Travel to Oregon and California in 2016 for Attendance at the 11Th International Terroir Conference and Visits to Research Organizations and Winery

Travel to Oregon and California in 2016 for attendance at the 11th International Terroir conference and visits to research organizations and winery

FINAL REPORT to

AUSTRALIAN GRAPE AND WINE AUTHORITY Project Number: AGT 1530 Principal Investigator: Cassandra Collins Research Organisation: University of Adelaide

Date: December 2016 Project title: Travel to Oregon and California in 2016 for attendance at the 11th International Terroir conference and visits to research organizations and winery

Project Number: AGT 1530

Principal investigator: Dr Cassandra Collins Author: Sandra Milena Olarte Mantilla University of Adelaide School of Agriculture, Food and Wine PMB 1, Glen Osmond South Australia 5064

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Table of Contents

1. Executive summary ...... 5

2. Background …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6

3. Project objectives and performance targets ...... 7 Objectives:...... 7 Project outputs and performance targets: ...... 7

4. 11th International Terroir Congress, McMinnville, USA ...... 8 Summary of selected presentations ...... 8

5. Visit to Oregon State University and delivery of seminar at Oregon Wine Research Institute, Corvallis, Oregon. 12

6. Visit to winery E&J Gallo winery, Modesto, California ...... 14

7. Conclusion………………………………...... 15

8. Acknowledgments ...... 15

1. Executive summary

Sandra Olarte travelled to Corvallis USA to present a seminar at the Oregon Wine research Institute (OWRI) entitled “Berry Sensory Assessment a valuable tool in grape and wine production. This seminar was presented at the Oregon State University (OSU) campus and the attendees were students, scientist, viticulturist and winemakers from the Oregon wine region.

After the seminar and the visit to the OWRI and Oregon State University Sandra Olarte travelled to McMinnville, Oregon to attend the 11th International Terroir Congress. She delivered and oral presentation entitled “Can the use of rootstocks enhance terroir?” and presented a poster entitled “Can sensory analysis help with understanding terroir?” Participation at the terroir congress gave Sandra the opportunity to meet viticultural and sensory scientist from different wine regions in the world that will facilitate future collaboration in viticulture and sensory research.

A highlight from the 11th Terroir Congress was having the opportunity to see the results of research showing the effect that small change in soil, topography and climatic conditions can have in wine sensory characteristics.

Sandra also had the opportunity to visit the winery E&J Gallo in Modesto, California. There she was able to visit the research facilities and their small scale winery facility and discuss some of the research that E&J Gallo winery is conducting.

In addition, Sandra visited together with the program coordinator of the OWRI Mr Mark Chien the Food Innovation Center in Portland.

2. Background

The Terroir congress is an internationally renowned congress bringing together viticulture and wine scientist from many countries, to share new knowledge and innovative research to understand viticultural terroirs. This was a unique opportunity for me to present the results from my research to an international viticulture and wine community, to interact with renowned viticulture and wine scientist researchers and to establish contacts that will hopefully lead to collaboration and/or further research in the viticultural/sensory field.

I also visited the OWRI based at OSU and had the opportunity to deliver a seminar as part of their seminar series directed to viticulture and wine scientist and members of the wine industry. The seminars are open to anyone who wish to attend but also are live streamed for anybody that can’t attend in person. The recording of the seminar is also posted on the OWRI website for anybody who wants to see it later. During the visit to the OWRI I also had the opportunity to meet and discuss my research with Scientists of the OWRI/OSU.

I also had the opportunity to visit the Food Innovation Center (FIC) which is an OSU and the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) initiative to promote the success of food and agricultural enterprises of Oregon and the Pacific North West regions.

Finally, I visited the winery E&J Gallo in Modesto California which is the largest wine operation in the world. During my visit to E&J Gallo I had the opportunity to see the updates of their small scale research wine making facility. I also had the opportunity to meet a few scientists from different areas that showed me some their research laboratories.

