Yihe (Eva) Sui
Country: China
Degree: Master of Viticulture and Oenology | PhD in Wine Science
Faculty: Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology.
I am from China and I came to Adelaide about six years ago to study the Master of Viticulture and Oenology. Now I am a final year PhD student in Wine Science. I am located on the Waite campus.
My background was in Applied Chemistry back in China, and I had no idea about winemaking and viticulture before I came here.
The reason why I chose the University of Adelaide and the Master of Viticulture and Oenology is because of the well-known reputation of wine studies here. We have really excellent facilities and knowledgeable teachers both from the viticulture and winemaking side. Yihe (Eva) Sui
The really good thing about the degree is that we had a lot of opportunities to visit wineries and to take field trips to the adjacent wine regions such as the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills. We had the chance to look at what they do in their vineyard and see what the winemakers do. We even had the chance to look at how they treat their wastewater, so that's a really great opportunity.
We've also made our own wine from grapes we picked ourselves and that's a fantastic hands-on experience to learn; we monitored our wine day by day and learnt a lot of practical processes on how to make wine. And the really cool thing about the last semester of the Master of Viticulture and Oenology is that students can choose either to do an industry placement (a vintage in any winery) or choose to do a short research component. I chose to do the research component because I was really interested in research. I did brandy making from apple pulp waste and that was a really fantastic project with a lot of industry cooperation and engagement. We visited the site of production of one of the distilleries in the Adelaide Hills and one of the Orchards in the Hills.
During my research, my supervisor was really supportive of my decisions. You can talk to them or step into their office and ask questions anytime you want. So it's really a fantastic experience. Yihe (Eva) Sui
After graduation, I did a vintage in the Barossa Valley which is not far, only two hours’ drive. After the vintage, I came back to the University of Adelaide because there was a good opportunity to do a PhD project with ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production which I'm studying right now.
The really cool thing about Adelaide is that it's one of the wine capitals of the world. There are quite a few world-renowned wine regions around such as the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills. There are a lot of job opportunities around so my plan after graduating from my PhD is to find a wine-related job and stay in the wine industry.