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Australia, South Australia: Super Vines of the Future – Improving the Species with Ancient Genetics

As our climate evolves, it is becoming necessary to explore innovative ways of mitigating climate-related challenges. This is becoming increasingly urgent in the vineyards and fields where we grow and farm our food and drink produce. Finding ways around future climatic challenges has gone beyond "responsible practice" and is now a necessary act of long-term climate survival.  

We will never look back on our history and think, "we started too early."

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Seedlings in the lab at CSIRO Waite campus in Adelaide, South Australia

In a first-of-its-scale collaboration between Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and Wine Australia, Wynns and Penfolds—of Coonawarra and Barossa Valley in South Australia, respectively—are using individually selected vines, identified over years of observation and assessment, to breed new, mildew disease-resistant progeny that are more tolerant of dry/drought conditions. The vineyards that are the focus of this pioneering program are the Johnson’s Block in Coonawarra (Wynns), planted in 1954 with pre-phylloxera genetic material, and the four-hectare Block 42 vineyard in Kalimna, Barossa Valley (Penfolds), planted 1888. The latter is one of the oldest continually producing Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the world. Both vineyards are on own roots and produce consistently high-quality Cabernet Sauvignon fruit. While these vineyards are owned by Penfolds and Wynns (Treasury Group), they each remain important national viticultural assets, ones that have here been utilized to gain important answers to challenges that threaten all vineyards globally.  

There was a time when organic certification was rare, indeed seen as "alternative"—this is no longer. The industry has evolved to accept biodynamic certification into the fold, and comments such as "better than sustainable viticulture is regenerative" are commonplace. But what if there was more to be done in streamlining genetic material in the vineyards to better suit our changing climate, not by genetic modification but by traditional plant breeding. By finding and identifying the best-performing vines in the vineyard, those most naturally resilient to mildew and drought, and breeding them with other naturally strong vines. Australia has sweltered its way through increasingly hot, dry seasons this century, breaking records for high temperatures and drought, often interspersed with devastating frosts as the temperatures plummet during the winter. The need for "more" solutions—further to irrigation, soil/cover crop management, sprays, etc.—is becoming ever more apparent.

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Penfolds Block 42 vineyard in Kalimna, Barossa Valley, planted 1888

"Based on decades of innovation in grapevine breeding developed by CSIRO and supported by Wine Australia, we have been able to combine genetics for enhanced disease resistance and wine quality with traits from Penfolds Block 42. The resulting superior cultivars demonstrate how science innovation can be used to bolster adaptation to a changing climate, providing knowledge that benefits the wider Australian wine sector to become more sustainable into the future,” said CSIRO research scientist and lead researcher Dr. Paul Boss. 

In 2021, "mother" vines from Block 42 were selected based on assessments of fruit quality and resilience displayed within a variety of climatic conditions. In 2022, Penfolds began a collaborative partnership with CSIRO to combine disease resistance traits with the chosen Penfolds Block 42 vines. In 2024, this breeding partnership produced 105 individual vines, crosses of the Block 42 mother vine parents with increased resistance to mildew. The progeny seedlings were planted in South Australia in late 2024. They are expected to come into operation by 2031.  

“This project is a testament to a commitment to innovation and trialing. We embrace this initiative—to elevate the quality of our wines and ensure that vineyards can still thrive in the face of a changing climate,” said Penfolds Chief Winemaker Peter Gago.

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CSIRO Research Scientist and project lead Dr. Paul Boss with Wynns Senior Winemaker Sue Hodder at CSIRO Waite campus in Adelaide, South Australia

“For decades, we’ve been taking cuttings from the best vines in our Johnson’s Block in Coonawarra and using traditional breeding processes to create the next generation of superior vines. This initiative blends heritage vineyards and the art of traditional winemaking with the latest science,” said Wynns Viticulturalist Ben Harris. 

In 2024, the first 99 individual progeny seedlings were selected from crosses between Cabernet Sauvignon vines from the original Johnson’s Block vines and CSIRO’s second-generation mildew-resistant breeding lines. These vines were planted at Wynns Coonawarra in December 2024, and the new Johnson’s vineyard is expected to be operational by 2031.

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Wynns Viticulturist Ben Harris at Wynns Coonawarra Estate in South Australia

The concept of taking cuttings from exceptional vineyards and planting them to make a new vineyard is as old as viticulture itself and is practiced in varying scales all over the world. Many iconic vineyards have produced great genetic offspring vineyards, a charming thought, which highlights the critical role of terroir in fine wine. This project takes that concept a step further by protecting and refining the genetic prowess of a single planting, improving the species, and our chances of finding a path through whatever the future may hold for us.

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Vines from Penfolds Block 42 (Photo courtesy of Penfolds)

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