3. Project objectives and performance targets

Objectives:

The objectives of this travel were to

• Present results of my PhD research project via a poster and an oral presentation at the 11th Terroir Congress in McMinnville, Willamette Valley, Oregon, 10th -14th, July 2016. • To obtain feedback and networks/collaborations from the international scientific community at the 11th International Terroir Congress in McMinnville, Willamette Valley, Oregon. • Present results of my PhD via a seminar at the OWRI seminar series. • To visit E&J Gallo winery and deliver a seminar on the results of my PhD research.

Project outputs and performance targets:

Output Performance Targets Date

A. Attendance to the 11th Terroir Abstract submitted and accepted for oral Completed Congress (Willamette Valley, Oregon, presentation, conference attended and July 14 2016 10-14 July 2016) and delivery of an presentation delivered. oral presentation “Can the use of rootstocks enhance terroir?”

B. Networking/Collaboration building Visit to Dr Elizabeth Tomasino at OWRI/OSU Completed and E&J Gallo? And Dr Cyd Yonker at E&J July 18 2016 Gallo winery with the delivery of a seminar at the two institutions.

C. Seminar at the viticulture group Seminar presented Completed Adelaide University, presenting the November 4th highlights and new knowledge of the 2016 11th International Terroir Congress and the visits to OWRI/OSU and E&J Gallo.

D. Disseminate highlights and new Paper submitted and accepted Delayed knowledge from of 11th International Terroir Congress and visits to OWRI/OSU and E&J Gallo winery through publication of an article in one of the wine industry journals.

4. 11th International Terroir Congress, McMinnville, USA

In July 2016, Sandra Olarte (Figure 1) travelled to USA to attend the 11th International Terroir Congress. The congress took place from the 10th until the 14th of July 2016 at Linfield College (McMinnville USA). The congress was attended by 227 participants that included 129 scientist from 23 countries, the remaining attendees included 80 delegates from the Oregon wine industry region. The congress covered nine key areas that brought together over 100 presentations (oral and poster) by wine and viticulture scientist. The congress was run in a format of oral presentations from 8:30 am until 4:00 pm, including poster presentations during the morning tea and lunch breaks. The daily presentation sessions were followed by afternoon site visits to vineyards and wineries of the Willamette Valley AVA’s.

The nine key areas of terroir research that were focused on at the congress were; i) Terroir of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest ii) Climates of wine regions worldwide iii) Soil assessment and management iv) Geological influences on terroir development v) Social constructs of terroir: Tourism, economics and cultural ideals vi) Plant management across different terroirs vii) Landscape/environmental sustainability and biodiversity viii) Terroir zoning techniques ix) Understanding and managing wine production from different terroirs

Summary of selected presentations

Sandra Olarte delivered an oral presentation (Figure 1) and presented a research poster from her PhD project. The oral presentation was entitled; “Can the use of rootstocks enhance terroir?” and the poster “Can sensory analysis help with understanding terroir?” Sandra was approached by other researchers to discuss the results presented in both posters and to send copies to other researchers.

Figure 1. Sandra Olarte during the oral presentation at the 11th International Terroir Congress at Linfield College, McMinnville, Willamette Valley Oregon

Some of the presentations at the 11th International Terroir congress that caught the attention of Sandra Olarte included;

K Pogue (Department of Geology Whitman College) presented Terroirs of Oregon and Pacific Northwest (PNW); Geological framework. In this talk Pogue described the geology events that influenced the formation of the different valleys that make part the PNW region. This process was characterised by events occurred 55 million years ago with a subduction zone that had volcanic sea mounts made of basalt. The formation of the Willamette Valley started 50 million years ago from this subduction zone as the result of multiple uplifting and compression events of this basaltic mounts promoted by the activity of the Juan the Fuca and the Pacific plates. This compression and uplifting of the basaltic mounts resulted in the eruption of this mounts approximately 17 million years ago, creating basaltic lava floods in the Columbia valley but also in the Willamette Valley. Later 12 thousand years ago the Missoula flloods ouccured and brought in to the Willamette Valley sediments. Further alluvium

9 deposits the basalt, sedimentary rock and and sediments from the Missoula flloods are the main alements that contitute the current Willamette Valley soils.

a b

c d

Figure 2. Terroirs of Oregon and Pacific North West (PNW); Geological framework. a) Kevin Pogue during his presentation. b) Extension of the basaltic lava floods in the PNW. c) Extension of the Missoula floods into the PNW d) current geological composition of the Willamette Valley soils. In all relevant figures the red star represents the location of the 11th International Terroir Congress at McMinnville, Willamette Valley.

