Image: AGW chief executive, Tony Battaglene

Australian Grape & Wine has received a grant from a new state government development scheme to boost innovation in the South Australian wine sector.

The grant, the South Australian Wine Industry Development Scheme (SAWIDS), will help fund a project to review procedures for assessing wine and winegrape quality parameters, importantly, including those smoke affected grapes as a result of bushfires.

Australian Grape & Wine (AGW) chief executive, Tony Battaglene said, “As the Australian wine sector shifts into recovery mode from bushfires and COVID-19 restrictions, this boost to innovation projects in South Australia couldn’t be timelier”.

“The grant awarded to AGW will fill a significant resource gap, providing up to date industry endorsed guidelines containing clearly defined procedures for best-practice wine and winegrape assessment, with the inclusion of an additional procedure for the use of sensory analysis.

“Improving the transparency of how certain assessments are made will build trust between growers and winemakers. We expect the flow-on effect will be the continuous improvement of not only South Australian wine, but Australian wine more broadly.

“This project builds on the important work that Australian Grape & Wine is undertaking to strengthen the Australian Wine Industry Code of Conduct, thus supporting the long-term viability of the sector by providing a foundation for building commercial relationships between growers and winemakers that are fair, equitable and mutually beneficial.”

Are you a Daily Wine News subscriber? If not, click here to join our mailing list. It’s free!