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PRINT THIS PAGEAustralian Viticulture journal
Volume 13 (3) 2009
NEWS
Foster's Group and Rathbone Wine Group, owners of Parker Coonawarra Estate, have successfully prevented the Wattle Range Council from proceeding with its plans for a western-aligned bypass road around the township of Penola, following the Council's acceptance of the wine companies' separate injunctions in the South Australian Supreme Court.
Irrigation-based viticulturists are continuing to invest in water saving technology and are becoming savvy about water trading to survive the drought, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
POST-HARVEST PLANNING
Fundamental Viticulture columnist Yasmin Chalmers, of Scholefield Robinson Mildura, says now is the ideal time of the season to reflect on the 2008-09 vintage and start putting plans in place for vineyard and business operations in 2009-10.
PRUNING
Vineyard manager ofTaltarni's Moonambel vineyard, Matthew Bailey, has a new system for managing the pruning of its lOOha of bearing vines in Victoria's Pyrenees region, using experienced and less experienced crews in different stages of the pruning proccess, as Sonya Logan discovered.
Profitable Viticulture columnist Tony Hoare examines the means of cutting the cost of pruning without compromising the vineyard.
LARGE ACREAGE VINEYARDS
As part of Australian Viticulture's annual focus on vineyard equipment, we asked the viticulturists of four large vineyards of lOOha or more from different Australian States to give readers an insight into how plantings of this size are managed, looking at aspects ranging from varieties under vine to equipment used.
TRACTOR TALK
Foster's national vineyard maintenance coordinator John Owen spoke with
Lauren Jones about the process being undertaken to review its tractor fleet to
operate a single brand across its more than 100 vineyards around Australia.
BATTLING BOTRYTIS
Australian Viticulture Tasmania correspondent Mark Smith reports on plant pathologist Dr Dean Metcalf's work to commercially produce a biological control agent for Botrytis cinerea, saving the industry more than $30m in lost grape production and disease control
measures.
BIODYNAMICS TRIAL
Australia's largest investigation of how conventional, organic and biodynamic
vineyard management systems affect soil properties, vineyard physiology and
winegrape quality is under way in McLaren Vale, led by University of Adelaide PhD student Luke Johnston.
WRATTONBULLY MERLOT
Yalumba viticulturists Nick Dry and Dan Newson share the methods that have
been adopted for managing Merlot in the Hill-Smith family's Smith & Hooper
vineyards, in the heart of the Wrattonbully region, including the introduction of new clones.
ZINFANDEL VARIETAL REPORT
More than 60 producers of Zinfandel in Australian have come to recognise it as
being difficult to manage in the vineyard, proving to be susceptible to rain damage, bunch rot and uneven ripening, but it is paying dividends for wineries focused on making a straight varietal wine and labelling it as such for export.
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