Gregory Jones (Director of Business, communication and the environment and Professor of environmental science and policy, Southern Oregon University) Pacific Northwest regions and climates. Gregory introduced in his talk the Pacific Northwest, presenting facts of this region. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) wine region is formed by vineyards located in three states of the US (Washington, Oregon and Idaho) and one Canadian state (British Columbia). The PNW wine region

10 includes 30 approved American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), 6 approved Designated Viticultural Areas (DVAs) and 4 new DVAs being develop in British Columbia. Many of the areas were planted in the 1800s but mostly developed after the 1950s. Oregon is the fourth largest producing region in the US with close to 80000 tonnes from 70 winegrape varieties. Oregon wine region is formed by 18 AVAs, 3 are shared with Washington and 1 with Idaho. Oregon counts with approximately 700 wineries and 1100 vineyards distributed in 11500 hectares.

Earl Jones (Abacela Wines, Abacela’s Fault Line Vineyard) Within Vineyard Temperature Structure and Variability in the Umpqua Valley of Oregon. In his talk Earl presented the management that they give to the Abacela’s Fault Line Vineyard in the Umpqua Valley. The vineyard of 33 Hectares is divided by a geological fault and due to this fault and the geological events, different soil types and topography can be found in the vineyard. Earl presented the results of five years measurements of temperature in different points of the Albacela’s Fault Line Vineyard to try to explain the differences in quality and to better manage his vineyard. The results of the five year temperature measurement revealed that the northern slopes were cooler and the southern slopes were warmer. With that result Earl determined that the best plan to plant the different grape varieties to obtain the winegrape ripening for each of the varieties. This talked showed the importance of monitoring, understanding and management of microclimate.

Visit to vineyards as part of the 11th International Terroir Congress During the first three days congress and after the oral presentations field trips were organized to visit a vineyard from a different AVA in Oregon. Three vineyards/wineries were visited and at all three visits a soil pit was prepared to study the soil characteristics of each AVA. The first visit was to Stoller vineyard located in the Dundee Hills AVA. At our arrival to the vineyard Stoller’s vineyard manager Robert Schultz had prepared a soil pit where all congress attendees had the opportunity to see closely the characteristics of a Jory soil. The main characteristic of Jory soil is that it has been formed from ancient volcanic basalt and more often than not they are red colour. The second day field trip was at Maysara Vineyard at the McMinnville AVA. Maysara is a winery and vineyard run by a family with a biodynamic focus. The final visit was to Adelsheim Vineyard at the Chehalem Mountains/Ribbon Ridge AVAs.

5. Visit to Oregon State University and delivery of seminar at Oregon Wine Research Institute, Corvallis, Oregon.

On the 8th of July 2016 I visited the Oregon Wine Research Institute (OWRI).which is located in the campus of Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon. The Oregon research institute has a seminar series where wine scientist from all over the world present the outcomes of their research. I was invited to present at this seminar series titled “Berry Sensory Assessment: A Valuable Tool in Grape and Wine Production”. The seminar was attended by a group in the seminar room but also was attended on-line by about 60 people. This seminar and other seminars presented by other scientist were video recorded and are available for viewing at the OWRI website.

a b

Figure 3. a) Being introduced to by Mark Chien, program coordinator at OWRI to the OWRI seminar series audience. b) Audience at the seminar delivered on the 8th of July 2016.

