A team of researchers led by Aude Watrello, assistant professor of food science and expert in human nutrition and popular oenology, has developed a project to better understand the challenges facing U.S. wine industry professionals. We are working on this.
Eighty-five percent of wine production occurs in California, but what if a drier growing season and increased wildfire threat impact the state’s ability to maintain its high production levels?
Aude Watrelow, assistant professor of food science and expert in human nutrition and popular oenology at Iowa State University, is leading a project to better understand the challenges facing wine industry professionals across the country. I am. The results of the project aim to improve regional wine production in the future.
“With so much going on in the United States every year, water is going to be hard to find, and diseases and pests are an ongoing threat,” Wattrelot said. “At some point, new practices will need to be introduced to address changing growing conditions and make growing and producing wine grapes across the United States more viable.”
A challenge for grape and wine production in the Midwest and Northeastern United States is that the hardy grape varieties grown in these regions have different flavor profiles and acidity that consumers are not accustomed to. Through this project, Wattrelot and other researchers hope to discover how viticulturists and winemakers can tailor their wines to meet consumer expectations, and help consumers better evaluate wine. That’s what I think.
There are also opportunities to promote the benefits of buying locally produced wine.
“I think that’s where we need to educate consumers more and really push the topic of sustainability and local production. What impact does bringing wine from other countries have on the environment? ?And how can we make the wine industry more sustainable and resilient?” Watrelot said.
The project, which involved researchers from eight states, began in October 2023. It involved distributing a survey to wine industry professionals (grape growers, winery owners, winemakers, and marketing/sales managers) across the United States. In the survey, participants were asked the following three questions:
What challenges do they face? What do they need to do to address those challenges? What resources do they need to manage those challenges?
The assignments were categorized into three areas: Viticulture (growing grapes), Oenology (enology and wine research)/wineries, and Business Management. The top three national challenges by focus area, as expressed by survey respondents, are:
Viticulture: Disease control, pest management, environment and climate Oenology/wineries: Production costs, microbial spoilage, wine acidity management Business management: Wine distribution beyond the winery and tasting room, winery visitor profiles; Learning about consumers’ evolving preferences for alcoholic beverages
“It was interesting to see all regions of the United States having to deal with the challenges of managing pests and diseases in vineyards and microbial spoilage management in wineries,” Watlo said. “These challenges are both common and unique, but they all appear to be the result of climate change.”
In the Midwest, the biggest challenges for viticulture were environment/climate, such as cold tolerance, and the biggest challenges for oenology were controlling the acidity of the wine.
As a follow-up to the survey, the researchers also conducted focus groups with wine industry representatives in each of the four regions of the United States (West, Midwest, Northeast, and South) and further analyzed data from survey responses. I dug deep. The findings were shared at a strategic planning meeting held before the American Society of Enology Eastern Chapter meeting in July.
The researchers are continuing to analyze the data and plan to use the results as the backdrop for a larger grant to drive the project, which is scheduled to conclude in August 2025.
Kane Hickey, assistant professor of viticulture at Penn State University, was co-director of the project along with Watrelot.
“We are pleased to receive feedback on challenges from stakeholders in the grape/wine industry we serve and to understand unique and similar issues across the diverse viticultural regions of the United States. ,” Hickey said. “We will leverage these findings and use them to partially inform our research and teaching direction for future grants we apply for.”
Funding for this research came from a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crops Research Initiative Research and Extension Program grant.
contact address
Aude Watrelot, Food Science and Human Nutrition, 515-294-0343, watrelot@iastate.edu
Whitney Baxter, Agriculture and Life Sciences Communications, 515-294-2314, wjsager@iastate.edu
