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

Abstract

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.

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.