A Conversation with Dr. Joy Ting

October 18, 2024.  October is Virginia Wine Month everyone!  To celebrate, we present the following discussion we had with Dr. Joy Ting, the Research Enologist^ for the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange (VWRE) headquartered in Charlottesville.  Joy is also the sole proprietor of Joy Ting Wines.  She holds a PhD in Applied Biology from Georgia Institute of Technology and holds a certificate on winemaking from the University of California, Davis.*

Tell us a little about how a Doctor of Applied Biology ends up as the lead research scientist at the Virginia Winemakers Research Exchange. 

            When I completed my PhD, I moved with my husband, Paul, to Charlottesville.  This was in the early 2000’s.  Paul had accepted a position at the University of Virginia hospital as an anesthesiologist and professor of anesthesiology.  I took positions teaching biology in Charlottesville area schools.  I have had a long interest in wine production – the science and the art.  Even though there were not many wines that we enjoyed, it seemed as if we were on the cusp of a new era in winemaking in Virginia. 

I had been teaching for several years and coming to the realization that teaching was not what I wanted to do as a life work.  I was getting burned out.  It so happens that we planned to go on vacation to France and stay at a house owned by Michael Shaps.  During a dinner with Michael and his wife to discuss the house and its surroundings, Michael asked if I would be interested in taking over running the lab for his winery.  At first I said “no,” but eventually I pursued this opportunity, interviewed with Ben Jordan for the job (Ben was Michael’s winemaker at the time), accepted the job and gave up teaching.  I started as a lab tech in July 2013 and had a lot of on-the-job training from Ben and others.  I also completed the winemaking courses at UC Davis.  In 2016, I took over as Michael’s winemaker. 

It was around this time that The Winemakers Research Exchange was established, first to serve winemakers in the Charlottesville area, and then in 2016 expanding coverage to the whole state in partnership with the Virginia Wine Board.  In those years, the Research Enologist position was an administrative job managing research projects.  I accepted the offer to take on the Research Enologist title in 2018 because it offered access to all the commercial winemakers in the state.  Also, I wanted to change the focus of the position to include conducting science, not just an admin function.  I am thankful to Emily Hodson, Ben Jordan, and Michale Shaps and others for encouraging me and mentoring me and continuing to be with me in the winemaking fellowship.

Did your husband play any part in your interest in wine? 

         I met Paul before I was legal drinking age.  Paul’s medical school was paid for by the Air Force and he was posted several summers of his ROTC commitment out west.  As it turns out, he was based near Napa Valley and often visited there.  Once I could drink legally, I visited Paul out in California and that is where I was really first introduced to wine.  As you know, besides being an anesthesiologist, Paul holds several credentials in the wine world including a WSET Level 3 certification.  We even honeymooned in Napa! 

Can you describe the process VWRE goes through to consider which research projects to spend its resources on? 

     You can find the criteria for WRE projects on our website.  Basically, we are looking for practical experiments that are at production scale.  We are sensitive to what production scale means for smaller wineries of which there are many in the state.  If there is academic research on a question, can the small academic lab’s results be scaled-up?  Since the WRE is funded by the Virginia Wine Board, we look for projects across the state, although more come from central and northern Virginia because that is where the greatest concentrations of wineries are.  We try to spread the love.  We consider which projects would have the most impact, what problems are most widespread and can be easily implemented (as many wineries don’t have extra capital to spare).  For example, is a new piece of equipment worth the investment; does a particular yeast produce the results as advertised; is warm or cold fermentation advised for particular circumstances.

As for funding, the Wine Board has been generous with us.  Our funding is consistent with demand.  As you know, our experiments are conducted by the winemakers themselves.  We seem to have as much funding as winemakers who want to do projects. 

Part of the job is doing the research and managing experiments. Part of the job is sharing the information.  From January to May, we conduct sensory sessions where any commercial-scale winemaker will be invited to participate.  We have triangular blind tastings (2 of the same wine and one experimental) to see if the winemakers can taste a difference and articulate the difference particularly in the context of the experiment’s goals.  For instance is the wine better with warm or cold fermentation?  We will conduct the tastings in different locations to see if results are transferrable or localized.

What are some research studies conducted by VWRE or by your contributing wineries or vineyards that you consider to be the most significant contributions to better operations and outcomes? 

