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Concha y Toro's new research centre set to benefit wine industry throughout Chile

Published:  26 March, 2015

Concha y Toro hopes its new multi million pound research and innovation centre it has built in the heart of Chile's wine growing country will help the whole Chilean wine industry better understand what is possible from the country's wine producers.

Concha y Toro hopes the new multi million pound research and innovation centre it has built in the heart of Chile's wine growing country will help the whole Chilean wine industry better understand what is possible from the country's wine producers.

The facility, which has been set up with an initial investment of $5 million, has been purposefully built in Pencahuie, in the Maule region of Chile, as it was the location where the first vines are thought to have been grown in Chile when original Spanish settlers first planted their imported vines.

It also significantly places a new focus on Chilean winemaking firmly in the south of the country as it is situated some 270km from its capital Santiago. Gerard Casaubon, director of the new Centre for Research and Innovation, believes "the future for Chilean wine is in the south" particularly as climate change offers southern Chilean the more optimum temperatures for future wine growing.

Thomas Domeyko, CYT's export director for Europe, US and Africa, told Harpers.co.uk at last week's ProWein, that the findings and work from the research facility would clearly help CYT, but will also be used to help the rest of the industry with shared learning and a collaborative approach with the Chilean wine industry.

Casaubon said CYT was committed to "contribute to the growth and development of the industry" with this "unique project" of its kind. He added: "To do this, we will promote the dissemination of the results and good practices, so they can be adopted and implemented by the various actors involved in our industry."

It will carry out research at the centre in conjunction with key international partnerships with research bodies and academic facilities including projects with University of California at Davis and the Mercier Groupe, France's largest vine producer, and one of CYT's long-term technical partners.

The 16,150 sq ft facility will include a laboratory, an experimental cellar, and tasting and extension rooms. It will carry out research in genetic material, viticulture, winemaking processes, product design and the future of the Chilean wine market.

A key aspect of the site will be its ability to explore new plantings as part of the extensive nursery CYT already has there, with 78 hectares of nursery vineyards, some of which were planted 15 years ago. The nursery at the CRI has the ability to produce more than 2 million plants annually and has more than 2,000 combinations of rootstocks and clones possible within the nursery.

The centre also contains a winery with 50 x 250ltr experimental tanks which allow CYT's winemakers to perform proof of concept trials on their various new grape and rootstock experiments.

The laboratory allows technicians to carry out a whole range of projects using instruments such as a Gastromatography Mass Spectrometer, which allow the study of polyphenols, aromas, volatile acidity, organic acids, metals, pesticides, wine health and innocuousness, among others.

This will help CYT, it said, better understand flavour and aroma compounds in its wines which are most attractive to drinkers and why.

Casaubon said of the project: "There is great expectation both inside and outside the company. There are lots of different groups of people who want to collaborate and are expecting results."

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