PhD Student, Novel Methods of Sensory Analysis for Scotch Whisky, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Email: sally.macgarry@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-macgarry-35264bb2/
I’ve always been interested in flavour, I learned to cook from a young age and would spend hours in the kitchen. I wasn’t initially drawn to science, instead I ended up in the hospitality industry as my first career. I worked with cocktails and became interested in mixology. I later worked at some high-end restaurants and was fascinated by the intricacies and possibilities of gastronomy. In my 20’s I travelled and worked in as many different places as I could, always eating and drinking locally, expanding my understanding of flavour. I eventually decided to study and came home to the UK to do a BSc in Wine Production. This is where I had my first training in sensory science and realised it was a career I would really enjoy. I soon found that jobs in sensory are few and far between and focussed on expanding my existing knowledge of alcohol production. I worked in wineries and vineyards for a few years before moving to Edinburgh to do an MSc in Brewing and Distilling. After I graduated, I worked as an R&D brewer whilst keeping an eye out for sensory opportunities. In 2021 I took an MRes position on a whisky sensory analysis project looking at the effects of ethanol on the flavour of whisky. The study was with the psychology department of Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) and the sensory department of the Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI). In 2022 I also started working in the sensory department at the institute part time, alongside my studies. My MRes project opened up more lines of inquiry and there were a couple of exciting pieces of equipment arriving at ENU and SWRI, so I continued on to a PhD within the same research group. My project title is: Novel Methods of Sensory Analysis for Scotch Whisky. I’m now in my second year of a 3-year PhD and thoroughly enjoying the process. Scotch whisky is a highly complex product that contains hundreds of flavour-active compounds with highly variable presence and concentrations dependent on raw materials, processing and maturation parameters. With my PhD I’m hoping to help develop new, and adapt existing, sensory methodologies for flavour profiling of Scotch whisky. I’m also working with some new technologies to aid in the understanding of Scotch whisky flavour. I’ve spent the last few months developing methodological parameters at the SWRI for a new intra-nasal olfactometer that we’re hoping to use for determining thresholds of key congeners, and the flavour effects of mixtures of compounds. I’ve also been working with Compusense® on an adaption of Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) where attributes are presented in a wheel format. So far, a one-level RATA wheel (1LRW) has proven to be viable alternative to the Quantitative Descriptive Profiling (QDP) method that we use regularly for spirit assessment. We’re hoping to push the boundaries of what we can do with the wheel by incorporating secondary attributes in a two-level RATA wheel and exploring the capabilities of a temporal taste RATA wheel. I’m halfway through my PhD in terms of time and there is another project on my horizon, involving a functional near infra-red spectroscopy device (fNIRS) that measures neural activity when worn as a cap so it can be used by panellists as they move and drink normally. It’s been a very interesting and varied project so far. I hope to publish work from the project that highlights the importance of sensory analysis in whisky and other spirit flavour research.