From the vine to the bottle--Cafe
CIC.
by Kelly, Joel
If the fifth annual Cafe CIC had been an actual cafe, it would have
been a distinctly Parisian one. Instead, Cafe CIC was part of a series
of public lectures on the fascinating chemistry of foodstuffs and
beverages hem March 22, 2007, at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton, AB.
Wine, cheese, and what passes for a baguette (here in Edmonton) were all
enjoyed by the sell-out crowd of 90 people, while strains of Beethoven
and Bach wafted over the conference room. Luckily, no French mimes were
observed, but the event did feature the affable Ken Newman of
King's University College as the master of ceremonies.
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The wine was clearly the main feature of the evening. Participants
learned about every aspect of winemaking and wine consuming from Dietmar
Kennepohl, FCIC, 2006 chair of the local section and professor of
chemistry at Athabasca University. Kennepohl's discussion journeyed
from the vine to the bottle and from the molecular level to some
surprising statistics about global wine consumption. For instance, did
you know that Parisians consumed a whopping 54 litres per person in
2004? He also explained where the diverse range of flavours in wine
originate and how treatment conditions such as the type of wood used to
cask the wine can lead to markedly different tastes, based on levels of
tannins and other flavour molecules.
Ed Fong of Divine Wines (located at 104th Street and Jasper Avenue)
gave the audience a chance to sample some great wines. This tied in
nicely with the lecture, as Fong was able to demonstrate the range of
flavours that Kennepohl had highlighted. Fong also gave tips on how to
taste and purchase wine, and he quickly had the whole audience swirling
their glasses and aerating their mouths to release aromatic compounds.
The sight would have been amusing to an outsider. But audience members
were too enraptured with their beverages to notice as they celebrated
the end of an entirely enjoyable and completely chemical evening.
Joel Kelly, Infochem
COPYRIGHT 2007 Chemical Institute of
Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2007, Gale Group. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.