St Peter's students into wine

Jun 05, 2023

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St Peter's School student Tayla MacDonald tests grape sugar levels. Photos / Supplied

It's wine time at St Peter's School in Cambridge as students look forward to producing their first vintage of wine.

Over the last two and a half years agriculture and horticulture students have been involved with training, tying and pruning vines in the school's 0.1ha vineyard.

On the menu is pino gris, chardonnay, cabernet franc and pinotage.

The wine will be used for gifts and promotions and no students will be drinking the wine.

Head of horticulture and agriculture Mike Kilgour says the exercise aims to create an opportunity for authentic learning.

He says Year 12 Chemistry students are doing regular titrations to determine the titratable acidity of the fruit.

"This is important as we cannot pick the grapes until we reach the correct level."Students have been plucking leaves from around the fruit to reduce humidity in the bunches.

They have also used a refractometer to measure brix (sugar levels) in the grapes.

Year 10 design students are getting on board and designing the wine labels.

The wine's name is Blue Ruru, meaning blue morepork. The school's colour is blue and its symbol is an owl.

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