The main objective of the research activities within the DVO is to contribute to enabling the South African industry to produce wines and vineyard products of a high quality with the aid of environmentally friendly technology in the most cost-effective manner. Industry-linked research that can be implemented by means of technology transfer to the industry is undertaken at all times.
Viticulture | | |
Grapevine cultivation; Grapevine and climate | Dr Albert Strever | Plant management and remote sensing; Grapevine physiology |
| Grapevine physiology | Prof Kobus Hunter | Grapevine metabolism and cultivation |
| Table grape production | Mrs Eunice Avenant | Viticultural aspects of table grape production (rootstocks, dormancy management, plant bioregulators); Water use efficiency |
| Ecophysiology of berry ripening | Dr Erna Blancquaert | Berry growth, composition and quality, disease and fruit genetics. |
| Precision Viticulture | Dr Carlos Poblete-Echeverria | Modelling of water
consumption, stress detection, development of new computational and
technological tools for precision viticulture. Studies of climate change
impacts on viticulture |
Oenology | | |
Wine microbiology | Prof Maret du Toit
Prof Florian Bauer | Malolactic fermentation and its role in winemaking; Microbial spoilage of wine Yeast, alcoholic fermentation, aroma production |
Wine chemistry | Prof Wessel du Toit | Wine ageing, aroma, wood, phenolics, oxidation, and sensory of wine |
| Ms Marianne McKay | Wine aroma. Smoke taint and volatile phenols. Teaching methodologies: Innovative and transformative learning in science. |
Cellar technology | Mr Riaan Wassung | Winemaking, wine apparatus |
Grapevine molecular biology and biotechnology |
Prof Melané Vivier; Dr Philip Young; Dr John Moore; | Molecular and metabolite profiling of vines in vineyard settings |
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Wine Biotechnology | |
Prof Florian Bauer | Yeast molecular and cellular biology |
Dr Benoit Divol | Microbial interactions and spoilage – impact of microorganisms on wine properties |
Prof Maret du Toit | Molecular biology of wine lactic acid bacteria and interaction with wine yeasts |
Dr Evodia Setati | Using metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches to study diversity and mine novel biocatalysts |
Analytical chemistry
Advanced chemical-analytical techniques in viticulture, oenology and biotechnology |
Dr Hélène Nieuwoudt | Focus on non-destructive infrared spectroscopic analytical techniques and data processing,wine sensory profiling, sensometrics, consumer perception |
Prof Antonio Ferreira | Flavour chemistry focus on the chemical definition to wine quality. metabolomics |
Dr Astrid Buica | Sample preparation, chromatography, untargeted approaches and data handling for information rich techniques (IR, UV/VIS,MS etc) |
