Overcoming the Challenge of Applying Chemical Engineering Principles to the Art of Winemaking

Producing a red wine involves a heterogeneous, three-phase system with complex fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mass transfer, and kinetics (both chemical and biological).  Yet, the vast majority of winemakers globally, and most of wine consumers, have no idea, and prefer to describe the process in terms of the smell and taste of the fermenting or finished product.  How much blackberry aroma is there in the nose?  Does the Cabernet fill the mouth pleasantly or does it make your mouth pucker in an unpleasant manner?  What if you could predict and explain these seemingly qualitative assessments using chemical and biochemical engineering principles?  In this talk, I will give some examples of how we have done just this over the years, touching on explaining the kinetics of yeast fermentations using unstructured models, examining how computational fluid dynamics can be used to explain the tannin profile of a finished wine, and understanding the biological basis of yeast ethanol tolerance and yeast-derived sensory impact molecule production using genome-scale mathematical modeling, among other ideas.  Ultimately, the goal of this work is not to replace the winemaker, but to augment the tools at their disposal to produce creative, high quality wines that delight the consumer.

Presented by:

David E. Block

Ernest Gallo Endowed Chair in Viticulture and Enology

Professor and Marvin Sands Department Chair, Department of Viticulture and Enology

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

University of California