NWGIC - National Wine and Grape Industry Centre

Dr Anthony Saliba
Senior Research Fellow – Sensory Scientist

Consumer-sensory researcher. Research interests are in Consumer flavour preference, Sensory perception, Wine flavour and quality, Perception of healthfulness of wine, Wine production and packaging innovation

Australian societal attitudes towards wine and the wine industry - Key Theme 5 deliverable, funding currently being sought
Correlates of Consumer Preference of Hunter Valley Semillon - Key Theme 5 deliverable. Investigating Personality Type and “complexity” (and therefore developing a complexity scale). This work is led by Anthony, while John Blackman will focus on demographics, chemistry and flavour as correlates of preference.

Effect of inter-country travel on wine flavour and preference - currently not funded, potential collaboration or work for Casella. Contact: Steve Warne.
Consumer rejection threshold for smoke “taint”- collaboration with AWRI, currently being negotiated. Contact: Leigh Francis.
Safety in the winery and vineyard - Currently not funded, WorkCare NSW contacted Anthony as a potential lead on a project investigating the best way to influence winery/vineyard staff to uptake safe-work practice changes. WorkCare will contact Anthony if funding of more than $50k is plausible, since this would fall outside current work plans. This is a collaboration with the Centre for Rural Health (CSU). Contact: Rod Pope.
Defining a “regional-hero” - Initially working in Mudgee, a process will be developed and trialled to identify a regional hero. Funding is being discussed with the region. Contact: David Lowe.

John Blackman, PhD student - Consumer preference for Hunter Valley Semillon
Yung Yoo, PhD student - Perception of the healthfulness of wine
Hannah McKenzie, Honours Student (Psychology) - Personality type and perception of healthfulness as predictors of consumption volume
Kate Wragg , Honours Student (Sheffield Hallam University, Psychology) - Personality type and flavour preference
Dan Pentony, Honours Student (Scholarship funded by Westend Estate, Wine Science) - Using cellar door sales data to predict customer preferences