        We have done some significant work in how the rate of chaptalization makes different alcohol content.  When first learning winemaking, many students take the teacher’s preference for the target level of alcohol to be the rule on chaptalization.#   Certainly, in Virginia there was much received unchallenged wisdom on this point.  We showed that chaptalization effects go beyond the level of alcohol to affect tannin structure and fruitiness.   

We have also done some work on when and how much sulfur dioxide to add at the start of fermentation and with aging.  My thanks to Kirsty Harmon for running that experiment and getting reactions of different levels from the sensory sessions.

Another area of research has been on whole clusters or carbonic maceration in red wine fermentation.  We do more of this in Virginia than many other wine producing states and there is a lot of interest here about it.  To me, whole cluster produces a lighter and fruitier wine.  Besides that, whole cluster should reduce the labor demand at the sorting table as you’re not as concerned with jacks and stems (which, by the way, our research shows inclusion makes little difference in the final wine).  As the labor supply is often short, not having to commit as many people to the sorting table frees them up to do other jobs.  WRE tries to help the Virginia producer do more with less.

Besides being a research scientist, you are also the sole proprietor of Joy Ting Wines.  How do you balance your time between being Joy Ting winemaker and Joy Ting Research Enologist at the Exchange?  Unlike most winemakers, you were a researcher and scientist first.  Has being a winemaker yourself changed your approach to research?

        I’m afraid I don’t balance the two very well.  Michael Shaps let me use his facilities to try out different winemaking techniques on my own.  I learned a lot that way.  When I took the WRE position I wanted to continue making my own wine.  The WRE Board enthusiastically supported me in my winemaking.  Being a winemaker myself greatly helps me in my research enologist duties because it puts me in the same trenches as other winemakers; it helps me understand the grapes; and it helps me understand how realistic or unrealistic an experiment is.  What changes need to be made to an experiment to make it workable for a winery.  For example, don’t start an experiment during harvest when the winemaker is totally preoccupied with his or her crop.

I purposefully keep my own wine production low so that it does not interfere with my WRE duties.  Harvest is a slack time at the Research Exchange but it’s the busiest time for my own personal production.  How to spend each day most efficiently can be a challenge.  My husband Paul, is my sole support in my production (Paul’s Linkedin profile lists “cellar hand” as one of his current occupations.)

 

                                                                      A Joy Ting Wine - Amuse - Cabernet Franc

What is the relationship between VWRE and Virginia Tech?  Is there a demarcation line between you? 

            There really isn’t a clear demarcation line between what WRE does and what Virginia Tech does.  You might say that Virginia Tech focuses on viticulture and WRE focuses on the enology. 

Virginia Tech can produce some academic papers and WRE will see how the academic findings apply in real life.  In a sense, we may take their work and move it a step further along.  WRE papers and experiments don’t usually result in papers publishable in academic journals.  Our focus is on practicality.  Also, it may take two or three years to research, vet, and publish an academic paper.  WRE tends to get our results out in 6 months or less because we are addressing a more urgent need for concrete answers

That being said, we work closely with the Virginia Tech enology and viticulture folks.  Dr. Drew Harner has replaced the recently retired Tony Wolf in viticulture.  I am on the panel to consider the new professor of enology at Virginia Tech (to replace Bruce Zoecklein).  We are redefining the job so that it is half enology (research and teaching) and half devoted to the extension service so that there is direct interaction with growers and winemakers.

You participate in the ViRV Grape Breeding Program to develop grapes with high vinifera parentage and high resistance to downy mildew for the Mid-Atlantic.  How is that going?  What’s the status? 

         The Virginia Resistant Varieties program is going great.  It’s a separate program in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  It is managed under the Winemakers Research Exchange but has a separate funding stream.  I’m on the committee for this.  The idea came from Emily Hodson and Ben Jordan.  We are also lucky to have Dr. Surya Sapkota from Cornell to help with plant breeding.  I am happy that there is a nexus of technology and expert personnel to produce a mildew resistant largely vinifera plant.  Our work is being carried out at an experimental vineyard run by the USDA in Kearneysville, West Virginia, where each row grows a genetically different plant.  We have had now the third planting in this long-term project, and we may be getting to a point where we might see some fruit.  The fruit, when it comes, still has to be analyzed for soundness and we need to understand its chemistry – which crosses to rule out and which ones to explore further.  Interest is building and I know it’s hard to patient.  (The final project report for 2023-24 states that results are expected within 10 to 15 years.)  I can’t give you any scoop on a release date!

