In this Winter issue of the Wine & Viticulture Journal, Richard Smart turns his attention to the contributing factors that have led to Australia’s grape and wine surplus, while offering affected wine regions options for recovery. In winemaking, French researchers share their findings on the effect of adding stems on the concentration of sweetening compound astilbin in different varietal wines, and its implications for whole bunch vinification. Mark O’Callaghan, from Wine Network Consulting, outlines steps for winemakers to respond to the consumer shift away from full -bodies reds and toward their more medium-bodies counterparts. In its latest regular column, the Australian Wine Research Institute examines the application of new technologies to address the long-standing problems associated with scale insect and mealybug pests.

In the vineyard, Tony Hoare presents the final part of a two-part article into managing vineyards in heatwaves, while Italian researchers investigate whether the choice of grapevine training system is affected by climate change.

Our latest tasting focused on Gamay and this attracted 22 Australian examples and four from France’s Beaujoulais, where most of the world’s Gamay is grown, for comparison.

Hans Mick

Editor