I am a Master student and research assistant in Enology and Fermentation Lab in Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Tech. I moved to Blacksburg, VA from China in summer 2014, and adapted and adapting the life after this huge transition.
I did not drink wine or any other alcohols before I moved to the US, since it is not being considered as elegant or a good habit for young females to drink alcohols in China. But I involved in several wine tastings in our lab as part of my research. Fortunately, spiting out after tasting is nasty but professional. I run some fancy advanced analytical instruments in out lab, that are able to explore the chemical mystery behind the sensory. The most magic one is the separation and identification of 15 polyphenols compounds (main reason for bitterness and astringency in wine) in 10 minutes with 0.01 ml wine sample. Normally I will get a full bottle wine for analysis, so I save and share the rest of the sample to my fellow students for tasting. The magic relation between the sensory characteristics and the complicated numbers with statistical significance or non-significance marked is fascinating. Based on that, we can further manipulate the sensory properties of wine by modifying the production process, including grape cultivar, yeast, fermentation conditions and more.
Unfortunately, I did not find my favourite wine yet. I hope that I can be able to remember and pronounce the names of wine (painful) and broaden my knowledge on wine appreciation. Hope everyone enjoys this course and have a wonderful journey getting to know more about wine.
No comments:
Post a Comment