Tasmania-based cool climate viticulturist Ben Pietsch barely has time to take a deep breath between harvest and leaf fall. Some years there’s an interval of just two weeks so activities must be carefully planned. Ben moves fast post-harvest to replenish what’s been removed. Management is site specific but post-harvest vines must have access to water, nutrients and pests and diseases managed ..read more

In Orange, Justin Jarrett deals with different climate and seasonal regimes so his approach is influenced by that, and the organic discipline applied to the vineyard. The approach to nutrition has changed significantly over the past 20 years, from a focus on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels to ensuring soil pH and soil carbon levels are right too. He says his management is about soil health monitoring, soil fungi and biological activity ..read more

Hunter-based Liz Riley generally experiences the earliest harvests in the country, so the key challenge is to manage growth, pests and even weeds up to 12 weeks before the vines go dormant. The objective is to ensure leaves stay in good condition generating carbohydrates for the following season without applying nutrition to the vineyards because of the growth issues ..read more

The warm climate regions of the Riverland and Sunraysia have a window of about 6 weeks between harvest and senescence. Sam Bowman’s focus during this time is on irrigation and nutrition to build carbohydrate stores in the plant. During the post-harvest period, the vines switch from moving carbohydrates into the ripening fruit to building reserves for the next season’s buds. Active management post-harvest is a crucial step in avoiding the trap of biennial bearing ..read more

This podcast gives both a viticulturist and researcher’s experience with managing grape maturity variability and management systems that have potential to modulate grape maturity variability at the time of harvest, as well as the effects on red wine flavour and aroma profiles. PhD student, Claire Armstrong from The University of Adelaide, viticulturist, Pete Balnaves from Balnaves of Coonawarra, and Dr David Jeffery, Associate Professor in Wine Science, The University of Adelaide ..read more

The Australia’s Wine Future: A Climate Atlas helps to answer the question – what will my region’s climate look like in the future? This is essential knowledge for making good management decisions, based on decadal changes, and supporting strategic decisions over the longer term, both within and between regions.  ..read more

This podcast looks at irrigation efficiency and explains the importance of system maintenance and how using data from weather stations, soil moisture probes or plant sensors can reduce water use by 40–75 per cent without affecting yield or quality. Kristy Bartrop, Viticulture Technical Manager at Casella Family Brands and Dr Vinay Pagay, Senior Lecturer in Viticulture at the University of Adelaide ..read more

This podcasts looks at yield assessment, how growers can make accurate yield assessments based on five-year historical averages, and also to be a step ahead when non-human-based yield assessment systems are improved as they are expected to draw on accurate historical information. Louisa Rose, Chief Winemaker at Yalumba Family Winemakers and Dr Mark Whitty, Senior Lecturer in Mechatronics at the University of New South Wales ..read more