New tool identifies grape varieties suited to warmer climates

A new, free online tool that collates data on 465 different wine grape varieties suited for warmer climates has been released.

Funded by Wine Australia and developed by Peter Clingeleffer and his colleague Hilary Davis from the CSIRO, the Variety Selector Tool contains information on grape phenology, growth traits and fruit composition for 465 varieties grown in a warm inland climate.

It draws together the information and data that Peter has developed over six years across different research projects.

Data from the Variety Selector Tool can be accessed in two ways: by selecting a known variety of interest or, by using the sort function to identify varieties meeting key selection criteria.

Varieties can be selected on the basis of traits such as berry colour, phenology traits, seasonality (from budburst to harvest), leaf area index (as an indicator of vigour) and fruit composition data including juice pH, titratable acidity, the tartrate to malate ratio (as an indicator of acid balance) and for red varieties, total berry anthocyanins.

To find out how to use the tool – a snapshot of future scenarios - read the full article 

Source: Wine Australia