Melbourne University’s Dr Pangzhen Zhang is scouring Victoria’s wine regions to discover the drops with the most peppery flavours.

He hopes the 2008 discovery of a chemical compound called rotundone, which produces peppery flavours in Shiraz, may be the key for Australian producers exploring Asian markets.

“Lots of Asian people prefer spicy food. So they want wine with a black peppery, spicy aroma,” he said.

As well as producing a “pepper” map for wine producers, Dr Zhang’s project will develop an app to help Chinese consumers find the vineyards producing the flavours and qualities they want.

Central Victorian Agribusiness Forum executive officer Martin Szakal said one of the difficulties in any export market is finding niches and directly identifying with consumers.

He said the map and the app would give producers direct access to the market and allow them to learn more about consumer behavior.

One local wine producer has already signed up to be part of the research.

Glenwillow Wine’s Peter Fyffe said he’d been thinking about exporting to Asia and was interested in finding out more about Asian taste-buds.

“Bendigo has been producing some really high quality wines for a long time. And they’re flying under the radar a bit. This sort of opportunity will help to put us on the serious wine-producing map.”

Australian wine exports boomed in 2015, with a recent Wine Australia export report finding their value jumped 14 per cent to $2.1 billion in 2015, its highest growth since October 2007. 

The strongest growth was in China, which grew 66 per cent.

Mr Szakal said trade was picking up because of the fall in the Australian dollar.

“So the demand is growing, but it’s a pretty dynamic economy globally at the moment.

“But still, the opportunities are there, especially for those looking to access the market, or those already in it.”

The project is funded by innovation group veski. 

To find out more or to take part in the study, the Central Victorian Agribusiness Forum.