improve fermentability but effects on wine composition are poorly known. Studies on 26 yeast volatiles in Shiraz wines have shown that acetate esters and medium chain fatty acids, and their ethyl esters, increase whereas branched chain fatty acids, and their ethyl esters, together with higher alcohols decrease. These changes are likely to lift the fruity aroma of red wines as previously observed in white wines.
9. In addition to enabling Australian producers to measure tannin, we can now also provide information on what that tannin number ‘means’ within Australia. We have completed a comprehensive Australian grape and wine tannin survey and developed a database that now allows investigation of tannin concentration variations between regions, vintages and varieties. Furthermore, using allocation grading data from industry partners we have shown consistent positive correlations between red wine quality and wine tannin concentration, which proves that wine tannin can be used as one of the objective measures of quality in red wine.
10. Applications such as the analysis of total anthocyanins in grapes, using Vis-NIR spectroscopy, have been adopted by Australian wine producers. To complement the analysis of anthocyanins it is desirable to also analyse tannin, as the two combine in wine to form pigmented tannins, the stable form of wine colour. To this end, AWRI has succeeded in the development of rapid spectral methods using spectroscopy to predict tannin in wine.
11. Guaiacol glucoside was confirmed to be present as a component of the juice of grapes naturally (through bushfire) and experimentally exposed to smoke, and was found in substantially greater amounts in the smoked grape juice than in the control juice from grapes with no exposure to smoke.
12. We have shown that berry composition, wine composition and wine quality can be influenced by pruning treatments in the vineyard and that the smallest berries do not always produce the highest quality wines. The results of this work indicate that the relationships between berry size and composition, wine composition, sensory properties and quality are complex and must be examined in the context of vintage variability.
13. The ongoing targeted survey of Cabernet Sauvignon wines made in five major wine regions of Australia highlights a major success of Australia’s winemakers with regard to improved ‘Brett’ management. The likelihood of encountering a Cabernet Sauvignon wine with 4-ethylphenol concentration higher than the overall survey median value has decreased significantly over the past decade.
14. A survey of flavonols in Australian wines was also completed. As the first comprehensive study of this type it provided information on levels of flavonols in Australian wines but also highlighted several important aspects of flavonol analysis, including the fate of rutin in wine.
15. Development of a mathematical model describing the process of protein aggregation in collaboration with the School of Chemistry and Physics, Adelaide University. Having a greater knowledge of the process on a molecular level, such as the size and shape of the interacting protein aggregates, will help us to develop alternative solutions to the wine haze problem.
16. Screening of more than 200 commercially labeled white wines for protein stability. Only one wine failed this test. These data confirm that the vast majority of Australian commercial white and rose wines are protein stable. The wines screened included a subset of wines from companies that use the 80ºC for 2 hour test. All these wines were stable. This thus also confirms our data that fining according to the rates determined by 80ºC for 2 hours would most likely prevent haze in the bottle in practice.
17. The AWRI website was re-developed and new content added (including calculators for winemakers). The new website has more valuable information included and is easier to use.
18. A new on-line search platform was developed and launched, called the ‘AWRI Grape and Wine Search Portal’ – providing increased search capacity across a range of grape and wine-related websites.
19. Eight webcasts of AWRI presentations were made available on-line via the AWRI website.
20. Roadshow seminars and/or workshops, were staged in 8 grapegrowing regions in three states.
21. Communication and Information Services team members responded to 3,860 requests for information during 2007/2008. The Information Services were presented to new and existing customers through a stand at WineTech – the Australian Wine Industry Trade Exhibition (as part of the 13AWITC).
22. The Industry Services team responded to more than 1,450 calls for technical advice and information. The Viticulture team responded to 363 enquiries.
23. Eleven thousand copies of the AWRI annual publication, Agrochemicals registered for use in Australian viticulture 2007/2008 were produced and the booklet was made available from the AWRI website and distributed with the Annual Technical Issue of Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker. Six agrochemical updates were prepared for industry email subscribers.
24. The Viticulture team developed an ‘Online Search Facility for Agrochemicals’ which provides a searchable web-based format, delivering a more efficient way of retrieving agrochemical information currently available on the AWRI website.
25. Use by Australian grape and wine producers of the AWRI’s information database increased by 34% compared to last year. Australian grape and wine producers can access 56,336 records of the John Fornachon Memorial Library 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
26. The print collection of the John Fornachon Memorial Library was re-classified adopting a new and simplified classification reference system.
27. Fourteen part-time sensory panellists have been recruited and trained, resulting in greatly improved efficiency of collection of high quality sensory data.
28. AWR staff members gave 287 oral presentations and conducted 32 workshops and presented 103 posters.
29. AWRI staff members presented 31 lectures and coordinated the Grape Industry Practices, Policy and Communication six week subject to undergraduate students and the Aromaticity and pericyclic reactions course to Chemistry Honours students.
30. AWRI staff members supervised/co-supervised 21 postgraduate students.
31. AWRI staff members recorded and responded to 5,900 requests for information during the 2007/2008 year, or to put the statistics into perspective, 24 people contacted AWRI seeking information on every working day of the year (a 14% increase over last year). This figure does not include the amount of problem samples investigated (1,042) or the number of Analytical Service analyses undertaken (> 100,000) during 2007/2008.

Readers are strongly encouraged to read the 2008 Annual Report in detail rather than relying on the brief details above for information.