Dr. Federico Casassa received a BS in Viticulture and a MS in Enology from the School of Agronomic Sciences in Mendoza (Argentina), and a Ph.D. in Wine Chemistry and Sensory Analysis from Washington State University (USA). Federico Casassa is an Associate Professor of Enology with the Wine and Viticulture Department of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, California. He also teaches Wine Sensory Analysis in the Wine Program of Hancock College in Santa Maria. His past published research includes studies on the effect of Regulated Deficit Irrigation (RDI) and intrinsic variations of berry size in grapes and wines, cluster thinning, as well as on the various aspects of phenolic extraction and sensory outcomes of different maceration techniques in red wines, including extended maceration, whole cluster and stem additions, cofermentation and prefermentative cold soak.

Katerina graduated high school in San Diego and graduated university in San Luis Obispo where she studied chemistry, biology, and data science. She paid her way through college working as a chemist in the local wine industry, where she witnessed the same wine, bottled under two different labels, receive drastically different industry scores from the same critics. Katerina hypothesized that sufficient understanding of the chemistry of the product, and the biological and cultural predispositions of consumers, could assist the entire industry from winemaker to distributor to retailer to better serve consumers, reduce waste and increase profitability.

Dr. Delarue is Associate Professor at the University of California Davis in the department of Food Science and Technology. His research focuses on methods to measure sensory perception and preferences and on their effective use in food design. He explores the role of context in hedonic measures using immersive environments and digital technologies. He also works to develop and validate rapid and flexible descriptive analysis methods with application to new product development and consumer research.