A brilliant movie showcasing the amazing New Zealand! Seeing how New Zealand wines are being compared to some of the most sought-after regions in the world, like Burgundy, and see that they can be on the same level, should make winemakers in New Zealand very proud.  Also seeing some familiar faces was fun to see and listen to their views on New Zealand wine.

It was also a great advertisement for Kumeu River Chardonnay, but fair enough if they have a wine that can compete with burgundy chardonnays, that’s something that you should advertise and be proud of.

Because the wine industry in New Zealand has really changed and become something really great in the recent years, having laws in place to protect producers and growers like the Geographical Indications (GI) is beneficial to all of New Zealand. This Act came into effect in 2017 and will help promote the wines in the competitive markets overseas. There are currently 19 GI’s and with them provides the ability to place a region on a bottle but only if those grapes where grown in the region stated. This Act will also help in protecting from wine fraud, which is constantly happening around the world, and allow for legal action to be taken if there are any false claims on a product. With the GI Act consumers will also be confident that what there are purchasing is authentic and gives value to a region.

GI laws in EU have labels that are put on products, which is either a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) or a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). What this means is your PDO is at the top with 100% of the grapes being from its geographical area. Your PGI is the middle with only 85% of grapes being from the area and lastly there is the bottom tier of wine where the restrictions are less, and the wine only needs to come from the EU.

And so, after a couple of delicious glasses of wine, bubbles and some nibbles it was good to end the class on a cheerful note.

Merry Christmas!

By Emma Gordon

After filtering the wine, winemakers may request a filterability to ensure the wine will not clog up the filter during bottling. The analysis for this is a simple procedure and it can really benefit the bottling stage go swiftly.

Method 1

During class we learnt a method of testing filterability by tracking the mLs that pass through the .45 pore size filter and timing this. First you run through your sample for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds you need to record how many mLs will pass through in the next 60 seconds. Let another 30 seconds pass from the first reading, and the final mLs are recorded from the next 60 seconds. By dividing the first volume to the second volume you receive the filterability ratio. If the amount is between 1.0-1.5, the wine is good and will not clog up the filter, if its 1.5-2.0 then it is a moderate reading and may need to go through the filters at a slower rate. If the amount is greater then 2.0 then its poor and will need to be filtered again.

Method 2

Another method for testing filterability is by obtaining 500mls of your sample and putting it in to 2 X 200ml volumetric flasks. Using the same vacuum filtration pump with a 0.45um membrane filter pad and a timer, start by putting in 50mls of wine in to the receival cup. Once this wine has filtered through you then simultaneously start the timer and dump the first 200ml into the receival cup. After the wine has evacuated the filter pad you then note the time (T1) and at the same moment pour the next 200ml sample in. Once this has filtered all the way through you stop the timer and note the time (T2).

Results

First you convert the time into minutes, then the formula is  FI = T2 – 2 x T1.

For example, if my T1 was 1:43 and T2 was 3:28

T1= 103

T2= 208

FI= 208 – 206

F1 = 2

Anything less then <20 is considered a pass!

By Emma Gordon

During movement of wine in the Cellar, such as transfers, crossflowing, cold stabilization, and racking. Oxygen dissolves into the wine. This is not a problem unless the wine dissolves to much oxygen creating problems with the taste and potential long term bottle storage.

Oxygen in the wine can help to enhance aromas during the aging time or keep the white wine protected from turning that unwanted brown colour that is caused from oxidation. The dissolved oxygen will be the determination of how a wine ages in bottle. If the wine was mismanaged during the winemaking process or the wrong closure is put on the bottle of wine, this can create wine faults not desirable to the consumer, such as tastes of bruised apple or even rotten eggs. The ageing inside the bottle can also happen to quickly, like a bottle of red ages within 6 months rather than the years it should take.

Closures also effect the oxygen levels in the wine as well. Cork will let some oxygen in which in moderation will be beneficial to the ageing of wine. Screw caps are amazing for whites as the less oxygen the better to keep the wines crispness and prevents from oxidising.

One method of testing can be by using a Orbisphere which uses a luminescent sensor. You can either hook it up to the tank of read straight from the bottle and how it works is the active fluorescent spot is excited with the blue light and red luminescent light is detected; with the presence of oxygen, it changes the decay time of the red luminescent light. With the appropriate calibration curve, the decay time is transformed into oxygen partial pressure value.

By Emma Gordon

After the wine has finished fermenting and the winemaker has reached their desire specifications, if you tried a glass right away, you would be in for a very tingly tasting wine full of dissolved carbon dioxide (DCO₂). This is created during the alcoholic ferment stage of wine. When the yeast and sugars mix and begin converting to alcohol, they produce high amounts of CO₂.