According to the ViVR final report, a successful grape would have more than 90% vinifera parentage and be resistant to downy mildew.  It also has to correlate to “high wine quality and consumer acceptance.”  Is a grape that’s 90% vinifera still vinifera and marketed as such?

        Whether a 90%+ vinifera grape can be marketed like that is up to the regulators.  But does it matter?  Chardonel and Chardonnay are treated the same under the regulations.ϟ  What we are doing is not GMO [Genetically-Modified Organism].  We are only using DNA to screen, not to alter the plants.  We are doing hand pollination just like Gregor Mendel did it all those years ago.  We should be proud of the result. 

We are also happy to have Lee Campbell on our Board to advise on that customer acceptance piece, to help translate our grape into what the customer can understand.  In addition, we have valuable partnerships through the Virginia Wine Board and the Virginia Wine Marketing Office.  Annette Boyd and her team will be of great assistance to us once we have a product to sell.

What research is going on under the auspices of the VWRE that is aimed at adapting to the effects of climate change? 

        Let me say that one expected benefit of a grape coming out of the ViRV program is that it should be more resistant to climate change impacts.  Vinifera grapes were developed for fruit yield in the 1700’s.  We are working for the environment today and the future. 

WRE is generally the last step to help address what’s happening now.  Climate change or not, we know that Virginia’s climate is always variable.  So, we need to advise winemakers on tools and practices for what is happening this year.  For example, BRIX and acid variability: we know Virginia will be wet and warm, which elevated pH.  [See the Hard Work module for abit more info on BRIX and pH.]  How to get it down without impacting taste?  This year, the Charlottesville area had two weeks of rain.  Chambourcin tends to do better in rain than a lot of vinifera plants.  Our advice may include how to make different styled wines with those Chambourcin grapes.  Our winemakers can’t wait 2 to 3 years for an academic answer.  The WRE tends to have a more immediate perspective.     

How do you see a balance of varietal/vinifera grapes and hybrids fitting into a strategy to address global warming? 

        When you consider how long an experience humankind has had with Cabernet Sauvignon, our knowledge of its chemistry, growing habits, and the like, we just don’t have that experience and chemistry with many hybrids.  Cabernet Sauvignon has been around much longer than Cayuga.  Research behind hybrids from Cornell or Minnesota have experience and chemistry around their hardiness in climates that are colder than Virginia’s.  I admire the work Karl Hambsch is doing at Loving Cup Winery, growing only hybrids.  But he, and any hybrid grower, has to be careful of acid levels and disease pressures in Virginia that Cornell and other breeding programs just don’t see. 

October is Virginia Wine Month.  What have you been doing or plan to do to celebrate?

        October is indeed a beautiful month in Virginia!  For me, October is my busiest time, finishing my own wine production and then picking up the pace at WRE.  I’m afraid my wine Month celebration will be spent pouring my wine in a lot of places.  I have recently moved my winemaking site to Eastwood Winery where I’ll be able to pour some of my own production in their tasting room.  And I’m really excited that Eastwood is planning to open a new tasting room next Spring on Avon Street in the Belmont area of Charlottesville.  Eastwood will have space for independent winemakers like me to have a more permanent presence.

-------------------------

 ^ Enology (also spelled “Oenology”) is the science and study of wine and winemaking.  It is distinct from viticulture, which is the science of growing, cultivating, and harvesting grapes.  One-third of the funds allocated to the Virginia Wine Board from the Virginia Wine Promotion Fund must be spent on viticultural and enological research.  Va Code 3.2-3005.

* I did not electronically record the conversation.  This post is a paraphrase of the conversation using my notes from the interview with additional explanations where indicated.  I have tried as much as possible to be faithful to what was said and the tone in which it was conveyed.  We are truly thankful to Joy for her time and insights.

# Chaptalization is the addition of sugar to wine must to aid fermentation and raise alcohol levels. 

Ϟ See the Bureaucracy module for more information about wine labeling.  Basically, all grapes – are treated the same with the exception of Vitis labrusca (e.g., Catawba, Niagara).  27 CFR 4.23.