Good to The Last Drop: From Wine Grapes to Granola Bars The remains of wine grapes picked and pressed typically return to fields as fertilizers, but scientists are also finding ways to recycle those edible remains into healthy foods. Take Gena McKahan’s gluten-free, merlot grape-seed flour granola bar, for example. As a food science undergraduate […]
Taking the Temperature of a Lemberger When it comes to pinpointing the perfect serving temperature for wine, Washington State University scientists are getting warmer. While it’s often been said white wines are best served chilled and red wines near room temperature, sensory analyst Carolyn Ross is de-mystifying such anecdotes using a relatively new technique called […]
WSU V&E Club Members Make Wine to Fund Education and Work Experience Opportunities 1. The Bootstrap Paradox Call it the Bootstrap Paradox. To get the job, you need experience. You have no real-world experience, so you won’t get hired—but how will you get experience unless you get the job? Everyone new to the employment market […]
Chelan Wine Tour Offers Continuing Education for Grape Growers and Winemakers “You need a lifetime or more to learn everything about winemaking,” said Judy Phelps, standing among plastic tubs and oak casks containing grapes at various stages of becoming wine. Phelps, winemaker at Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards in Chelan, Washington, was sharing some of […]
Student Traces the Biochemical Pathways of Wine Spoilers What are spoilage yeast and bacteria doing in wine, aside from spoiling wine? Lauren Schopp, an M.S. student in the Washington State University/University of Idaho School of Food Sciences, decided to investigate spoilage yeast and bacteria by tracing their biochemical pathways, or the ways they interact with […]
Six Pack of WSU Students Team Up to Make Premium Wines A handful of juniors and seniors majoring in viticulture and enology at WSU Tri-Cities are engaged in a winemaking project that takes them from the vineyard to the winery and beyond. Their capstone course involves every aspect of the winemaking process, said Thomas Henick-Kling, […]
Student Combines Temperature and Sulfur Dioxide to Control Brett in Wine Sulfur dioxide is one of the winemaker’s most familiar tools, helping control spoilage yeasts such as Brettanomyces and Zygosaccharomyces. When Brettanomyces, unaffectionately known as “Brett” among enologists, crosses a critical threshold, it imparts undesirable odors and flavors. Affected wines may have a spectrum of […]
Fruits of the Vine Viticulture Field Day Offers Harvest of Science-based Solutions for Growers John Derrick of Mercer Canyons Inc. didn’t know what was wrong with two blocks of the farm’s 920 acres of wine grapes outside of Prosser last year. Leaves showed reddish discolorations and flecking. He and other vineyard staff speculated about a […]
New Winemaker Hits the Ground Running with WSU Online Enology Certificate Program How does a liberal arts major, fresh out of college and with little wine experience, hit the ground running in the wine industry? By apprenticing with seasoned winemakers, by hiring consultants, and by taking Washington State University’s online enology certificate program, an experience […]
Regenerating Pixie is Important Step in Grasping Grape Genetics Graduate student Kathie Nicholson holds regenerated Pixie grape plants. Photo by Brian Charles Clark/WSU. Understanding the grape genome in all its vast variety will give growers…