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September 2017 Update

This month we are trying something new with our Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Update newsletter. We hope you like it. Have ideas of what you would like to see featured in our newsletter?  Please e-mail Lani McKinney at lanim@iastate.edu with your ideas, questions and/or comments/feedback.  Cheers!

Follow Along: La Crescent Aroma Research Trials Begin

In its own right, all winemaking is research. The amount of variables from start to finish are ample (from weather to fermentation conditions) making it nearly impossible to produce the exact same wine from year to year. Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute’s Assistant Scientist Somchai Rice is currently conducting La Crescent aroma research trials to see if she can release, identify, and quantify certain La Crescent aroma compounds through direct enzyme hydrolysis of the grape and wine samples. This is accomplished via a technique called GC/MS-O (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and simultaneous olfactometry) using commercially available enzymes designed to extract the aroma precursors from white grapes. The GC/MS-O technique separates the volatile organic compounds (VOC) in a complex mixture. It does this while simultaneously identifying the individual compounds using a MS detector and the human nose. The hope is, in doing so, the total aroma potential of the La Crescent variety will be realized.



What is a GC/MS?
There are a lot of advanced pieces of equipment used to work on the wine research puzzle. Let's take a closer look at the GC/MS or gas chromatography mass spectrometry, an instrumental technique used to separate, identify and quantify complex mixtures. When you hear us talk about GC/MS, we are referencing two pieces of equipment – a gas chromatographer (GC) and a mass spectrometer (MS). The coupling of these two pieces of equipment allows us to more closely analyze and evaluate volatile organic compounds - in our current situation, from La Crescent grapes and wine. Assistant Scientist Somchai Rice has used and continues to use GC/MS to identify and quantify the aroma compounds of different cold-hardy grape varietals commonly used for winemaking in the midwest climates.



Learning More About La Crescent
Certain wine grape varieties have known characteristics. For instance, you have probably come to associate Gewürztraminer with spicy aromas or noticed the green bell pepper aroma characteristic of Cabernet Sauvignon. Unfortunately, V. vinifera varieties such as these cannot survive Iowa’s cold climate. Cold-hardy La Crescent is the result of a cross between St. Pepin and ES 6-8-25 and is one of the many varietals developed by the University of Minnesota's grape breeding program. La Crescent lends itself to a variety of winemaking styles with tropical fruit, citrus and floral aromas. La Crescent used in our aroma research trials was harvested from the Iowa State University Horticulture Research Station located northeast of Ames, Iowa.

Is It Time to Harvest?
Deciding if it’s time to harvest requires frequent visits to the vineyard to assess the growth and ripeness of the grapes being used for harvest. Assistant Scientist Somchai Rice wanted to harvest the grapes at a specific Brix level (Brix is a measurement of the sugar level of an aqueous solution, which is a solution whose solvent is water.) For the purposes of these aroma research trials, she was aiming for 22 Brix. To give frame of reference on sweetness, table grapes bought in a grocery store average about 16 Brix. Why is Brix level important?  More sugar = more ethanol; key to making wine. In even more basic terms, one sugar equals two ethanol. Her goal was to not go above 12% ethanol in her winemaking for more control in the results of her research. To identify if it was time to harvest, she physically tasted the grapes in the vineyard, observed for shelling (grapes falling off the vine at the slightest touch, often indicating they are too ripe) and took samples for TA, pH and Brix evaluation in the laboratory. Uneven ripening also provided some challenges to the decision, but eventually she settled on a harvest date, August 23, 2017. 



Harvest Time: Let’s Crush It
Prior to harvest, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Field Specialist (Enology) Jennie Savits and Assistant Scientist Somchai Rice readied the equipment used for grape destemming and crushing in the Center for Crops Utilization Research’s (CCUR) wet pilot plant located at Iowa State University to make sure everything was working and give things a good cleaning.  Good cleaning and sanitation practices are vital in winemaking and another way to reduce variables in research and winemaking. Once the harvest date was determined, Somchai took a group of harvesters to the vineyard with clippers to harvest about 135 pounds of grapes.



The grapes were transported back to CCUR's wet pilot plant where student worker, Chelsea Nelson, assisted with destemming and crushing the grapes to make La Crescent juice for the winemaking part of the aroma research trial.  Enzyme treatments were added to the crushed fruit, pressed and allowed to settle overnight in a cooler after an addition of SO(sulfur dioxide). Yeast was then added to the settled juice and is currently fermenting in three replications of one-gallon glass carboys in a cooler. The first signs of success show up in the form of CO2 (carbon dioxide) bubbles as the yeast works to convert sugar to alcohol. Ongoing monitoring of fermentation (checking temperatures and Brix levels to make sure the yeast has the right conditions to do its best work) is done to ensure success.  So far research trials are looking good.



We hope you enjoyed your up close and personal look at what's happening in our laboratories, all this alongside the analysis of juice and wine samples you are sending us as the harvest and winemaking season progresses.

Cheers to the 2017 harvesting and winemaking season.
“My favorite things about working at the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute is working in the laboratory with great people and going out to the vineyards once in awhile to pick grapes.” – Chelsea Nelson, Iowa State University sophomore, Food Science

Assistant Scientist Somchai Rice instructs student worker, Chelsea Nelson, on how to use the HPLC.

New Student On Board This Fall

We are pleased to have a new student join us this fall. Chelsea Nelson, a sophomore in Food Science with a minor in Statistics, is from Chicago, Illinois. Her interest in working for the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute stemmed from curiosity about the logistics of winemaking and the amount of work that goes into it.  She started working at the institute in April 2017 just before classes were over for summer break. She has found her prior experience working as an intern food scientist carries over to her work in the institute laboratories because she understands how to operate certain laboratory equipment and has a better handle on how to approach certain problems that arise. Chelsea is involved in Iowa State University’s Black Student Alliance and the Dairy Science Club. She hopes to work for a private small food company and work her way up to becoming a Research and Development food scientist for NASA in their product development laboratory upon graduation from Iowa State University.

