University News

From the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

The UC Davis Olive Center is releasing a new olive oil that’s as meaningful as it is tasty. “Friends Blend” will be available for purchase starting this week and the community is invited to get a free taste during Picnic Day, a beloved campus event that will be held April 18.

Long before Napa, Bordeaux, or Tuscany became synonymous with great wine, people cultivated grapes and fermented wine.

At a recent Sips and Bites event, UC Davis Ph.D. candidate Arpa Boghozian guided guests through that deeper history. The tasting explored four ancient wine cultures, Lebanon, Greece, Georgia, and Armenia, pairing each wine with the traditions and techniques that shaped it.

From the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

On a crisp autumn morning in Davis, the scent of malt and hops drifted through the Anheuser-Busch InBev Pilot Brewery. Among the gleaming stainless steel, for the first time, all three UC Davis brewing professors stood side by side in the new brewery to celebrate a program that has shaped the modern beer world. 

It has been a whirlwind since our last newsletter, with multiple sold-out events and news to share.

Last Saturday, we hosted our 12th Annual TASTE Food and Wine Tasting. It was a beautifully cool fall evening filled with camaraderie, great wine, delicious food and lively conversation. We are grateful to every guest who helped raise funds to support public scholarship, highlighting food and beverage innovation and research at UC Davis.

From the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

For every juicy tomato or crunchy almond California grows, there’s a pile of pulp, hulls or scraps that often goes to waste. A new online tool, created by University of California, Davis researchers, tracks those agricultural byproducts aiming to find innovative ways to put them to use.

I am pleased to share the 2024 Robert Mondavi Institute Year in Review. I hope you will read about last year's RMI highlights and accomplishments with a focus on student engagement and partnerships. You can find all of our reports on the RMI website.

From the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Is sauerkraut more than just a tangy topping? A new University of California, Davis, study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology suggests that the fermented cabbage could help protect your gut, which is an essential part of overall health, supporting digestion and protecting against illness.

Yeast is an excellent microorganism used for fermenting foods into beer, wine and cheese. However, unwanted yeasts can also spoil dairy products, fruit juices, and more. Currently, yeast identification methods take a long time to process, but many foods are already on the market before then. To combat these problems, UC Davis researchers Hyeon Woo (Howard) Park, J. Mason Earles, and Nitin Nitin experimented with deep learning to create a yeast classification model that can provide accurate results in 1/20 of the typical time.

From the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Nestled among the rolling hills of Napa Valley and surrounded by award-winning wineries like Opus One and Robert Mondavi lies a gem of the research and winemaking world: Oakville Station.