A trio of students have secured a £5,000 sustainability-focused bursary from NFU Mutual for their wine research.
The Enhancing Vineyard Sustainability Award has been awarded to Plumpton College students Louisa Highwood, Peter Taswell and Marek Parkola.
The £5,000 award will help them upgrade their high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine which will allow them to look for specific components in wine through changes in refractive index – therefore gaining a deeper understanding of their impact on wine quality.
Louisa Highwood said: “We are delighted to have won the award. The bursary is really important for the industry as it allows us to strengthen and broaden the research at the college, for both the students and the industry.
“For us, the new equipment will not only support our research projects, but also be available to other students and industry people for the future. We greatly appreciate the support of NFU Mutual and Plumpton College in this.”
Wine industry
The award was open to all MSc students who were preparing to start their thesis in September 2024, with the winners having to show they addressed the contribution their project made toward vineyard sustainability for the wine industry.
Plumpton College said the trio’s research design “demonstrated the potential to generate meaningful, substantive and tangible results”.
The students have been researching new approaches to winemaking using PIWI grape varieties which are more disease resistant than traditional varieties and as a result, could change the environmental impact of British winemaking if tannin levels can be retained.
Viticulture specialist at NFU Mutual, David Harrison, said: “It’s been really exciting seeing the quality of applications for the bursary this year.
“NFU Mutual has worked 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 bursary.”
Chief executive of Wine GB, Nicola Bates, said: “This award is important as it directly supports innovation and research within the next generation of UK winemakers.
“Being able to fund Plumpton students furthers strengthens its hub role in leading wine education, especially for grapes that are most resilient to climate change as we look to future proof the wide array of plantings across the country.”
