Three students have been awarded £5,000 scholarships from NFU Mutual for their wine research.
The award for promoting vineyard sustainability was given to Plumpton College students Louisa Heywood, Peter Taswell and Merrick Barcola.
The £5,000 prize will help them upgrade their high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine which will allow them to search for specific components in wine through changes in refractive index – and thus gain a deeper understanding of their impact on wine quality.
Louise Haywood said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won the award. This grant is really important for industry as it allows us to enhance and expand the reach of research at the College, both for students and industry.
“For us, the new equipment will not only support our research projects, but will also be available to other students and industry in the future. We greatly appreciate the support provided by NFU Mutual and Plumpton College in this regard.”
wine making
The award was open to all Masters students who were preparing to start their thesis in September 2024, with winners having to demonstrate that they had addressed the contribution their project made towards the sustainability of vineyards for the wine industry.
The trio's research design “demonstrated the ability to generate meaningful, substantial and tangible results,” Plumpton College said.
Students have been researching new ways to make wine using PIWI grape varieties that have greater disease resistance than traditional varieties and, as a result, could change the environmental impact of the British wine industry if tannin levels are maintained.
David Harrison, Viticulture Specialist at NFU Mutual, said: “It has been really exciting to see the quality of applications for the scholarship this year.
“NFU Mutual has been working with Plumpton College and Wine GB on this award for two years now and we all share a passion for putting sustainability at the heart of English and Welsh wine production. Louisa, Peter and Marek are worthy winners of the NFU Mutual Scholarship.”
Wine GB CEO Nicola Bates said: “This award is important because it directly supports innovation and research within the next generation of UK winemakers.
“Being able to fund Plumpton students reinforces its pivotal role in leading wine education, particularly for grapes that are more resilient to climate change as we look to demonstrate a wider range of plantings across the country in the future.”
