Highlights of the Year 1997
- The Institute installed a new Hewlett-Packard 6890/5973
Series Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer.
- Roadshow visits were made to New South Wales and Queensland;
with seminars held in Hunter Valley, Mudgee, Griffith and
Stanthorpe regions.
- The Chemistry Group, along with the Cooperative Research
Centre for Viticulture (CRCV), completed a National Vineyard
Fruit Composition Survey for Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon,
Chardonnay and Semillon from the 1996 vintage.
- In co-operation with the technical staff of BRL Hardy, the
Chemistry Group established that permeation of the cork seal is a
cause of sporadic oxidation of bottled wines.
- The Microbiology Group isolated a gene from yeast that is
involved in the formation of acetic acid from acetaldehyde and
also expresses a gene in a commercial wine yeast so that the
glycerol content of wine is increased two to three times.
- In collaboration with Mr Yoji Hayasaka of the Waite Campus
Mass Spectrometry Facility, the Microbiology Group developed a
simple sensitive and reliable GC-MS assay for quantification of
diacetyl in wine.
- The Director’s Group synthesized deuterated analogues
of cis- and trans-isomers of oak lactone, the most important
oak-derived flavour volatiles in wine. The amount of these
compounds in wine and oak can now be determined accurately and at
low cost.
- The Analytical Service continued its strong growth, with a
record number of analyses performed on samples submitted for
routine and export analysis. Income grew by 20% over the
previous year, and a positive return on funds was achieved.
- Staff at the John Fornachon Memorial Library responded to a
47% increase in Technical Review requests, a 60% increase
in requests for articles published in Technical Review, a
36% increase in general information requests and a 2% increase in
the number of online searches undertaken by the staff.
- Seventh Advanced Wine Assessment Short Course was held in
July, which gave another 30 participants the opportunity to test
their sensory evaluation performance.
- Staff at the Institute published 42 papers of which 16 were
in refereed journals; undertook 32 lectures mostly with The
University of Adelaide; supervised 19 graduate and honors
students; gave 57 external talks/seminars and presented 16 poster
papers (see Appendixes 1–4 of the Annual Report).
