Viticulture
The Productivity and Food Security Research Branch’s Viticulture Unit is delivered through the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC) at Wagga Wagga, an alliance between Industry & Investment NSW, Charles Sturt University and the NSW Wine Industry Association.
The NWGIC aims to support development of consumer-preferred, Australian regional wine styles from ecologically-adapted germplasm, managed for sustainability of products and resources that will provide the core elements of increased demand and added value of Australian wine.
The strategy to achieve this will be to:
- Build “mainstream” capacity in grapevine pathology, grapevine physiology, environmentally sustainable viticulture, with “strong” capacity in consumer-preference research and plant imaging technology, and
- Knowledge Dissemination - Direct links to tertiary education and the vocational training sector with particularly strong extension capacity.
Research themes include:
- Consumer-Preferred Wine Styles - Regional wine styles and Regional germplasm evaluation
- Wine Product Improvement - Wine oxidation management
- Sustainable Vinicultural Systems - Adapting regional practices to climate and integrated environmentally-sustainable winery/vineyard design
- Knowledge Management - Management and predictive biophysical process modelling from research databases to support and inform Extension, Education and Vocational Training
Key research collaborations
R&D (research and development) programs are currently funded primarily through the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation through the Winegrowing Futures program (2006-2011). A new 5-year Funding proposal (Vinicultural Priorities) is being developed to follow on from Winegrowing Futures. Formal collaborative arrangements are in place with the partners in the NWGIC; Charles Sturt University and NSW Wine Industry Association.
Scientific Outputs
The Viticulture Unit has online summaries of its scientific outputs. In some cases the summary has the full outputs available as a PDF which can be downloaded. The scientific outputs are arranged by year of publication. The full publication lists and staff profiles are also available on the NWGIC web site.
Contact
Greg Dunn
Research Leader, Viticulture
Email: gregory.dunn@industry.nsw.gov.au