Science of Wine - Mark Eltom

Canadian by birth, he has taken up his new role, after a varied and quite frankly, rather interesting career. From Canada to Australia, back to Canada, to New Zealand, to Africa and then back to New Zealand, the gambit of career moves he has undertaken are standing him in good stead. A science degree at the University of Western Ontario, followed by wine research, then a viticultural course in Australia, followed by working as a political legislative assistant, to a PhD in New Zealand, and now ensconced in NZW.

The only real link between Eltom’s family and wine he admits was a cask of red that travelled from Italy to Canada with his grandparents after the First World War. Never opened, it still sits in a basement, a stark reminder of where his ancestors came from.

“I just hope it hasn’t all turned to vinegar by now.” 

But from an early age Eltom knew the realms of science was where he was heading to. Just where in the field of science though, was an unknown.

“I did a degree in chemistry and biochemistry,” he says, “but like every other science undergrad, I thought I was going to end up in medical or nothing at all. I soon found out (medical) wasn’t for me. I like being outside too much.”

After completing his degree, his first job and one that has paved his career choices, was at the University of British Columbia Wine Research Centre, where he was a grape and wine chemist.

“Quite fortuitously, the viticulturist got another job and moved on. My boss asked me if I wanted to go out into the field and run the viticulture trials. At that point I had absolutely no idea about anything in the vineyard. I was a hard core analytical chemist.”

The project he was working on, and learning very quickly about vines through, was the effects of shading on flavour and aroma profiles of Cabernet Sauvignon. To say he enjoyed the new role, is putting it mildly. He loved being out among the vines, really enjoyed his liaison with the viticulturists and growers involved in the trial work and thrilled to realise that his research may be of use to individual grape growers.

“Three years after the project began I was still figuring out what was going on viticulturally, when the vineyard manager came up to me and said; ‘So what’s this project going to tell us? Is it going to affect our practices?’ Nobody had asked me that question before – so it became a really important concept to me. Realising that research has to have application to the industry.”

Three years in the field made Eltom realise he wanted to know more about what went on with viticulture, so he headed to Adelaide to undertake viticultural course work. With around 45 in his class, he was one of only four postgraduates that wanted to concentrate on viticulture. The rest wanted to be winemakers.

“And of that four, two were Canadian, one was Chilean and the other from Argentina. So there were no post graduate Australians in my class thinking they wanted to go into viticulture. That surprised me, as I thought everyone really loved that area.”

After completing the course work, Eltom did a U turn, back to Canada and instead of following the wine industry path, he moved into politics.

He was a legislative assistant for a member of parliament, which involved a lot of work with the house and legislature, as well as getting certain bills passed through government. It’s fair to say it was a far cry from research among the vines, although Eltom says his years in the political circles taught him a lot.

“Those two years opened my eyes up on how to deal with people, understand them, stay calm and find the right incentive for the right solution,” Eltom admits.

“What I was doing reminds me a lot of what I do in this job now. It involved working with different parties, each with a completely different point of view. I had to help get them all round the table and look at what we wanted to achieve and what were the best methods of doing that.” 

But the lure of science ended up being too much for the legislative assistant. 

He had always wanted to do his PhD, and after two years of politics, the time seemed right to make the move. Ironically, it was New Zealand he looked towards to achieve that.

“I had met Chris Winefield (senior lecturer at Lincoln University) and Mike Trought (principal scientist at Plant & Food) at UBC, and was inspired by the work they were doing in New Zealand. They said to give them a call if I was interested in studying in New Zealand. So I did. I called them up and they said they had a scholarship, so why not come on down.”

In October 2010, he did just that, and began working with Winefield and Trought on the influence of temperature and carbohydrate availability on inflorescence development.

Having undertaken research that relates significantly to the New Zealand wine industry, reaffirmed Eltom’s two loves - viticulture and science. He loved his time at Lincoln and quickly saw that what researchers and scientists were doing here, was directly impacting growers and winemakers in their own fields. Which is why he is loving his new role at NZW.

“Research and innovation is one of the key factors that will help the NZ wine industry stay competitive. All the information gained however, must be made available to the industry in an accessible manner, such as Grape Days and Bragato. 

“It is also vital to gather and use the feedback from the industry to guide our research programme.”

Within his role he will be helping to oversee two major research projects, the Lifestyle Wines Programme and Vineyard Ecology Programme. 

There are also many other research projects being undertaken; 22 in fact and Eltom says that he is up to the challenge and can’t wait to learn all about them.

“Being part of NZW is a lifetime opportunity for me, combining many of my passions. I am ecstatic to be part of the team.”