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Wine Ink: Wine 101 — California’s institutions of higher learning

Kelly J. Hayes
Wine Ink
Students receiving grapes on the California State University, Fresno, sorting line.
Fresno State Department of Viticulture & Enology | Special to the Daily |

Want to enroll?

So you want to be a freshman again? You can find out more about these and wine programs at the following websites:

Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture: http://www.wvit.calpoly.edu

Fresno State: http://www.fresnostate.edu/jcast/ve/index.html

UC Davis: wineserver.ucdavis.edu/index.html

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Under the influence

2014 Liberty School Merlot: Looking for a rich, lush Merlot for under $20? You should. Merlot is yummy. This offering from Liberty School is a great wine to highlight your spring BBQs or with braised or roasted meats. Dark berries with a hit of vanilla and California spice. And the Liberty School label has a pedigree: Now made by the Hope family, the brand was inaugurated in the 1970s by Chuck Wagner as a “second label” to Caymus.

“The Davis kids are very analytical with a good understanding of science. The Fresno kids seem to be a little more hands on and have a feel for the work and the vineyards. And the San Luis Obispo kids are always the nicest kids in the world.”

That was the breakdown from the senior winemaker at a California-based wine company who employs 20 different enologists at any given time.

Asked whether a company like his pays much attention to where applicants went to school, like an investment banking firm might favor graduates from, say, Duke over Princeton, he answered, “Not at all. We hire on winemaking skills, similar tastes and whether candidates seem like a good fit for our company and our wines.”



Still, if you are a young person wishing to work in wine, perhaps the clearest path to becoming a winemaker is to go to one of the best wine programs.

In California, the University of California at Davis, California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo offer three of the most extensive and respected curriculums in the various aspects of the wine industry.



While not as old as Harvard (established in 1636), the viticulture program at the University of California has surprisingly deep roots. In 1880, the California Legislature recognized the potential of the state as a world-class wine-growing region and mandated a program be established “providing for instruction and research in viticulture and enology.”

The original department was located on the UC campus at Berkley. The growth of the department, like that of the industry, was stymied by the introduction of Prohibition in 1919 before it was reintroduced on the campus at Davis in 1935. Since then, the Department of Viticulture & Enology has become the de-facto “Harvard of Wine.”

Get a degree from the Davis program and you will be virtually guaranteed a position in the wine industry. In fact, Davis proclaims on their website that fully 80 percent of the California wine industry has ties to the school in one way or the other.

Davis’ focus on research and science in the study of wine was long considered the key to its success. But over the last decade much has changed, thanks to the introduction of a number of new buildings and a renewed focus on the hands-on experience in winemaking.

Significant new facilities have been constructed on the Davis campus, including the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, the state-of-the art UC Davis’ Teaching and Research Winery, and the LEED-certified Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Wine Building. All this for a program that graduates around 100 students annually.

South of Davis, in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley, is the Fresno State Department of Viticulture and Enology. Here, students get their backs into their learning. Perhaps the most unique aspect of a Fresno winemaker is that he or she actually participates in the making and selling of wine at the nation’s first bonded collegiate winery.

The Fresno State Winery, founded in 1997, produces, packages, distributes and sells wines just like a regular commercial winery. On the website store.fresnostatewinery.com, you can purchase student-made sangiovese, zinfandel and touriga amongst other varieties.

Not far from the coast sits the campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, home to one of the largest wine programs in the country. Close to 300 students are enrolled in the Wine and Viticulture Department at the school, which prides itself on providing a “hands-on” approach to the study of wine.

Students work a 14-acre, state-of-the-art vineyard and, like the Fresno program, are involved in the production of a student-produced wine label. This allows for a fully integrated curriculum that takes students through the entire process of vineyard management to winemaking to marketing.

In 2014, the California Legislature took another step in helping to ensure the future of the industry when it passed a “Sip and Spit” law. Assembly Bill No. 1989 allows students who are registered in “qualified academic institution” and at least 18 years old to participate in sensory analysis courses where they can taste and spit wine and beer.

The law, which gives students under the legal drinking age of 21 special dispensation, strictly mandates where and when the students may drink. But it is a significant step for those enrolled in the programs at these institutions of higher learning.

While some may have majored in drinking in college, today it is possible to spend four (or more) years learning about wine without getting a single hangover. Just a degree.

Ah, progress.

Kelly J. Hayes lives in the soon-to-be-designated appellation of Old Snowmass, Colo., with his wife, Linda, and black Lab named Vino. He can be reached at malibukj@aol.com.


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