International first research pilot for Hawke’s Bay red wines

Hawke’s Bay wineries will be the first in New Zealand to use new technology to develop a tannin profile for their wines that will help them better market their red wines to the world.

The tannin benchmarking trial pilot project will be run by Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc, with funding provided through TechNZ, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology’s business programme, which is delivered through its regional partner, Venture Hawke’s Bay.

Local export-oriented wineries will be invited to work with the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI). This is the first time the AWRI Tannin Portal will be used internationally.

The trial will enable wineries to develop a tannin profile for their wines, build a profile for the region, and set a point of reference against other international wines. It will help winemakers address any tannin issues to better place their wines in the global market.

“Hawke’s Bay wines are frequently compared to other premium red wines in the world and having a clear understanding of the technical make up of our wines tannin profile will help us produce even better red wines,” says Peter Cowley, winemaker for Te Mata Estate Winery.

The pilot project comes as a result of a seminar in May this year by Dr Paul Smith, Research Manager from AWRI that was organised by TechNZ working with HBWG and the EIT School of Viticulture.

A lecture theatre packed with winemakers and viticulturists learnt about the specialist research into tannin and phenolic chemistry, and the development of the tannin portal, which allows wineries to measure tannins, phenolics, and pigments in ferments and finished wines. There is no similar tool in New Zealand.

Tannin concentration is highly related to climate and is a big part of defining a region’s wine style, and as such it plays a significant role in the colour, texture and aroma of Hawke’s Bay red wines.

AWRI research has plotted tannin against wine quality produced and has identified that above a certain high level of tannin, quality drops off irrespective of the region and grape variety of the wine.

“This indicates there is a quality ‘sweet spot’ for red wines at a high, but not too high, tannin level,” says Mr Cowley. “The pilot project will allow us to assess the profile of our red wines against the research and see how we might adjust our winemaking to fine tune the critical tannin level.”

A review of Dr Smith’s May presentation can be found on HBWG website www.winehawkesbay.co.nz

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