Peter Lehmann Wines was named International Winemaker of the Year and Australian Producer of the Year at the 2006 International Wine & Spirit Competition in London for the second time in the last four years.

With wine operations in the heart of the internationally famous Barossa Valley in South Australia, Peter Lehmann Wines has always used enzymes to make both red and white wine. Almost all Australian winemakers use enzymes to enhance their white winemaking processes, and many use enzymes for their reds as well.

“I’ve always used enzymes to make wine,” says Andrew Wigan, Chief Wine­maker at Peter Lehmann Wines. “We started using Novozymes’ enzymes because our trials with them went very well, and we’ve been using them successfully for 14 years now.”

Wine is made differently in Australia than in Europe because of the hot climate, which requires processing times to be short to avoid infection. Sometimes, winemakers have just a half hour to move wine from crushing to the clarification tanks.

The weighbridge at Peter Lehmann Wines.

“In Australia, the vintage start varies from region to region due to the different climatic conditions. In each region the vintage duration tends to start at a relatively firm date and also ends at a relatively firm date, so the process has to keep moving. This is not like juice processing where you can keep the apples and pears in cold storage; with grapes you process them as they come,” says Peter Dunn, Business Manager for Wine at Novozymes.

Novozymes is sensitive to the Australian wine market and its needs, and the fact that Novozymes has a strong market position underscores this. The one major factor for Novozymes’ success has been excellent customer service.

“We guarantee delivery,” says Peter Dunn. “And when you’re on a limited time schedule, you want your enzymes to be there when you start making your wine. With Novozymes, the enzymes are always delivered on time and the enzymes delivered always do their job.”

White wine production
Clarification of the must is generally difficult due to the presence of pectins extracted during winemaking. Pectins are natural compounds found in grapes and act like a sponge. High viscosity makes the release of juice difficult and the cloud particles are kept in suspension. Novozymes’ Ultrazym® CP-L and Novoferm® C-L resolve these issues.

“We use Ultrazym CP-L with white wines because they help with clarification, and a nice clear juice accentuates the characteristics of the fruit,” says Andrew Wigan.

“Ultrazym CP-L speeds up the clarification process, which is important to us. We have limited settling space and if we leave the wine on day one, we want it to be settled by day two.”

Ultrazym CP-L helps winemakers by reducing viscosity, releasing free-run juice easily, allowing must clarification and settling, and speeding up the process for obtaining clear musts before fermentation.

“The enzyme is added during the crush so that we get quick contact time and a quick reaction. Ultrazym CP-L helps release free-run juice and enhances settling by working in the clarification tanks,” says Peter Dunn.

Red wine production
In addition to ease of production and enhanced settling, enzymes are used in red wine processing to assist in the release of the available colour from the grapes, and improve lees compaction. Though not everyone in the Australian wine industry is convinced about the advantages of using enzymes in reds, Peter Lehmann maintains that enzymes have always been part of their red winemaking process.

“In our reds, we use Ultrazym EX-L to get better clarification and extraction - we’ve always done this,” says Andrew Wigan.

Ultrazym EX-L is added at the beginning of the winemaking process and offers all the same advantages as Ultrazym CP-L; as well as improved extraction of phenolics and aroma compounds, enabling excellent compaction of lees, improved throughput and improved filtration.

“Red wine is filtered several times and during each filtration step, the wine loses some colour, tannins and flavour,” says Peter Dunn. “With Ultrazym EX-L, winemakers can look at reducing at least one filtration step - this helps to maintain the quality of the final product.”

High-quality wine production
Good wine can only be made from good grapes and Peter Lehmann Wines in Barossa Valley does not compromise on quality at any step of their winemaking process. Barossa Valley, today, is the beating heart of Australia’s wine industry and it’s up to winemakers like Peter Lehmann Wines to maintain the area’s reputation.

“At Peter Lehmann Wines, near enough is never good enough, but we temper the high demands of winemaking with fun, mateship, and a glass or two at the end of the day,” says Andrew Wigan.

Premium winemakers like Peter Lehmann Wines partner with Novozymes because of their high-quality service and products.