A simple method of checking how much DCO₂ is in the wine is by using an instrument called the Carbodoseur or the shake test. Using a special glass measuring cylinder, a 100mls of wine is measured out and a top with a straw is tightened on. Shaking as much as possible and removing thumb to let the wine sprout out every so often and repeating that step until there is no more wine that sprouts out  from the top is when you know you have shaken it enough. Carefully removing top and letting the bubbles settle down to accurately read how many mLs have come out by shaking. Using a chart, you can match up the temperature to the amount of mL and it will give you the total amount of DC0₂ found in the wine. Temperature if very critical when testing, as high temperature will give you more variant results. Keeping the wine at 10⁰C will give you the most accurate results.

What does dissolved carbon dioxide do to the wine?

It was thought that the adding CO₂ to the wine would increase its acidity but, in a research, funded by Wine Australia, researchers found that CO₂  in wine actually enhanced the sweetness and reduced bitterness.

Mainly high in white wines and removed from red wines, CO₂ is that natural gas that can really enhance a wine and show off its full potential.

References:

Wine Australia. (Nov 2018). Dissolved carbon dioxide beliefs questioned by new research. https://www.wineaustralia.com/news/articles/dissolved-carbon-dioxide-beliefs-questioned

Visiting Indevin, we learnt about the opposite of bottling wine before shipping overseas. Sending wine in bulk. How wineries do this is by filling large flexis that can hold up to 26,000lt of wine.

Inside the shipping containers is a plastic bladder that is used to fill up with the wine. Indevin still run a day and night shift to fill the flexis, they can do 7 in two shifts and 35 in a week.

The process of filling does take a bit of extra time because they currently sterile filter before the wine goes into the flexi. This removes any unwanted micro-organisms that could really affect wine over long periods of time while sitting in the flexis waiting to arrive to its destination. But does take a little bit longer.

All wines are heat and cold stable before shipping, because of the extreme weather changes that the container will encounter during its long travels. I was interested to see how drastic the changes would be and after reading a research done by placing 3 shipping containers full of Chardonnay on separate spots of the vessels. The containers where on the vessel for around 60 days and the inside temperature ranged from 4 to 47⁰c. Huge changes and they found the peak temperatures were usually recorded while the vessel was at port during the day. Between the 3 vessel a fluctuation of 5⁰c was recorded.

Indevin does own all its wine until its time for the wine to leave the winery. They have 3 different styles of shipping and ownership. For example, when the flexi leaves their site it is no longer their ownership, also up to the departure port (FOB) and lastly once it reaches the destination (delivery at place). This regulates how much of the logistics Indevin must plan to get the wine from New Zealand to anywhere in the world!

By Emma Gordon

References:

Ann-Katrin Walther, D. D. (2018). Impact of Temperature during Bulk Shipping on the Chemical Composition and Sensory Profile of a Chardonnay Wine. The American Society for Enology and Viticulture.

Our visit to Wineworks was interesting and amazing to see how fast and efficient they are able to bottle wine! On a good day Wineworks can produce 54 000 cases of wine and watching how fast and swiftly the bottles move down the line from being rinsed to filling with wine, then putting on a cap and labelling it up and finally being put in cases ready for being shipped out domestically or overseas.

We started out at where the wine comes in, either from underground lines that are connected to multiple wineries throughout Riverlands estates, which can then be connected to any line out in the production area. Or alternatively from wineries outside of the industrial area the wine arrives by tankers. Wineworks has zero owner ship of any of the wine that arrives on sight and they do not store any wine for clients.

We walked through the production area and watched the well-oiled machines pump out one heck of a lot of bottles! Staff will pull samples periodically to do analysis and make sure the bottles are being filled fully and labels are looking pristine.

It was pretty impressive going through where they store all the labels for clients. The amount was astonishing and amazing to see all the different styles and creativity wineries around Marlborough have.

We then went into the well-organized storage area, multiple forklifts cruising through and systems in place that make it easy for the workers to retrieve their cases needed to be put on trucks and shipped to destination.

Michael also took us through the many different types of bottles that can be used for bottling, like the burgundy style bottle that is very common bottle for most varieties of wine. Also, the multiple closures that range from a cork, a screw cap through to a glass cork called a Vinolok, which is a very stylish way to close your bottle but cost the most out of all closures.

Very cool to see how the final stages of making wine and where all the hard work of making wine finishes up.

By Emma Gordon

In friends Phoebe sings about smelly cat, smelly cat most episodes but have you ever heard of someone singing about smelly wine??

