Advisory Board of Agriculture – Services To Primary Production Award 2011

The Advisory Board of Agriculture (ABA) is calling for nominations for the Service to Primary Production Award.

Nominees need not be Bureau members and the award is not restricted to farmers.

Nominations are welcome for people from any area involved with primary production, including service industries, government, education and agro-politics.

Applications close Friday 12 August 2011. The award finalists will be invited to attend the Agricultural Bureau of SA’s AGM / Awards Night coined the “Spirit of Excellence” Award Night, to be held Monday 12 September 2011. The Spirit of Excellence Awards Night is supported by the ABA, Primary Industries and Resources SA, advisory company RSM Bird Cameron and the Stock Journal.

For more information and a nomination form please visit the ABA website.

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ASSSI SA Branch Event – Jane Gillooly Award/Lecture

Australian Society of Soil Science, SA Branch – Jane Gillooly Memorial Award Presentation & Lecture

Please join us at next ASSSI event for the announcement of the recipients of the 2011 Jane Gillooly Memorial Award.

This will be followed by a presentation from last year’s recipient Callie Nickolai from the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM Board on:

“Building an understanding of the Murray-Darling Basin – a wetland perspective”

The event will take place at 4 pm on Thursday the 7th of July in the Charles Hawker Conference Centre, Waite Campus.

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Brendan Carter awarded dux of the 2011 Lorenzo Galli Wine Scholarship

Bachelor of Viticulture & Oenology student Brendan Carter was awarded the dux of this year’s Lorenzo Galli Wine Scholarship from a total of 15 selected scholars. Now in it’s third year, the scholarship has become Australia’s most significant Italian wine program and one of the leading educational wine tutorials. Patron of the program, Pamela Galli, conceived the scholarship to honour her late husband; businessman, wine lover and winery owner, Lorenzo Galli.

The judges awarded Brendan the scholarship as he excelled in all aspects of the programme. 
The finalist are selected from applicants that submit a 1500 word essay on a given wine topic. All finalists then participated in a two-day masterclass held at Enoteca Sileno, Carlton (Vic) featuring the finest wines made in Italy plus Australian Italian varietals. Italian wine experts from Australia and Italy guide the masterclass.

As the dux, Brendan was awarded a $10,000 all-expenses paid trip to explore premium Italian wine regions and key producers. The prizes awared are personally contributed by the proprietor of Galli Estate Winery Pamela Galli and other sponsors including Enoteca Sileno, Schott Zweisel, Lauretana Water, Hardie Grant Books, Trembath & Taylor and Arquilla.

Registration to the 2012 programme will open in June 2011. For more information or to lodge an interest in the 2012 programme visit http://www.winescholarship.com.au

Award winner Brendan Carter with the Parton of Lorenzo Galli Wine Scholarship Pamela Galli

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Student’s research on off-aroma in wine wins major award

Wine Tasting

A research project being conducted by Josh Hixson, a post-graduate student in Wine Chemistry has caught the attention and won major awards during the recently concluded 14th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference (AWITC).  The conference is held every three years by the Australian Wine Research Institute. Josh received both the judges’ prize and the audience choice award for his research project which investigates the compounds responsible for certain off-aromas.

Josh’s research entitled “Esterified Precursors to Brett Taint in Wine” aims to find out what causes Brett taint, a pungent odor in wine or what the student-researcher described during the competition as ‘horsey’ and ‘leathery’ in smell and taste.  Josh specifically looks into the chemical compounds in the grape that Brettanomyces is using to produce the off-aroma. Brettanomyces, according to Josh, is the yeast that causes the disgusting odor in grape wine. Moreover, he explained that by understanding the chemical compounds, it is then easier to understand and control Brett taint. Under the supervision of Professor Dennis Taylor, Josh’s research is a collaborative project with the Wine Innovation Cluster (WIC).

Written by Ronan Zagado

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