New wine analysis lab coming to Nova Scotia

Wolfville, NS – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has announced funding of $487,960 over two years to establish a new wine analysis lab at Acadia University.

Nova Scotia currently has 20 wineries and the industry produces about 1.8 million litres of wine annually. As the local wine industry matures, the demand for chemical and sensory analysis services in Atlantic Canada is increasing. Atlantic wineries currently obtain these services from labs located Ontario, Quebec and California, adding both time and cost to their production. This new lab, located in the heart of Nova Scotia’s grape growing region, will help the wine grape industry enhance their competitiveness and capture new markets.

The funding is being made under the province’s Building Industry Capacity Program, as part of Growing Forward 2 – a five-year framework agreement for agriculture cost-shared 60-40 between the federal and provincial governments.

The lab will be located in Acadia University’s chemistry building and will be used for both academic research and industry collaboration. Potential research partners include food scientists, dietitians, biochemists, plant physiologists and producers of food and beverages. The lab is expected to be open in June or July this year.

“This new lab will allow us to contribute even more to the award-winning wine and agri-food industries in our region,” said Ray Ivany, president, Acadia University. “We are pleased to have this new capacity at Acadia for the benefit of our industry partners and our faculty and students performing research in this field.”