The Australian Wine Research Institute

The Australian Wine Research Institute announced recently the appointment of highly respected scientist, Professor Isak (Sakkie) Pretorius to the position of Director of Research effective from February 2003.

In making the announcement, the Director of the Institute, Professor Peter Høj said, “It is a significant coup for the Australian wine industry and indeed for Australian science that we have secured the services of Sakkie Pretorius. He has a world-wide reputation for his scientific ability and his research management and it is an added bonus that he is already well known by many senior industry technicians, who support this appointment.”

The Chairman of the Institute, Robin Day, was ebullient in his praise of Dr Pretorius, “For the past seven years, Sakkie has been Director of the Institute for Wine Biotechnology; Professor in Microbiology, Department of Microbiology and the Professor in Wine Biotechnology, Department of Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch University, and he has published 100 articles in refereed journals and delivered more than 360 lectures at conferences and research seminars. We are confident that the brain-power that Sakkie will bring to Australia will complement the excellent team at the Institute that are already applying themselves to strategic and applied research of benefit to the Australian wine industry.” he said, “With Sakkie’s appointment, The Australian Wine Research Institute is strategically well positioned with a formidable team to tackle industry’s research needs into the future.”

Dr Sakkie Pretorius holds a BSc(Agric)(Hons), MSc(Agric) and PhD from the University of the Orange Free State (South Africa) and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York). His research focus has been on genetic improvement of industrially important yeast strains (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and grapevine cultivars and his teaching centred on molecular biology and genetics of yeasts/recombinant DNA techniques; applied wine microbiology and wine biotechnology.

His membership on professional societies and committees during the past five years include:

• elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and The Academy of Science of South Africa;
• Vice-president of the Expert Group for Wine Microbiology of the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV);
• Member of the Executive Council and Management Committee of the Wine Network of Expertise and Technology (Winetech) and Chairman of the Training Committee;
• Representative of South Africa on the International Commission for Yeasts (ICY) and on the Finance and Policy Committee of the International Commission for Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology (IYGMB);
• Member of the Board of Directors of KWV South Africa (Pty.) Ltd. and the Board of Directors of the South African Wine Industry Trust’s business support company, known as Busco;
• Member of the Western Cape Biotech Strategy Committee and Commercialisation Committee of the Cape Biotech Initiative (CBI);
• Member of the Advisory Panel of the Research Board of the Deciduous Fruit Producers’ Trust that is responsible for the planning of strategic research for the South African fruit industry;
• Member of the Editorial Board of scientific journals (American Journal of Enology and Viticulture; Annals of Microbiology; Applied & Environmental Microbiology; FEMS Yeast Research; South African Journal of Enology and Viticulture; Yeast)

Professor Pretorius will commence at the Institute in January 2003.

In a world first, experts from the Australian wine industry and doctors at Melbourne’s Alfred hospital and Monash University supported by a grant from the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation are joining forces to investigate whether wines can cause allergies.

The study will involve both clinical and laboratory trials, and will be used by the wine industry in making decisions regarding the labelling of Australian wines.

New regulations to be introduced soon in Australia and eventually in Europe will require mandatory declaration on labels of wines, when substances that might provoke allergic reactions have been used in production.

The Australian Wine Research Institute Information Manager Creina Stockley said the Australian wine industry had chosen to carry out the study so it could fully understand the implications of the regulations, and because it had a duty of care to consumers to ensure wines were completely safe.

Ms Stockley said a number of naturally occurring substances are traditionally used in the production of wines around the world, including in Australia. These substances include egg, milk and fish proteins.

“The substances are added to wine during production to remove any excess of polyphenolic compounds and tannins (the fining process). We know that virtually none of the substances are left in the wine. However we need to be sure that if there are any traces left, they will not have a negative effect for consumers.

“We believe it is better to take a proactive approach by fully investigating this issue, rather than simply reacting to changes in regulations.”

Alfred / Monash Allergy Professor Robyn O’Hehir said while she did not believe these additives caused any allergies it was important to investigate properly so consumers could be certain of the effects of drinking wines.

“The good news is that in my 20 years as a Consultant Allergist I have never seen a patient with a true allergy to wine.

“However we know there are many people who have allergies to foods like eggs or fish and we feel its important to research properly so we can be sure there are no adverse effects to drinking wines.”

Prof. O’Hehir said the study would include extremely sensitive laboratory and clinical tests to see whether traces of milk, egg, nut or fish products in wines could affect consumers.

The laboratory component will examine the make-up of 100 different Australian wines to determine whether they contain traces of allergy inducing substances, and if so, exactly how much.

The clinical component will involve testing whether participants have allergic reactions to various wines, both through skin tests and through drinking the wines. Participants will include a group of patients who are known to be highly allergic to various substances as well as a group who do not have allergies.

“This is a very good example of an industry behaving responsibly and using independent hospital and university resources to make sure there are no allergy problems for those consumers drinking its products,” Prof. O’Hehir said.

Ms Stockley said the Australian wine industry was one of the most tightly regulated in the world in terms of the types and quantities of processing aids used in winemaking.

“Our industry follows world’s best practice in wine production, and we are leading the world in research into this issue.”

Wine Production – What is fining?

Fining is a traditional part of wine production where some tannins, for example, are removed from wine by adding a small amount of protein, such as egg white, to the wine.

