The Autumn issue of Australia’s Wine & Viticulture Journal is available now online to subscribers.

Before being overshadowed by the unparalleled restrictions that were placed on people’s lives and businesses throughout much of the world in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19, fire and smoke taint affected an estimated 4% of Australia’s national grape crop in the lead up to the 2020 harvest.

A highlight of the Autumn WVJ is Mark O’Callaghan’s review of the latest research on the effects of smoke taint on wine, the impacts on vineyards and grapegrowers, and the tools available to winemakers to minimise taint and their effectiveness. He also chats with a couple of winemakers for their thoughts and experiences with smoke taint.

Also in Winemaking, regular writer Erika Szymanski draws on the latest research to reveal what we know about the complex effects of reductive and oxidative winemaking practices on the final composition of wine.

Researchers from California Polytechnic State University describe a recent trial in which the chemical and sensory effects of cofermentation of Syrah with white Rhône cultivars including Viognier were compared with finished wines of the same cultivars blended post-malolactic fermentation. While the AWRI reports on its recent efforts to quantify the effects of the use of whole bunches in ferments on wine colour, aroma and mouthfeel in Shiraz and Pinot Noir.

In Viticulture, researchers from the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre reveal how their study aimed at optimising the tissue sampling protocol and identifying the differences in nutrient levels between varieties has highlighted the importance of using whole petioles to estimate the nutrient requirements of vines. The midway-point results of a five-year project into improving our knowledge and management of grapevine trunk disease is also reported, while brothers Richard and Malcolm Leask from Hither & Yon in McLaren Vale describe their journey with Carignan in this issue’s Alternative Varieties column.

Damien Wilson, chair of the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State University, provides some sage advice for wine producers on the packaging they choose for their wines in the Business & Marketing section, and economist Kym Anderson, from the University of Adelaide, examines Australia’s current wine consumer taxation relative to beverage taxes in other countries.

This issue’s tasting put Sangiovese under the spotlight.

Subscribers to the Wine & Viticulture Journal can view the Autumn 2020 issue here now.

To subscribe to the WVJ from just $42 a year for 4 quarterly issues, click here.