Dr. Aude Watrelot

Assistant Professor & Extension specialist Enology, department of Food Science and Human Nutrition

Courtesy Faculty, Horticulture

I have always been fascinated by nature, plant science and food probably due to my French culture, which resulted in a bachelor degree of plant physiology followed by a master degree in food science and human nutrition. I really loved working on food science as it is a combination of food processing, chemistry and sensory and to go deeper on the food chemistry, I completed a PhD at the University of Avignon and at the National Institute for the Agricultural Research (INRA) with Dr. Catherine Renard, on the “Mechanisms of interaction between polysaccharides and polyphenols in apple”. To keep working on the same topic but on a more complex matrix, I completed two postdoc fellows at CSU Fresno with Dr. James Kennedy and at UC Davis with Dr. Andrew Waterhouse on red wine chemistry involving tannins, polysaccharides and salivary proteins. After few months working as a research engineer on enological tannins at INRA SPO, Montpellier with Dr. Veronique Cheynier, I had the opportunity to start my position of Assistant Professor of enology at ISU. Working in research is very exciting to me and wine is very complex and fascinating. Very little is known about the chemical composition of interspecific grape varieties grown in the U.S. Midwest region and on the effect of the usual winemaking practices on the finished wine tasting. 

As an Assistant Professor of Enology at ISU, my research focuses on filling this gap, that is improve the understanding of the chemical composition in the hybrid grape varieties as well as identify the effect of some viticultural and winemaking practices on this chemical composition and on how that would modify the final wine perception. My extension focuses on education of grape chemistry and winemaking concerns to grape growers and winemakers from Iowa and the Midwest region.

Extension

Dr. Watrelot's current projects include:

• Provide support to winery and provide Extension and Outreach programs for the Iowa and Midwest wine industry.
• Development of workshops and roundtables about wine chemistry and winemaking practices, focusing on oxidation, cold stabilization, wine quality, etc.
• Development of fact sheets on wine faults, winemaking practices.
• Development of articles on research/winemaking topic in the section "Let's focus on .... with Dr. Watrelot" in the newsletter of the Midwest Grape and Wine Industry Institute (MGWII).
• Development of Research & Winemaking webinar series on winemaking techniques for with UMN (University of Minnesota.
• Workshops for wine consumers in various Iowa locations.

Teaching

Dr. Watrelot teaches HORT / FSHN 276 "Understanding Grape and Wine Science" in the Spring.