These proteins bind with tannins making them sink to the bottom of the storage vessel and settle where they can be easily removed. When following best practice, virtually none of the protein is left in the wine.

A number of naturally occurring proteins have traditionally been used as fining agents in the production of wines and are still used today. These proteins include egg, milk and fish substances.

Fining generally takes place in the latter stages of winemaking.

Recently NuKorc has published a press release under the heading “AWRI Trial – NuKorc Continues to Perform Well”. That press release is not an AWRI press release. The AWRI has nothing to do with that press release.

That press release attaches a copy of an update on an AWRI trial of the technical performance of various types of wine bottle closures which appeared in The Australian Wine Research Institute Technical Review No. 139 of August 2002. That update was authorised for publication by the AWRI, and correctly bears at the end the name of Peter Godden Winemaker – Manager Industry Services at AWRI.

However, the text on the first page of the NuKorc press release, which precedes the attached copy of the update, has not been written, authorised or approved by AWRI in any manner whatsoever. AWRI does not accept any responsibility for any statements made in it.

The words “Peter Godden Winemaker – Manager Industries Services” appear (without approval from AWRI or Peter Godden) at the bottom of the first page of the press release. Because of this, AWRI is concerned that readers might form the view that not only the attached update, but also the text on the first page of the press release, was produced or endorsed by Peter Godden and AWRI.

Accordingly, AWRI has considered it necessary to issue this press release to clarify that neither it, nor Peter Godden personally, had any involvement whatsoever with the production of the text on the first page of the NuKorc press release, and that the statements made therein must not be regarded as having been made by or authorised by AWRI or Peter Godden.

AWRI is an independent industry body, which does not provide endorsements for commercial products, and wishes to make it absolutely clear it has not done so in this case.

On 6 November 2001, the Chairman of The Australian Wine Research Institute, Mr Doug McWilliam, retired from the position as Chairman, and will retire as a member of the Council of the Institute on 31 December 2001. Mr McWilliam had been a valued member of Council since 1987, and had a distinguished tenure as Chairman from 1 January 1992. “The Institute and its staff are at the front line of Oenological research and my position as chairman has provided me a wonderful opportunity to be both involved and to try to give back something to an industry which has been so generous to me personally”, said Mr McWilliam. “It has been a very satisfying experience to see the Institute grow, as it has over the past 10 years, in both size and service to our industry. The great interest in our technical conferences is ample testimony to the Institute’s success”.

The Council of the Institute appointed Mr Robin Day to the position of Chairman of the Institute. Mr Day, who has been a member of Council since 1987 has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Adelaide), and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Wine Science) (Charles Sturt). He is the International Wine Development Director for Pernod Ricard, and runs an international winemaking consulting business, Domain Day Consulting. Mr Day is a board member of the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation and the National Wine Centre, Chairman of the Corporation’s Compliance Committee, a national and international wine show judge, and has 27 years of production and R&D experience in the Australian wine industry.

“As the new Council Chairman, I am looking forward to working with the members of the Institute’s Council to enhance research and development outputs from the Institute to the benefit to the Australian wine industry”, said Mr Day “The Australian wine industry currently receives excellent ‘bang for its buck’ and I know that this will continue at the Institute, however, the Institute will seek further resources to place even greater emphasis on outputs on the ‘D’ side of the R&D equation in the future. It will also continue to provide value to the Australian wine industry with its pro-active problem-solving technical service to Australian winemakers and continually find innovative ways for information dissemination.”

The Wine Industry Capability and Research Effort To Be Boosted By The Award of A Major Grant Under The Federal Government’s Major National Research Facilities Program.

The Federal Minister for Industry Science and Resources, the Honorable Nick Minchin today announced the successful applicants under the Federal Government’s Major National Research Facilities program.

A bid for a ‘National Wine Research Cluster’ spearheaded by the Adelaide – based Australian Wine Research Institute and CSIRO Plant Industry was amongst the successful proposals.

The Commonwealth Government will contribute $4.5 million to the bid and the South Australian Government $700,000 dollars.

An additional $2.5 million cash is contributed by the partners in the bid, namely The Australian Wine Research Institute, CSIRO, The South Australian Research and Development Institute, The University of Adelaide and the Grape and Wine R&D corporation and Charles Sturt University. The Cooperative Research Centre for Viticulture will contribute in-kind support as will all other partners.

This facility will strengthen the national capacity to perform grape and wine research in support of our rapidly expanding wine industry. There is funding for both building expansions and purchase of state of the art analytical, fermentation and harvesting equipment.

“The availability of such new infrastructure is crucial and will secure better returns on public and private funding in industry focussed research.” said Mr Robin Day, a Director of Orlando-Wyndham and a member of the bid team.

“It will deliver knowledge, recommendations and services which allow wine industry practitioners to manage vineyards and wineries to specified market requirements with consequent growth in exports and employment (direct and indirect), largely in regional Australia” said Professor Peter Høj, Director of The Australian Wine Research Institute.

“This facility makes the Australian wine industry’s commitment to a knowledge-based approach to wine manufacturing even more powerful and will accelerate the application of research outcomes to key constituents of the final product” said Dr Nigel Scott, Deputy Chief of CSIRO Plant Industry