Over half of Australian wine exports now leave our shores in mass for packaging in market – up from just 20 per cent a decade ago.
Bearing this in mind, Wine Australia funded a task with the flexibag checking out the bulk transport process, and regardless of if the choices wine companies make have sensory or chemical impact on the wine during or after transit.
AWRI researchers Simon Nordestgaard and Eric Wilkes combined with wine sector collaborators tracked more than one million litres of wine bound for the UK over 15 months and also the effects were very positive.
They learned that deciding on a tank, shipping route and filling temperature essentially had no impact. No taints were observed and, based on packaging facilities, the pick-up of taints during bulk transport has not been a concern for quite some time.
The absence of any taints ‘is likely a testament to the management strategies created by the biggest freight forwarders/flexitank suppliers servicing the Australian wine sector’, Dr Nordestgaard said in their final report.
‘These measures include container sorting, container lining and flexi bags offering a final stage of product protection. Whenever engaging a new freight forwarder/flexitank supplier it is recommended to ensure well-conceived taint avoidance strategies/materials happen to be in place along with appropriate evidence of performance.’
Dr Nordestgaard ran the trials in 4 batches, each involving around 11 containers loaded with 24,000 litres of wine, with the particular tank (ISO tanks or flexitanks), shipping route dexopky84 filling temperature (8°C or 19°C) as being the 3 variables. Chardonnay was the wine of preference, since it is the white variety exported within the greatest volume for the UK. Several containers of Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon blend were also monitored.
Typically, ISO tanks ended in marginally higher retention of a few chemicals, but in tastings experienced winemakers failed to consistently like the wines shipped in ISO tanks.
The path taken, and if the wine was flexitank services through a hub port (e.g. Malaysia) or stayed aboard the identical ship, had no real impact. Schedules varied, and in some cases routes involving trans-shipping were actually quicker because there were fewer other stops.