Gaelle Leblanc

March 10, 2015 0 Comments

My name is Gaëlle Leblanc and I am a French Masters student keen on food sciences and innovation. I am studying in a Food Process Engineering school in Nancy, in the northeast of France, although I am from the southeast. Once graduated, I will be able to work in the food industry, hopefully doing research and development of new products, logistics or food processing services.

Because of a thirst for travelling and learning, I took a gap year before my last year of study to come to New Zealand.

New Zealand seems a mysterious and far away country which I discovered through the famous Tolkien books when I was younger! The beauty of the landscapes made me dream about going and visiting all of these places.

And it was also an opportunity to discover oenology, a fascinating field I haven’t studied before. That’s why I looked for wine research centres in New Zealand, and I found Lincoln University. I contacted Dr Roland Harrison to apply for an internship to participate to New Zealand wine research.

Now, I am working on phenolic compounds and comparing the composition of different Pinot Noir wines, during a 5 month internship. My analyses consist of the study of wine colour, and the concentration of tannins and other phenolic compounds such as polymeric polyphenols.

At the end of my internship, I will travel around New Zealand for a month before going back to France and to finish my studies and graduate.