AVF Awards Scholarships to Viticulture and Enology Students

Napa, Calif., August 20, 2008 – The American Vineyard Foundation (AVF) and the André Tchelistcheff & Dr. Richard Peterson Scholarship Committee has awarded two UC Davis students, Alexander Chassy and Annegret Rust, with scholarships to help support their current research and educational goals.

“For our committee members, who included Dr. Richard Peterson, Dorothy Tchelistcheff, Robert Steinhauer and Scott Deitrick, awarding scholarships to these two commendable students was an easy decision to make,” said Hal Huffsmith, the AVF’s Board Chairman.

Alexander Chassy, a Ph.D. graduate student under the guidance of U.C. Davis professor Dr. Andrew Waterhouse, was rewarded with the André Tchelistcheff Scholarship for his focus of study: “Allocation of Building Blocks for Phenolic Compounds.”

According to Waterhouse, Chassy’s study will add greatly to the fundamental knowledge of grape and wine flavor substances. There is truly no information available on the flux of these important flavonoid substances in grapes, and that such fundamental knowledge is a key to any future efforts to improve the levels of flavonoids in grapes.