After the seminar I had different meetings with scientist and staff and students of the OWRI to know the facilities and discuss their research and my research. The first meeting was with Antony Sereni a master student that works at the winery and Nadine Skillingstad research assistant who works with who Dr Elizabeth Tomasino in the Food Science and Technology department. Nadine and Antony gave me a tour of the winemaking research facility were the students and scientist make their wines. After this meeting I met Professor Michael Qian renowned flavour chemist who followed the seminar that I presented and introduced me to some of the members of his research team. Some of his postdoctoral associates gave me a tour of his laboratory.

Following the meeting with Prof Qian I met again with Nadine Skillingstad, who showed me Dr Tomasino laboratory and discussed with me some of the research that they do in wine, such as the one done in Pinot Grigio. She also mentioned that the conduct some of their sensory evaluation at the sensory facilities at the OSU Corvallis campus, but also they do some of the sensory evaluation on their wines at the Food Innovation Center in Portland where from the region are invited to participate in the sensory trials. I had the opportunity to visit the Food Innovation Center (FIC) in Portland in my first day in Oregon with Mark Chien. The FIC is a collaborative facility managed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture and OSU which has a function to help small entrepreneurs with the development of new food products.

Later I met with Dr James Osbourne with whom I had a discussion about berry sensory assessment and some of the topics that I presented in my seminar at OWRI earlier in the day. The last meeting of the day was with Ms Alison Reeve, who is doctoral candidate at Dr Patty Skinkis. Alison was very interested in berry sensory assessment and had some questions prepared from Dr Patty Skinkis on this subject. Dr Patty Skinkis was very interested in introduce the use of Berry Sensory Assessment in some of her current viticultural trials in the region.

6. Visit to E&J Gallo winery, Modesto, California

The visit to the winery E&J Gallo was conducted on the 18th of July of 2016.In this visit I had the opportunity to meet with Dr Feng Hui (Helen) who showed me the area were they receive and prepare the grapes to conduct the different chemical analysis. This operation in conducted at the top level at the basic research building at Modesto, California. In this building winegrape chemical analysis including analysis of aroma compounds and phenolic compounds are conducted. During the time of the number of grape analysis that are conducted are in the order of hundreds of samples per day and the results are used to make harvest decisions. Dr Helen explained that when harvest has been completed they can focus on conducting all the equipment and scientist can focus on research. After seeing some of the Chromatography equipment I was guided to the bottling facility across the road where I had the chance to have a tour of the small scale research winemaking facilities with Ms Haley Meade. When I arrived to this small winemaking research facility the staff and French interns were in the middle of preparation of the equipment for harvest. They were also testing the new small (~25L) stain steel less costume made tanks that had temperature probes and had the advantage of not having to be moved to conduct any of the operations. The Crushers, pumps and costume made presses could be moved right close to the tanks to facilitate all the winemaking operations. After the visit to the small winemaking facility I met Mr Daniel Fines who was conducting research into understanding metabolic pathways of aroma compounds of Sauvignon Blanc as E&J Gallo is very interested in developing wine products with enhanced Sauvignon Blanc aromas. Later I visited With Dr Jiaming Wang the Cellar door for E&J Gallo members of staff where I learnt that E&J Gallo does have a cellar door to retail their wine but it is available in bottle shops.

7. Conclusion

Attendance to the 11th International Terroir Congress provided me the opportunity to present my research and to make new contacts researchers and members of the wine industry from the USA. It also gave the opportunity to showcase the results of my research conducted in Berry Sensory Assessment. It also allowed me to understand with the presentations and visits to the vineyards the different levels of interaction that can create a terroir and influence wine sensory properties.

My visit to the OWRI and OSU gave the opportunity to share the results and methodology used in my research of berry sensory assessment that has not been used much in Oregon. It also gave me the opportunity to create potential collaboration in berry sensory assessment with researchers at OSU.

My visit to the E&J Gallo winery gave the opportunity to get some understanding of how a research facility of a very large commercial wine facility operates.

8. Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge the support by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation who funded the travel to attend and present at the 11th International Terroir Congress and visits to the OWRI. The author would like also to acknowledge the support provided by the OWRI to present at the seminar series at Corvallis, Oregon. Special thanks to the hosts during the study visits.