Transcript
Captioning provided by Disability Access Services
at Oregon State University.
[music]
>> The art and wine industry,
it's a big economic driver in the state.
With a large increase in the number of wineries and vineyards
as well as the tourism it brings in,
it does contribute significantly to the industry.
So it's important that we maintain our viability,
our economic sustainability,
and quality is really the key factor there.
And so that's where research comes into play,
is better understanding what factors play into wine quality.
And the research that's been going on here at OSU
for 20 to 30 years now
has really shaped where we're at now as an industry.
So it's shaped the way we grow grapes and how we make wine,
things that are unique to Oregon
that we can't just necessarily cut and paste
from how things are done in California.
So, with our research, you know,
part of that maybe is looking in the vineyard,
and how do we improve efficiency in the vineyard?
How do we improve the quality of the grapes
that we're producing?
On the wine side, there's a lot of research
looking at improving efficiency in the winery
but also maintaining and improving quality.
A lot of our projects try to look at that whole approach,
we call it "from vine to wine" approach
where we have a number of different researchers involved
from the viticulture side
all the way through to the winery side,
the analytical side, and then the sensory side.
My research focuses mainly on microbiology of wine
and understanding both the beneficial side of microbes
as well as the spoilage side of microbes.
So we have projects that look at both improving quality
through the use of different yeast
or understanding how to use different yeast
as well as kind of prevent growth of spoilage organisms
sort of to prevent spoilage of the wine.
I'm excited about where we're at right now
both as an industry and as a research group
here at Oregon State.
But I'm really excited about where we're going.
I think we've just really started to form
a good foundation here,
we've got a large group of researchers
who are excited about the research
and really engage with the industry.
And we've got an industry that's really, I think,
excited about the research that's going on here
and they're really engaged.
And so I think we're at a point now where
we're really going to make some big strides.
There's kind of a new momentum, I think
behind what we're doing.
So it's exciting.
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Oregon State University is home to the Oregon Wine Research Institute, which is comprised of 12 core scientists with expertise in areas that include viticulture, enology, pest management, flavor chemistry and sensory analysis. It's a virtual institute with offices and labs at OSU's Corvallis campus and several of its research centers around the state. Its mission is to address the needs of Oregon's wine industry through research and educational outreach.
Want to learn more about this topic? Explore more resources from OSU Extension:
Wine grapes, Wine, beer, cider and spirits