Fun Fact About Chelsea:
"My love for food started at a young age.  My mom and I watched Iron Chef every weekend together and I grew to love any and everything that could be cooked perfectly together and consumed."

Wine Competitions: How They Stack Up

In 2017 so far, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Field Specialist (Enology) Jennie Savits has served as a wine judge in three competitions across the midwest - Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Most recently, she traveled north to Minnesota to judge wines in the 9th Annual International Cold Climate Wine competition on August 17, 2017. Her first invite this year was to the first annual Wisconsin State Fair Wine competition held on June 22, 2017. She traveled with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Field Specialist (Viticulture) Mike White to West Allis, Wisconsin (Home of Wisconsin State Fair Park) where nearly 200 wines were evaluated by judges in the competition's debut. On July 29, 2017, Jennie, alongside several other judges (including Education and Outreach Coordinator Erin Norton and Assistant Scientist Somchai Rice) evaluated wines for this year's Iowa State Fair wine competition. Winners were announced on August 1st. This was the first year a Governor’s Cup award was given out at the Iowa State Fair. The top honor went to Vignoles from Backcountry Winery of Stratford, Iowa. Backcountry Winery owners, Preston & Amber Gable, were present to receive the honor from Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on August 18, 2017 at the 2017 Iowa State Fair.



So why are wine competitions important?  Wine competitions are a great way for wineries to market and sell their wines and see how their wines stack up against the competition. They by no means should be used to determine the merit of a winemaker, but rather are a great way to showcase wines to consumers. There’s plenty of debate about what a competition can and can’t tell a winemaker/winery about their wines. For sure, wine competition participation gets a winery's wines out and on the table alongside other wines being produced in the region.

And why is it important we continue to be active in judging at wine competitions? Judging competitions is a natural extension of the work Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute employees do in studying and working with wines and wine industry members. The institute also runs the Iowa Wine Grower’s Association Iowa Quality Wine Consortium (IQWC) Program which contains a sensory panel scoring component, so it fits well with what we already do and are trained to do. Continued exposure to a wide range of wine varietals and styles being produced is important to ongoing professional development and networking with other industry professionals around the region.

New Hires: MGWII Welcomes You


Not only did the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute Director/Assistant or Associate Professor position get posted at the end of August, but the institute also has a new vineyard technician, Mark Rippke.  Mark joined us at the beginning of August and will work alongside Dr. Diana Cochran, Iowa State University Horticulture Associate Professor and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Fruit Specialist, who is also a Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute affiliate. He will test berry parameters, maintain and manage the vineyard climate stations, coordinate and assist with grape harvest, analyze samples, install and manage the new NE-1720 cold-hard cultivar plot and manage the vineyards at the Iowa State University Horticulture Research Station.

Originally from Moville, a town of 1500 in northwest Iowa, Mark graduated from Iowa State University (ISU) with a degree in Horticulture in 2016. He met an AgriCorps recruiter at an ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences career fair and upon graduation spent a week in Ardmore, Oklahoma alongside ten other AgriCorp Fellows learning about agricultural education methods. Mark then flew to Ghana where he spent three weeks learning about Ghanaian language and culture in addition to tropical agriculture. Once training was completed, he moved to Buipe, a town in the northern region of Ghana, where he taught agriculture classes at a senior high school and served as a 4-H club advisor.

On a more personal note, Mark enjoys being outdoors, specifically hiking and riding his bicycle. He road four days of RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa - a bike ride across Iowa that takes seven days to complete) this year and hopes to do the full week next year. He’s also an amateur woodworker. This summer, he built a coffee table out of a bourbon barrel as a wedding gift and hopes to take on similar projects down the road.

Mark says his AgriCorp experience gave him a taste for international development work and the challenges and triumphs that accompany it. Personally he developed a greater sense of resilience in the face of adversity. “Living abroad forced me out of my comfort zone and provided the opportunity to work and build relationships across cultures,” says Mark. Lately, he says, his motto has been the last lines of the poem “Inviticus” by William Ernest Henley that reads, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” He finds it to be a powerful statement reminding him to focus on what’s in his control and to maintain a positive attitude.
 

Welcome to the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute team, Mark!
Fun Fact About Mark:
"I was a guest speaker at my dad’s graduation.  His Master Gardener graduation, that is."
For more information on the open position for MGWII Director/Assistant or Associate Professor position, please see https://www.iastatejobs.com/postings/28415.
There's More Than One New Thing: New Website

You may have noticed something different when visiting our website. We have moved to a new platform compatible with mobile devices. If you see anything needing to be changed or updated, please be sure to let us know.

Along with the new website comes a new events calendar. We have listed our upcoming meetings and workshops there. Please check back for online registration to anything you are interested in attending. This information will be updated and posted soon.  The three things to note for this fall are:
  • Critical Sensory Evaluation of Wines - October 23 & 24, 2017 (6 to 9 p.m.)
  • MGWII Advisory Board Meeting – November 9, 2017
  • Fine Tuning: Preparing Wines for Bottling – November 16, 2017

We also hope to conduct a Micro workshop in the first week of 2018. Lots of learning opportunities being planned. We look forward to seeing many of you soon.
Thanks for your continued interest and support of the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute activities. We value our relationship with you.
Copyright ©  2017 Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, All rights reserved.

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Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute · 2312 Food Sciences Building · 536 Farm House Lane · Ames, IA 50011 · USA

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