The smell of rotten eggs can really put a consumer off, but this is a naturally made aroma during the fermentation process. If the grapes have produced a low amount of Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen (YAN), the yeast has less compounds to attach and react with. Because the nitrogen is low and not enough for the yeast to attach, they will then attach to sulphides which then release faults and creates hydrogen sulphides. The adding of Di-ammonium phosphate and other additives is added to give the yeast those compounds to attach to and create the delicious aromas that does not leave your nose scrunched up.

Unfortunately, there are times when aromas were not treated and end up in the finished product or produced in the bottle. These sulphur compounds show up either as H2S ( your rotten egg smell), mercaptans (cabbage or garlic) and di-sulphides (cooked cabbage or burnt rubber).

We did fining trials to 3 separate wines with faults. We needed to figure out which wine has H2S, mercaptans and disulphides in it. By using a 1%w/v Copper (II) Sulphate solution in our first wine we could see that it was H2S causing the fault. It was slightly more challenging for the second wine but by adding a 10% w/v Ascorbic acid solution the faults had slightly improved but where still present. This wine had mercaptans and lastly the wine has Disulphides present and the same solution as wine two removed the odour completely.

Very interesting to see what different finning agents will do to different wines. And that if a fault has occurred during the winemaking, we can still remove it without having to dump it down the drain!

By Emma Gordon

When labelling your wine to sell domestically in New Zealand, there are certain legal requirements you need to follow to ensure no problems will occur and get your business in trouble!

New Zealand labelling laws seem to be basic compared to most countries. On the label the mandatory information that must be provided is the product name (Wine), country of origin (New Zealand), Alcohol by volume, net contents, producer, sulphite declaration and allergen declaration.

Currently health warnings, such as drinking whilst pregnant is not mandatory but is recommended. Also ensuring your label does not appear to minors is a must and health claims are prohibited.

Absolutely no false claims can be made on a label such as vegan friendly etc. And only certified organic winegrowers can make claims of sustainability and organic wine production. This is to protect the consumer and give them the peace of mind that what they are drinking is what is stated on the bottle.

Besides the actual written content on a bottle of wine, size does matter! The net contents statement must be at least 2mm in height and place near the name of product either on the front or back.

If you are planning to send the wine out to Australia, no changes are needed to the label because they are accepted if its legal in New Zealand.

Its not just a case of making up a name and slapping it on the bottle, a lot of thought, meaning and research has gone into the label to ensure everything legal has been approved.

By Emma Gordon

References:

New Zealand Wine Grower. (2017) Labelling Guide. NZ Wine. 3-10

In class we had the chance to put a red wine through the worlds tiniest pad/plate filtration system.

The filtration unit can be used for either juice or wine. Pads are made from a mix of diatomaceous earth, perlite and cellulose and go all the way down to 0.45micro! But time and care are needed otherwise you could be left with a cardboard tasting wine. To reduce the taste, running through a cycle of citric acid and then water to remove the citric will wet the pads enough and take away the cardboard taste.

Making sure the pads are all fit the right way and you have tightened the filtration unit enough to prevent massive leaks is time consuming. But being a low-cost machine to operate would be ideal for smaller batches of wine. Also, pads can be washed and reused!

It was very interesting when we put through 25 liter’s of very old red wine that had zero additives (like PMS) and fining agents. It was a very murky dark and high turbidity wine. After filtering it came out a lot clearer and more had a positive impact on the taste and smell.

By Emma Gordon

Protecting the integrity of Marlborough sauvignon blanc, a group of very talented wine producers in the Marlborough region have come together to launch the Appellation Marlborough Wine (ANW) in order to protect authenticity and brand value of the wines produce around Marlborough.

When looking to buy a bottle of wine, you normally would base your choice on the variety of grapes used. For example, when you buy a bottle of Sauvignon blanc from the Marlborough region, you would expect that it is 100% Marlborough sauvignon blanc. Except this may not be the case, due to laws and regulations created by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), labelling requirements for alcohol drinks including wine states that only 85% of the grapes must be sauvignon blanc grapes for it to be stated on the bottle. Therefore, it could be blended with any other variety and not be listed. Along with vintage and area of origin.

Slightly deceiving but this is where beneficial groups, like the ANW have put in place rules where 100% of the grapes must be the variety stated. Not only do they ensure the variety is solely what is says on the bottle but making sure the quality of grapes is superb by limiting tonnes per hectare grown. Bottling needs to be done New Zealand to prevent any adjustments made overseas.

Groups like these are great to keep the Marlborough Sauvignon blanc name rich and famous!

References

Robinson, Jancis. (2018) Appellation Marlborough Wine launched.

By Emma Gordon