CSIRO is contributing to improving the production, processing and marketing of grapes and grape products.

CSIRO is improving Australia’s food production and farming systems to ensure food and fibre are delivered to Australians on a sustainable basis.

Some of the world's leading experts in wine industry logistics will attend a CSIRO-hosted workshop in Melbourne next week to discuss how international wine supply chains can be improved to ensure consumers receive the best wines possible.

Working with the Sunraysia Area Consultative Committee and the Sunraysia Mallee Economic Development Board, CSIRO is committed to assist planning of an alternative model for horticultural research in the Sunraysia district.

CSIRO’s grape genetics research is targeting wine and grape quality and disease resistance. CSIRO is also part of the Wine Innovarion Cluster, a group of research agencies aiming to improve wine science and to make viticulture more sustainable and more suited to our changing climate.

CSIRO research is targeting better vineyard management with work in areas such as carbohydrate dynamics, water use efficiency and sustainable performance. CSIRO is also part of the Wine Innovarion Cluster, a group of research agencies aiming to improve wine science and to make viticulture more sustainable and more suited to our changing climate.

CSIRO’s plant breeding capabilities benefit a range of agribusiness industries from horticulture and pastoral through to broadacre crops such as wheat.

The Food Futures Flagship is working with the Australian National University, Monash University and the University of Queensland to create a new generation of electronic nose - a Cybernose.

With climate change complicating the agriculture and food production picture there will be winners and losers across the globe. (4:37)

Dr Alisha Anderson is the project leader of the Cybernose® group which is developing a biosensor based on biological olfactory receptors to detect volatile compounds.

Dr Amalia Berna is researching the application of electronic nose technology and other analytical instruments to measure the aroma and flavour of wine and grapes.

Farming Ahead magazine regularly features CSIRO's research for the agricultural sector. This is a list of CSIRO articles published in the magazine throughout 2009.

CSIRO scientists have recently identified a family of genes which may help provide long-lasting resistance to grapevines affected by the devastating powdery mildew fungus, thus reducing fungicide use.

CSIRO scientists have identified a family of genes which may help grapevines resist the devastating powdery mildew fungus. Achieving this goal is important to reduce the amount of fungicide used in the vineyard and to keep production costs low. (2 pages)

Identifying grapevines is a complex science, traditionally based on ampelography, a technique that examines grapevines’ physical characteristics such as leaf shape. In late 2008, a visiting ampelography expert from France questioned whether some Albarino plantings in Australia, were indeed Albarino. Using DNA technology, CSIRO discovered that the vine identified as Albarino in its collection, to which growers had been given access through the Australian Vine Improvement Association Inc, was in fact Savagnin Blanc.