Managing berry heterogeneity

Background

Photo: D-T. Pham

Uneven ripening and variability in berry size and composition can be detrimental to wine quality. Growers of premium grapes seek to minimise such heterogeneity by selectively thinning slow-developing berries or by sorting postharvest, which are costly and time consuming. Ideally, uniformity would be achieved by vineyard manipulations during ripening. A scoping project in the current ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production points to the benefits of this approach: uniform berry size and composition (aromas, flavours, colour), delayed ripening to yield lower grape sugar (thus wine alcohol) content, and fewer losses due to ‘dropping’ or sorting fruit.

Objectives/aims

This project will define ways to decrease variability via grapevine cultural practices and to assess the effects of these practices on grape and wine composition and quality. Growers will get the best return from their blocks and consumers will see high quality and better value wines.

Industry partners