Australia’s wine growers are constantly trying to improve their internationally renowned product. Many are exploring a new process aimed are reducing mildew to protect their yield.
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00:00In the Coonawarra region of South Australia, the grape harvest has started for this year's
00:11vintage.
00:13Windsor State has been producing wine since the 1950s.
00:19And while tradition is important, innovation is critical, which is why they've partnered
00:26with the CSIRO on a research program to help breed mildew-resistant vines.
00:33The reason this is a big deal is because mildew, both powdery and downy, cost the Australian
00:39wine industry just under $170 million a year.
00:44Couple that with the benefit of not using chemicals to combat the fungus or diesel trucks
00:50to spray those chemicals, and it's a win for the environment.
00:56At the CSIRO's offices in Adelaide, Dr. Paul Boss leads a team of scientists working
01:03with Treasury Wine Estates, the owners of brands such as Winds and Penfolds.
01:09Some of their amazing heritage vines from some of these old vineyards that they've had, where
01:14the vine's been growing for a number of years.
01:17And so the germplasm that we're using, the pollen that we're using from those is probably
01:20quite unique.
01:21How do you then use a heritage vine and breed mildew resistance into it?
01:28It's not, in a sense, going into that vine.
01:30It's more we're producing a new variety.
01:33They've been developing breeding lines for the past 15 years, incorporating a mildew-resistant
01:39germplasm, which is the plant's genetic material and DNA sequences, acquired from France in 1997.
01:47But that's not the only thing the scientists have bred into the plants.
01:52They're tiny.
01:53One of the things that we're using to accelerate the breeding process is what we call the microvine.
01:58So this is a plant which is a natural mutation.
02:02It's actually found in Pinot Myrniate, which is one of the three champagne varieties.
02:06And it was found in about 2000 that if you put Pinot Myrniate through tissue culture and
02:13regenerated plants from single cells, those that came from the outer cell layer of the
02:18plant were actually dwarfed, and those from the inner cell layer look like a normal grapevine.
02:24Environmental research scientist Angelique Germico says the size of these dwarf vines isn't
02:30the only benefit.
02:31They take a shorter time to actually get to maturity in terms of flower and fruit development.
02:37So for example, a wild type plant that you find out in your normal vineyard, two to three
02:42years to get it to flower and produce fruit, whereas these, they're ready to go within six
02:46months.