A family wedding brought me from South Africa to the Adelaide area in Australia in June 2024. I had emailed ahead and was very pleased that Ella responded and put me in touch with Dr Wes Pearson. Wes said it would be possible for me to pop in at his sensory lab on Monday 24 June 2024. So on that rainy Monday afternoon in Adelaide, my driver, I mean husband, and I made our way to the Waite Campus of The Adelaide University, after a morning shopping at Rundle Mall (where I bought an extra suitcase so that I could get all the (mainly) interesting groceries back to South Africa. Love touring grocery stores when overseas).
The Waite Campus is up against the hills as you leave Adelaide, right by the highway that leads to Mount Barker - the town where we were staying for the wedding.
The AWRI building interestingly didn't have any signage on the outside. But we found some nice banners in the foyer where we could take a photo with a sense of place.
We signed in at the front desk and were issued a security sticker. The automated system let Wes know we were there, and we went straight to the lab/prep section between the booths for 90 minutes of non-stop conversation until Wes had to leave for his next meeting.
Wes is the Senior Research Scientist and Sensory Group Manager at AWRI and has been managing the sensory lab for many years. He completed the UC Davis Sensory Certificate Program in 2012/3 and is really passionate about his work. He also runs his own winery Juxataposed, and recently joined the Board of the McLaren Vale Grape, Wine & Tourism Association. A busy man.
The sensory space consists of a central prep area with a huge window on one side for great natural lighting, and a big exhaust pipe in the middle to extract any odours that might interfere with the sensory analysis in the booths. This central area is where samples are portioned (usually wine poured into ISO tasting glasses, although it sounds like the product range might be expanding) before being served to the panelists through each hatch to the booths. Two dishwashers (an older, reliable one that Wes says is like a Toyota - it just keeps going, and a newer, less reliable one) take care of the washing of the many many wine glasses.
On the day of our visit, the glasses with their 3-digit codes were standing ready on the central counter for the next day's NOLO wines data capture testing.
The prep area has two "corridors" of booths, one on each side, seating 6 per side. Each booth has a hatch to the prep area, lights to signal issues/next sample, and a tap and basin. A packet of tissues (to mop up any spills).
Across the hall is the discussion room. Panelists sit around a big table and train on the samples in much the same way as my panels back home. Seeing similar notations on the board from the recent training session, with descriptors and check marks made me feel right at home.
For testing and data-capture in the booths, the lab uses Compusense and tablets. The seating in the booths is randomized. (None of my panels do this. We sometimes sit in different booths but mostly our panelists have been sitting in the same booth for many many years, only moving to another booth if a computer breaks or something like that. We also usually sit in the same place around the discussion table. This became especially true during the COVID years when we were trying to minimize contact and everyone had their assigned spaces.)
The AWRI sensory lab has a database of about 20 people. When a new project begins, panelists confirm their availability via a Google form. Usually 12 people are needed per project. There's usually not a problem with too many responding as some panelists have limited availability. There's a special smoke taint panel made up of external panelists and internal staff. The expert panel and rapid screening panel are made up of internal staff only.
Those panelists who have more time available are roped in to help with the prep and are paid for their time. On that note, panelists are paid per hour, with sessions usually 2 hours at a time and usually 3 sessions per week, ie 6 hours per week. The hourly rate for external panelists is a bit more than double what we get in South Africa. Free parking is available near the building. The external panelists usually get together informally for a lunch about once a month.
Once a year, each panelist has an individual feedback session with Wes and the panel leader. A "panelist of the year" award is given - a trophy in the shape of a nose! I'd like to see that trophy.
Legislative panels
Wes also spoke about the Australian wine industry's Label Integrity program (LIP). In the past every wine made in Australia was tasted by a sensory panel, but since 2012 this is not the case any more. Compliance with the LIP is now monitored by spot check audits by a Wine Australia Label Integrity Inspector, with hefty penalties, and even up to two years in jail for transgressors. In South Africa wine is subject to the Wine of Origin Certification process, and one of the components is a sensory evaluation/screening for minimum quality - wine should be free of a certain set of unacceptable quality characteristics. I have been tasting on one of the certification panels for the last 15 years so it was very interesting to hear about the Australian LIP.
From the sounds of things, the AWRI sensory lab has started taking on some non-wine work - Wes mentioned that they were looking to do sensory evaluation on oysters soon. As he said, with a trained panel it doesn't really matter what it is that you're evaluating. Trained panelists are experienced in describing and quantifying the sensory qualities of anything really. One of my panels has even worked on bottled water - that was quite hard, but in the end not as hard as I thought it might be.
Thank you, Wes, for taking the time to meet with us! Hope I can return the favour and show you the sensory labs of the Stellenbosch area soon.
More reading:
https://www.meiningers-international.com/wine/opinion/devils-advocate-wine-world-needs-more-research-not-less
