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.
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.
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.
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.
Anita Oberholster, a wine chemist and professor of Cooperative Extension in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at University of California, Davis, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer. She was 50.
Food and wine are more than just great flavors – they reflect the stories of communities and traditions. Darrell Corti, a Sacramento food and wine expert, has spent a lifetime sharing those stories, enriching California’s culinary landscape with his introduction of new tastes, ingredients and varietals.
In a celebration of friendship and fermentation, the 2024 UC Davis Iron Brew competition has crowned Brew La-La as this year’s winner. With each sip, this Belgian blonde ale features hints of honeysuckle, wildflowers and citrus blossoms that intertwine with subtle undertones of vanilla, bubble gum and honey.
An interdisciplinary team of scientists and researchers from University of California, Davis, are studying agave plants in the Golden State as farmers are turning to the crop as a potential drought-tolerant option of the future.
Ben Montpetit, a yeast geneticist and biochemist, is the new chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology at University of California, Davis.
Montpetit joined UC Davis in 2016 and became department vice chair in 2021.
In his new role, he plans to enhance student offerings, continue to advance diversity efforts and foster investment in students, faculty, staff and department operations.
The University of California, Davis, is leading the establishment of a new Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein, or iCAMP. The center will work toward large-scale commercialization and technological advancement of alternative proteins, including cultivated meat (from animal cells grown in large fermentors), plant- and fungal-based foods, and innovative hybrids that combine conventional meat products with alternative proteins.