Grape pressing ends at Delicata

The pressing of this years wine grapes at the Delicata Winery came to an end earlier this week, having begun some 38 days ago. The first Chardonnay grapes were harvested on August 9^th and just over 5 weeks later the last Girgentina grapes were delivered to the company's state-of-the-art fermentation hall on Paola waterfront, where they were quickly pressed.

George Delicata, Emmanuel Delicata's Managing Director said "This has been an excellent vintage with regard to quality for all the grape varieties. We had to reject a few batches of grapes that weren't up to our quality standards, but overall our vignerons have done a fantastic job. With regard to quantity we have pressed more red and white grapes than last year, because we have purchased additional grapes from more farmers he said."

This 2010 harvest is only the second harvest to be pressed at the new €2.1 million grape receiving area and fermentation hall, as the project was only completed last year just in time for the 2009 press. Mr. Delicata went on to praise the energy efficiency of the new development.

"The new equipment and buildings we have invested in have made a vast difference in our efficiency" he said. "Whereas before we could be pressing and fermenting well into the early hours of the morning, seven days a week, now we are finished by 8.00pm each evening and have even managed to get a break on Sundays as well. The whole process is just more ‘slick and streamlined' and the new technology simply allows us to keep on improving the quality of the juice he said.

"We have a large dedicated army of people doing everything they can to maximise the quality of the fruit they are growing for us. As winemakers, it is therefore up to us to capture all those flavours and aromas those 600 farmers have worked so hard to obtain and make sure they end up in the bottle for the consumer to enjoy. It's this new equipment, together with the skill of our workforce that will ensure that that happens, time after time" he concluded.

COUNTERFEIT OZZY WINE IN CHINA.

A Wine Protection Group in Hong Kong has alerted a South Australian winemaker about counterfeit bottles of his wine that have been filled with Chinese wine and then relabelled as Australian wine from his estate. Emanuel Skorpos found bogus bottles of several Australian brands in China, including his own Flinders Run label, following the tip-off.

Winemakers have since called for diplomatic action after it had emerged that the Chinese counterfeiters were passing off the fake Australian wine as authentic. At present Australia's wine exports are worth almost $2.5 billion a year.

Mr Skorpos said "poor quality rip-offs could have a damaging effect on the burgeoning industry. The problem we're facing as an industry is that if we leave a bitter taste in the Chinese consumer's mouth at such an early stage in our business into China, it could quickly destroy our industry. We pay an export levy, a processing levy to the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation and to the Australian Government. And I would say that they go into the millions and millions of dollars. How are we protected? How is our industry going to be protected against this sort of thing?" he said.

However a spokesperson from the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation said he wants to see more hard evidence of counterfeit activities in the Flinders Run case before taking action.

Peter Simic, a wine writer, believes Australia should be taking a tougher stance to protect its industry's reputation. "This shouldn't be allowed to disappear or go away because it is the thin end of the wedge. We need to put a bit of money into some legal advice and perhaps actually take a few of the producers to court so that those who do these kind of things maybe realise there's a consequence," he said.

In fact this is not the first time Australian wine has been faked. At a recent Chinese trade fair Penfolds was recast as Benfolds, but parent company Foster's moved in quickly to shut down the activity with the help of the Chinese government.