New wine label showcases wine research and teaching

Friday, 25 November 2016

The University of Adelaide will launch its new wine label tomorrow to showcase its research and teaching excellence in wine-making and viticulture.

While not a commercial enterprise, the University makes over 400 different wines from sparkling whites through to fortified wines and liqueurs for research and teaching purposes, many of them of high quality.

“The Hickinbotham Roseworthy Wine Science Laboratory at the University of Adelaide’s Waite campus was built in 1996 and has been the hub of the University’s proud history of teaching, research and collaborative activity in wine science ever since,” says Dean of Waite campus, Professor Mike Keller.

“The Waite is home to Australia’s premier winemaking and wine science programs, which have now trained a generation of this country’s best winemakers, viticulturists and wine scientists.

“We’ve been producing premium wines here at the Waite for almost twenty years. This new label provides a clean, polished and professional identity for a quality product made by our winemaking team with the help of students – a product that the University can be very proud of.”

The launch of the new label coincides with the first showing of plans for expansion and refurbishment of the winery with the aim of making it the best facility in the world for students and researchers working in the wine and allied sciences.

The University of Adelaide’s Waite campus has about 150 researchers from the University and co-located partners in wine and grape science – about 70% of Australia’s total research capability. Its highly regarded wine programs attract students from all over the world.

“The Hickinbotham Roseworthy Wine Science Laboratory is the cornerstone of our teaching and research around the winemaking process,” says Vladimir Jiranek, Professor of Oenology and Director of the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production.

“When it was opened almost two decades ago it was arguably the best facility of its kind in the world. But at that time it was servicing 20 students and a six tonne vintage.

“Now we have close to 100 students using the winery each year and a vintage of about 120 tonnes. The demands on our winery are intense and the opportunities to develop new approaches and technologies around all aspects of winemaking require an expanded and more sophisticated facility.

“The University of Adelaide is helping the industry meet future challenges and we need to build a winery to match.”

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