Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/152772
SEPTEMBER NEWS B.C. Winemakers Talk Tannin University leader describes new 'cheaper, easier' tannin assay coming soon P enticton, B.C.— One of the Okanagan wine region's top enology researchers announced a new assay that he thinks could rival the well-established MCP (methyl cellulose precipitable) and Adams-Harbertson tests. Dr. Cédric Saucier, head of the chemistry department at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, B.C., announced his findings during a presentation to winemakers at the annual winesandvines.com British Columbia Learn more: Wine Grape CounSearch keywords "B.C. tannin." cil conference held July 15-16. "I'm really happy to announce in advance—the master's thesis will be defended soon—that we have a developed a new gelatin assay," Saucier said "It will take three hours. It's still a bit of 16 W in e s & V i ne s SE PT E M B E R 20 13 time, but you will be able to run samples in parallel. It will just need wine, gelatin, test tubes, distilled water and a UV spectrometer—so no centrifuge." The assay Cedric arises from the Saucier thesis work of graduate student Dawn Visintainer, who is seeking a master's degree at UBCO. Saucier told Wines & Vines he expects Visintainer to defend her thesis by September and, all going well, release a paper documenting the assay procedure soon after. Preliminary results indicate the assay is reliable within 6%. Correlation of its results with those of the MCP and Adams- Harbertson assays is encouraging. "It should be pretty similar type of results, but with an even cheaper, easier method," Saucier said. The announcement comes as Saucier prepares to depart UBCO in September for a year's leave—or longer—to head the enology program at the Université Montpellier II in Montpellier, France. Saucier's four years at UBCO have laid a respectable foundation for future enology research at the school, established in 2005 with the acquisition of the northern campus of Okanagan University College (now Okanagan College, based in Penticton). Saucier secured $1 million worth of research grants for UBC-Okanagan, funding that supported work toward the discovery of 37 new wine grape molecules, including the identification of 23 previously unreported stilbenes in red wine. —Peter Mitham