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.

Key outputs from this project

Research Articles

Armstrong, C.E.J.; Previtali, P.; Boss, P.K.; Pagay, V.; Bramley, R.G.V.; Jeffery, D.W. (2023) Grape Heterogeneity Index: Assessment of Overall Grape Heterogeneity Using Aggregation of Multiple Indicators. Plants, 12, 1442, DOI 10.3390/plants12071442

Armstrong, C.E.J.; Niimi, J.; Boss, P.K.; Pagay, V.; Jeffery, D.W. (2023) Use of Machine Learning with Fused Spectral Data for Prediction of Product Sensory Characteristics: The Case of Grape to Wine. MDPI Foods, 12, 757, DOI 10.3390/foods12040757

CEJ Armstrong, AM Gilmore, PK Boss, V Pagay, DW Jeffery (2023) Machine Learning for Classifying and Predicting Grape Maturity Indices Using Absorbance and Fluorescence Spectra. Food Chemistry, 403, 134321,  DOI 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134321

CEJ Armstrong, R Ristic, PK Boss, V Pagay, DW Jeffery (2021) Effect of grape heterogeneity on wine chemical composition and sensory attributes for Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon. Australian Journal of Grape & Wine Research, 27 (2), 206-218, DOI 10.1111/ajgw.12469

Technical Note

What effect does grape maturity variability have on Cabernet Sauvignon wine chemical and sensory attributes? Read here.

Podcast

Managing grape maturity variability. Australian Society of Viticulture & Oenology podcast series Grower, Maker, Researcher – Wine Industry Insights, 30 May 2022. Listen here.

Industry partners