![\"Two](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reid-and-Daniel-copy-1050x707.jpg\")
Master\u2019s students Daniel Phillipow (left) and Reid Ball were the only Canadians to receive a coveted American Society for Enology and Viticulture \u2014 Eastern Section scholarships at a recent conference in Athens, Ga.<\/p><\/div>\n
Phillipow\u2019s master\u2019s research on a yeast isolated from Riesling Icewine grapes, Saccharomyces uvarum<\/em> CN1, can further enhance the aroma profile of white wines, allowing wineries to differentiate their products in the marketplace with a Canadian yeast.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of my project is to better understand how wines made from this yeast smell and taste, especially wines made from aromatic white grapes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Phillipow has found the yeast has a unique ability to consume acetic acid \u2014 which is found in fruit infected with sour-rot \u00a0\u2014\u00a0during the wine fermentation stage.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other part of my project is to look at the yeast and find if it can be used to mitigate the negative effects associated with sour-rot affected fruit and see if it can consume that acid and make the wine fruitier with beneficial aromas,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n According to Phillipow, this would increase the number of desirable wines on the market for consumers and combat financial losses for grape growers and wineries.<\/p>\n With Ball\u2019s research, he is attempting to help winemakers branch out when it comes to uses for the Vidal grape. The variety is commonly used for Icewine due to its skin thickness, cold hardiness and ripening time, making it well-suited for cool climates.<\/p>\n \u201cIcewine, which is primarily produced in Canada, has been decreasing in popularity in recent years,\u201d says Ball. \u201cIt has left growers with a desire to be able to use the grape in something other than just Icewine.\u201d<\/p>\n His research explores fermentation strategies that have been reported to increase a class of aromatic compounds called volatile thiols.<\/p>\n Master\u2019s student Reid Ball organizes his research wines in the cellar of Brock\u2019s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute. His research is attempting to help winemakers branch out when it comes to uses for the Vidal grape.<\/p><\/div>\n By better understanding fermentative techniques to improve the aromatic potential of Vidal, he says wineries will be able to diversify its use and gain additional market share.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are a class of compounds that are associated with a sense of passion fruit, grapefruit and gooseberry\u00ad \u2014 really consumer desirable aromas,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Ball decided to pursue this path after a discovery early in his research detected volatile thiols in some of the Vidal research wine.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we looked at strategies known to increase volatile thiols in other wines, most notably Sauvignon Blanc, because that’s a wine that’s really characterized by volatile thiols,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Those strategies included increased and varied fermentation temperatures, the use of specific yeast micronutrients and different yeast strains.<\/p>\n \u201cWe then did treatments to investigate the impact of how those all applied to Vidal wine, because nobody else had done it yet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Ball aims share this research with industry to provide insights on how to improve Vidal\u2019s aroma.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that there is a lot of Vidal planted in Ontario, this research will give producers additional tools to make a great table wine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brock University\u2019s Reid Ball and Daniel Phillipow are still growing their wine industry careers, but they\u2019re already reaping rewards of their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":103526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,188,55,41,1,5],"tags":[61,14769,210,12631,3325,14770,1246,550],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103522"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103538,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103522\/revisions\/103538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Reid-copy-1050x788.jpg\")