The Facilities

World-class research laboratories and other facilities exist within the cluster, supporting work across the value chain – from field trials to winemaking and packaging and consumer sensory work. Particular facilities of interest include:

• Extensive glasshouse systems
• A new microbial metabolomics facility in Australia (supported by the Australian government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme [NCRIS])
• Mass spectrometry facilities
• Nuclear magnetic resonance facilities
• Working vineyards on site and high-throughput facilities
• Experimental vineyards
• Small-scale fermentation and winemaking facility at the Hickinbotham Roseworthy Wine Science Laboratory
• Grape and wine information services (incorporating the John Fornachon Memorial Library)
• Extensive facilities for vine physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology studies
• Sensory facilities
• Process testing laboratories

To accommodate the five partners, the Wine Innovation Cluster is located in three main buildings located on the Waite Campus:

Wine Innovation Central Building (a new A$30 million construction);

Wine Innovation West Building (an existing building upgraded and extended);

and Wine Innovation East Building (the Hickinbotham Roseworthy Wine Science Laboratory)

Staff are also located at the Plant Research Centre on the Waite Campus and CSIRO's Merbein laboratory near Mildura which will be wound up over the next 2-3 years and all staff working on wine grapes will be relocated to the Waite Campus

These facilities enhance collaboration and communication opportunities and facilitate optimal usage of specialist equipment.

As well as the facilities within the cluster, the partners have access to other facilities and research organisations on the Waite Research Precinct, such as a new plant accelerator facility for phenomics, to be constructed in the near future.