Lira Souza Gonzaga Travel Bursary 2019
Abstract
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, this Wine Australia Travel Bursary provided essential support to Lira Souza Gonzaga not only for engaging virtually with academics and industry stakeholders at international conferences but also by assisting with career development. Part of the grant was used to present at the 72nd ASEV National Conference held between 21 and 24 June 2021.
The conference consisted of six sessions with a presentation about the sensory characterisation of typicity in Australian Cabernet Sauvignon wines being delivered in the “Sensory & Aroma Compounds” session. Another part of the grant was used to present in the 4th Asian Sensory and Consumer Research Symposium that occurred between 5 and 7 December 2021. Also composed of six sessions, a presentation highlighting the use of spectrofluorometric data to model Cabernet Sauvignon sensory traits was delivered in the session called “Sensory and Instrumental”.
Finally, the remainder of the grant was utilised to attend the “Hands-on analysis of consumer test data using XLSTAT” with Anne Hasted (Qi Statistics) from 16 to 18 November 2021, which provided an essential set of skills in statistical analysis that will be applied in future work. In summary, the support of the Wine Australia Travel Bursary was invaluable for achieving milestones within PhD candidature, such as disseminating results relevant to the wine industry, interacting at an international level with notable researchers in the field, and gathering knowledge and skills of importance to professional practice.
Summary
Topic 1 – Oral presentation at the 72nd ASEV National Conference
The American Society for Enology and Viticulture was responsible for the organisation of the 72nd ASEV National Conference that was hosted virtually in June 2021. The conference was composed of six live sessions on recent advances in research regarding the impact of smoke on grape and wine, modelling and methodology development, sensory and aroma composition of wine, microbiology, phenolic maceration, and enology. Additionally, it relied on presentations from important wine and grape researchers such as Prof Hildegarde Heymann, Dr Anita Oberholster, Dr Hans Schultz, and Prof Gavin Sacks. Academics and industry stakeholders were provided with a virtual space to network and be updated with the latest technical and scientific information related to winemaking and grape growing. The conference also provided a space for dialogue supporting the identification of potential research gaps, assisting future scientific results and encouraging the application of current innovations.
A 15-minute presentation was given about the latest results of Lira’s PhD research on the sensory characterisation of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon wine typicity during the “Sensory and Aroma Compounds” live session. Two research articles published in journals of relevance to the discipline, one in Foods and another in Food Research International, formed the basis of the presentations.
Topic 2 – Oral presentation at the 4th Asian Sensory and Consumer Research Symposium
The symposium was organised by Elsevier with an organising committee composed of academics and food stakeholders from Nouveau Centric in Thailand, Wageningen University in The Netherlands, Massey University in New Zealand, Ewha Woman’s University in South Korea, HCMC University of Technology in Vietnam, Takasago International Corporation in USA, University of Otago in New Zealand, Taylor's University in Malaysia, TasteMatters Research & Consulting in Australia, and PepsiCo Asia in China. The symposium happened virtually for three days at the beginning of December 2021 and consisted of live sessions regarding understanding consumer preference, the interaction between sensory instrumentation, cross-modal sensory interactions, development in sensory methodologies, plant-based meat and dairy and food choice, health and wellness. This symposium was focused on updating sensory scientists and academics on key areas of sensory and consumer science through experts from Asia and other regions worldwide. It also showcased key developments in sensory methodologies, connecting outputs with current applications in the food industry. A 15-minute presentation on the utilisation of spectrofluorometric data to model Cabernet Sauvignon wine sensory traits was delivered by Lira during the “Sensory and instrumental” live session. Additionally, the results presented were published in a research article in OENO One, a relevant journal in the field of grape and wine science.
Topic 3 – Participation in the “Hands-on analysis of consumer test data using XLSTAT” workshop
The workshop run by Anne Hasted occurred over three half days in November 2021. Anne was an academic statistician in the Department of Applied Statistics at the University of Reading and has over 20 years of statistical consultation specialising in consumer and sensory data. The workshop was divided into four modules covering the main techniques used for analysing data collected during the sensory evaluation of food products and consumer tests. It provided a deeper understanding of the statistical tools important for interpreting sensory outputs. Additionally, the knowledge acquired in this course will be used to analyse future results for research and technical articles.