Eline Clerckx

Eline
Clerckx is 23 years old and she is from Belgium. She is currently a graduate
student in molecular biology specialising in plant- and agrobiotechnology at
the inter-university programme of VUB, KULeuven, and UAntwerp in Belgium.
Why did you choose to take part in this summer
school? What were your objectives?
I have been
visiting Bordeaux every summer since I was a little kid, and I appreciate the
beauty of the region and its vineyards. Naturally, viticulture has always
fascinated me and now that I am becoming more educated in my field of study, my
interest was piqued even more. Working on a paper I was writing for a course on
plant diseases, I read about the Grapevine Fanleaf Virus and its effects on
vineyards. This confirmed that the topic of vineyards and using biotechnology
for disease resistance in crops was something I enjoyed reading and learning
about. It is a topic I could see myself doing research on, in the future. Since
viticulture is the first step in the development process of creating wines, I
think it is important to know the wine industry well if you want to do relevant
research that can be applied in the field. While I have a solid background in
science, I did not have much background in other aspects of the industry.
Therefore, I was eager to learn more about oenology and the economic and
marketing aspects of vine and wine in general. This is why I was very excited
when I found out about the summer school “Wine and sake: the cutting-edge of
oenology and sakeology” and decided to apply.
What did you learn from this experience? What
is your overall impression?
I learned a
lot during this summer school and I have a much clearer view of the overall
wine industry and the complexity of oenology. The sakeology part was very
interesting to me as well. Even though I was relatively new to the concepts of
sakeology and did not know much about it, I found that it is another
fascinating industry.
What was the highlight of the programme?
It is difficult to pick only one highlight because I had so much fun during the entire week. But if I really have to choose I think the highlight of the programme was the visit to ‘Martell’. It was so interesting and very beautiful. It was nice to see the cellars and hear the story of the ‘Martell’ business.