An A$9-million, five-year Australian environmental programme – the National Soil and Water Initiative – is seeking ways to reduce the threat of climate change to vineyards, reports Decanter.com.

Professor Mark Gibberd of Curtin University, Western Australia, says most Australian cool-climate regions rely on rainfall, using irrigation only for risk management.

Gibberd has started a long-term trial on Ferngrove Vineyards in the Frankland region to probe how vines recover from drought, the optimum timing of water deficits (when to stop irrigating the vines) and the best way to manage soil, water and vines to target quality grape production.

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