Renowned Phenolic Wine Chemist to Present Honorary Research Lecture at the 75th ASEV National Conference

Davis, Calif., April 11, 2024…Respected professor emeritus and revered phenolic wine chemist Dr. Andrew Waterhouse of University of California, Davis, will present this year’s Honorary Research Lecture at the 75^th ASEV National Conference in Portland, Oregon, on June 19. ASEV honors a research lecturer who is actively involved in scientific research and has a current national or international reputation in their field of research.  

Waterhouse inherited Vernon Singleton’s (ASEV Honorary Research Lecture recipient in 1986) mission to study phenolic compounds after joining the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis in 1991. Initially, the French Paradox directed Waterhouse’s early collaborations on resveratrol and health-related phenolic adsorption and metabolism studies. His current research focuses on phenolics in vineyard development as well as winemaking techniques, and wine oxidation studies that look at basic chemical pathways using modern analytical techniques. Waterhouse headed many projects, some with industry involvement including a large-scale productive oak barrel study and others that attracted public interest including studies on chocolate and antioxidants and, most recently, red wine headaches.

During three decades at UC Davis, Waterhouse was appointed to a number of leadership positions. He served as chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology and recently as director of the Robert Mondavi Institute. He also served as chair of two graduate programs, and later as associate dean of programs at Graduate Studies. He was in the inaugural class of Chancellor’s Fellow and held the John Kinsella Endowed Chair.

Outside of UC Davis, Waterhouse served as an ASEV board member where he led a number of the Society’s symposia on topics ranging from wine and health to oak alternatives and oxidation. He was an associate editor for the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture (AJEV) for many years and is currently the co-editor-in-chief for the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

He has received a number of awards, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Bordeaux. The second edition of his book, Understanding Wine Chemistry, co-authored with Gavin Sacks and David Jeffery, will be released this year.

“ I am most grateful to the Society for this honor, but the real honorees are the many students and visitors who have had great ideas, and of course did most of the work. I hope Vern Singleton would be pleased as well,” said Waterhouse.

He received his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Founded in 1950 by a group of researchers and winemakers, ASEV is dedicated to the interests of enologists, viticulturists and others in the fields of wine and grape research and production throughout the world. The ASEV National Conference is a forum for sharing and disseminating the latest scientific information relevant to winemaking and grapegrowing. The 75^th ASEV National Conference will be held June 17-20, 2024, in Portland, Oregon.  Registration and housing for the conference will open mid-April and early registration ends on June 11.  For more information about the conference, visit www.asev.org.