GRAPES grown at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Orange campus vineyard will no longer be used in the university’s wines, as CSU shuts down its commercial winery operations.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A university spokesman announced yesterday it would instead focus on its experimental winery at the national wine and grape industry centre in Wagga Wagga, in response to market pressures and uncertainty around higher education reforms.
Professor of food engineering at CSU Wagga Wagga John Mawson said cellar doors would remain open for the foreseeable future and commercial vineyards in Orange and Wagga would be leased out to other wineries.
“We will be looking for expressions of interests for our vineyards and in fact we have already received an expression of interest for our wine-making facilities at the Wagga Wagga campus,” Professor Mawson said.
“The cellar doors in Orange and Wagga will continue to remain open though this year, but the next step is to plan what happens after that.”
He said it would be up to companies leasing the vineyards to continue to employ existing staff at the sites.
“There could be possible job losses. In regards to operators in Orange, it depends on if the company could afford to take them on. If they couldn’t, that post would then become redundant,” Professor Mawson said.
CSU set up the commercial winery alongside its experimental winery in 2003 to provide commercial experience to its students, but Professor Mason said the need for it was no longer there as many students studied via distance or were already employed within the industry.
He said the university will now focus on producing boutique wines and expand its food technology research and innovation focus to include other products like cider, mead and spirits.