{"id":73497,"date":"2021-08-04T12:58:12","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T16:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=73497"},"modified":"2021-08-04T15:50:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T19:50:13","slug":"brock-graduate-student-recognized-for-sparkling-wine-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/08\/brock-graduate-student-recognized-for-sparkling-wine-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock graduate student recognized for sparkling wine research"},"content":{"rendered":"

As several Canadian sparkling wines received international accolades<\/a> last month, Brock University researchers were also recognized for their efforts to make the popular bubbly beverage even better.<\/p>\n

Biological Sciences PhD candidate Hannah Charnock received the Cleveland\u00a0Ohio Chapter American Wine Society Educational Foundation (AWSEF) 2021 Scholarship<\/a> for her research, which examines the chemical reactions that drive flavour development in sparkling wine.<\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving this award is a huge honour and will support me as I push forward with my research and career,\u201d says Charnock, who is studying under Belinda Kemp and Gary Pickering, grape and wine experts at Brock\u2019s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI).<\/p>\n

Every year, AWSEF awards academic scholarships\u00a0(valued at\u00a0US$3,500 each) to full-time oenology and viticulture graduate students in support of their research.<\/p>\n

Charnock\u2019s thesis work is focused on a specific subset of flavour reactions, known as the Maillard reaction, that have been found to contribute desirable caramel, nutty and roasted aromas to sparkling wines. Sometimes called the \u2018browning reaction,\u2019 the Maillard reaction also occurs in cooking (when grilling steak or baking a pie, for instance).<\/p>\n

While scientists are beginning to better understand the Maillard reaction overall, it is currently unclear as to what causes it to occur in aged sparkling wine. As such, Charnock is working to better understand the winemaking processes that contribute to the development of these compounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scholarship will help support me during this year as I carry out a series of fundamental benchtop experiments aiming to characterize the effects of individual components, including sugar type and metal ions, on the rate and pathway of the Maillard reaction under conditions similar to sparkling wine,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

The research is part of a larger project supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant.<\/p>\n

Kemp, who is CCOVI\u2019s Senior Oenologist and a sparkling wine expert, says she is happy to \u201csee the work Hannah is conducting be recognized with a scholarship that supports the North American grape and wine industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kemp also runs CCOVI\u2019s popular Fizz Club, a national event where sparkling winemakers come together to share the latest production and research developments.<\/p>\n

Working in Kemp\u2019s aptly named \u201cBubble Lab\u201d at Brock, Charnock has been enjoying the cross-disciplinary nature of this research.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtilizing my chemistry background to understand the potential impacts of winery practices on sparkling wine flavour has been fascinating, and it\u2019s very interesting that the chemical composition of wine is influenced by these factors,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The scholarship is one of several awards that Charnock has received this year, highlighting the important role this research will have in supporting the production of high-quality sparkling wines in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited about Hannah\u2019s scholarship,\u201d says Pickering, a CCOVI Researcher whose work includes flavour science and the psychophysics of taste. \u201cIt\u2019s another significant \u2018feather in her cap,\u2019 and underscores the excellent work she has been doing, her calibre as a student researcher, and the importance of her doctoral project to the wine industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As several Canadian sparkling wines received international accolades last month, Brock University researchers were also recognized for their efforts to make the popular bubbly beverage even better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":73498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[188,55,41,1,4],"tags":[3630,61,855,8907,8938,3457,3330,9163],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73497"}],"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\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73497"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73504,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73497\/revisions\/73504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}