2023 Viticulture Seminars

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Friday 21 July

Maintaining Established vineyards

Cath leads the first session, drawing on experts to share their experience and and examples of what to consider when making the decision about the longer-term viability of your vineyard and if the decision is to maintain or rejuvenate the vines what the best practices are.

The decision is rarely made by one part of the business so the next two presenters Colin Hinze and Sarah Crowe will provide a viticulture and winemakers perspective on vine age & economic viability.

Sarah Crowe is winemaker and General Manager of Yarra Yering. Established in 1969 it is one of the oldest vineyards in the Yarra Valley and at 50+ years she has had to consider the health and profitability of these old vines and the wine quality they produce.

Dylan Grigg will share his learnings from dealing with declining vineyards. The opportunities and challenges in rejuvenation and maintaining older vineyards.

Dr Sosnowski will round out the session by sharing the latest recommendations from research on managing grapevine trunk diseases for vineyard longevity leads the Horticulture Pathology sub-program at the South Australian Research and Development Institute. Over the past 20 years, he has been responsible for research on managing trunk diseases in grapevines, in both Australia and New Zealand. He has managed biosecurity research focusing on impact management of exotic grapevine pathogens and leads national research on fungicide resistance management. Dr Sosnowski draws from his extensive research experience and international collaboration to provide industry with the latest information for effective management of grapevine diseases.

Steve Faulkner chairs the second session. The focus will be best-practice guidelines for maintaining the long-term vine health, productivity and economic viability of vineyards..  

Nigel will share his considerable experience with pruning. Nigel will provide advice and information on the benefits of soft pruning, setting up your vineyard for longevity.

Tony will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of field grafting winegrapes. Sharing the factors, you can control and those that you cannot. Tony will help you set the right expectations for an investment that could have a quick payoff when it works, however it isn't always an easy win and mother nature sometimes has different ideas. This talk is an absolute must in the current market where growers can switch to a more marketable variety instead of persisting with a variety that doesn’t have a market.  Preparation and follow up critical and Tony will share the keys to success

Mark will discuss the link between irrigation system performance and the health of your vineyard. With extensive experience in both vineyards and almonds, Mark will discuss how irrigation system performance can affect variability and crop health
If your irrigation infrastructure is aging Mark will share what can be done to renew or rejuvenate your irrigation system to increase  system performance.

Friday 4 August

Establishing new vineyards

Establishing data friendly vineyards, irrigation design for better water management, automation,
optimising early vine growth, nutrition and weed control.

Robyn Dixon is a Senior Viticulturist at the AWRI, with more than 20 years of national and international experience in vineyard management, technical viticulture, research and extension. Since moving back to Australia from New Zealand, Robyn has been adapting her cool climate viticulture knowledge to Australian conditions, through the management of technical and extension programs across Australia.

Robyn chairs the first session which focuses on setting up a new vineyard, the deciions around what to plant and how to prepare the vineyard for the future.

Steve will explore the economic factors around deciding what variety to plant (including switching to an alternate crop like almonds).

Steve is a Senior Consultant and Director at Wine Network Consulting Pty Ltd. Steve has worked for Leeuwin Estate in the Margaret River (1999 – 2002) and Yarra Burn Winery in the Yarra Valley (2002 – 2003) before joining Giant Steps as Winemaker in August 2003. Steve is a Len Evans Scholar and has completed several vintages overseas, including in Alsace, Provence and Brouilly, and is an experienced wine show judge.

Who better to discuss what should you consider before selecting and planting new vines? Nick managed Yalumba Nursery, during which time he developed an extensive knowledge of variety, clone and rootstock performance, along with an intimate understanding of grapevine trunk disease, grapevine virus, germplasm management and nursery practices.  In November 2019 he parted ways with Yalumba to start his own consulting business ‘Foundation Viticulture’.  As a consultant, Nick has been involved with a diverse range of projects including; developing planting and redevelopment strategies, working on propagation supply chain strategy as well as technical communication projects. Nick is currently engaged by Wine Australia as the National Grapevine Collection coordinator. 

How can be sure you are actually planting what you think you are planting?

Dr Anthony Borneman is a Research Manager at the Australian Wine Research Institute and an Affiliate of the University of Adelaide. He leads research that is focused on applying genomics to understand the genetic basis of biological diversity in winemaking, including grapevines, commercial wine yeast and bacteria and wild ferments.

Hans will discuss how to set up a new vineyard to take advantage of powerful tools and technologies to manage vineyards. Collecting as much data as you can to help create better production.

Hans is a viticulturist at Penley Estate, a grape growing and wine production business that comprises an 800-tonne winery and 80-hectares of vineyard.

As someone who is responsible for implementing precision viticulture initiatives, Hans is particularly focussed on identifying efficient data management and storage pathways that allow data to be more easily accessed, interrogated and analysed.

Katie Chairs the second session which contiues the considerations for setting up a new vineyard for long term success.

Dr Jason Smith is a Senior Research fellow in viticulture based at the Orange campus of Charles Sturt University in the cool-climate wine and horticulture region of Central Western NSW. Since early 2019, Jason has been leading research into vineyard water balance and the adaptation of production systems to rainfall variability and drought.

Colin has been working with clients to establish new vineyards and will share insights into the factors that influence vineyard design include site capacity, and management practices. 

Australian Wine Research Institute senior viticulturist, Marcell, will discuss best practice for pest control in new vineyards and young vines

Dr Holzapfel has been researching vine nutrition for over 20 years,  Dr Holzapfel will help you understand the role of nutrients in determining grapevine productivity and how to optimises this for young vines.