Santa Maria, Calif.—As we reported in July 2014, more college viticulture and enology programs are getting into wine sales. Students are now bringing their products to the real-world market at new tasting rooms in Northern Arizona and California’s Central Coast.

V&E students at Allan Hancock College in California’s Santa Barbara County have been making wine in small, experimental quantities for 16 years. The two-year higher education facility in Santa Maria recently opened an on-campus tasting room to sell its wares and expand educational opportunities to include design, marketing and wine service.

Santa Barbara County is currently home to 249 wineries, according to Wines Vines Analytics, and the wine industry is a major source of local employment. The newly bonded on-campus winery occupies 1,800 square feet and an additional 2,800-square-foot, professionally equipped crush pad/production area.

Alfredo Koch is the coordinator of the V&E and Agriculture Business programs. A bond issue in Santa Maria funded the winery structure and equipment, he said. The college foundation runs the winery; Koch said that proceeds from wine sales will be funneled into vineyard development. Current inventory stands at about 600 cases, which Koch hopes will grow to 1,000 cases per year.

The collegiate wines are now sold only at the tasting room, which is open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Thursdays. Brands include Beatrice and Captain’s reserve priced at $15-20 per bottle, with grapes sourced from a 4-acre vineyard on the campus.

The V&E program
“We teach the whole process, from vineyards to grapes to finished wine,” Koch said. Now that the wine is being sold to the public, “The attitude is different. It’s not just an experiment any more; the wines have to be up to the best standards of commercial wines.”

The college purchased the winery equipment gradually, according to Koch. A new destemmer and cross-flow filtration system were funded by a donation from Coast Hills Financial in Santa Maria.

Nearly 500 students enroll in the V&E program every semester. Some go on to internships or transfer to four-year programs at California State University, Fresno, or at the University of California, Davis. Students range from recent high school grads (California now allows them to participate in winemaking programs) to people already working in the wine industry—and sometimes winery owners. “When I started here in 2007, the average age was 27,” Koch said.

Tasting room staff compensation “depends on the situation,” he noted. Vocational students can earn class credit; winery or vineyard employees can volunteer. “It’s funny,” Koch said. “Some already work in tasting rooms, and they can do it well.” He’d like to see the tasting room experience expanded to include food pairings.

Most of the students who complete associate’s degree programs do go into the wine industry, Koch said. He suggested that the best way for the industry to support the program is by offering internships. “They can contact us for candidates,” he offered. Many students are bilingual in Spanish, a special bonus for California employers.

Cool climate in Arizona?
While most of the world thinks of Arizona as 100° F territory, it was snowing in Clarkdale this week when we spoke with Philip Brown, manager of the Southwest Wine Center at Yavapai College. Not far from Sedona, Clarkdale is perched at an elevation of 3,545 feet and situated at the confluence of Bitter Creek and the Verde River in Yavapai County, northern Arizona.

With 65 wineries and growing, Arizona can be considered an emerging wine state. As part of Yavapai College’s Verde Valley campus, the Southwest Wine Center is funded in part by the college foundation, which will raise capital funds for the two-year program, Brown said.

The center’s tasting room opened Nov. 20; hours are noon-6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Although Brown does not anticipate profits, he told Wines & Vines, “We want to be able to have a working business here. We would like to break even and run a responsible business.”

Price points for the student-produced wines will average $23 per bottle, with nothing over $32 per bottle, according to Brown. Varietals include Viognier, Grenache, Syrah, Merlot and Petite Sirah. “We don’t bring in grapes. We have 11.5 acres planted to vines, and the winery is licensed for 3,000 cases. We’re not up to full speed yet: This first year we have about 600 cases. We’re still putting new vines in the ground. This year we harvested 1.5 tons, and the vineyard looks amazing.” Additional grapes came from growers in the Wilcox, Ariz., area.

To date, the wines have been poured at college functions, private parties and events. “We want to feed the tasting room first,” Brown noted. The winery has a Series 13 (farm winery) license and is fully licensed “independent of the college,” he said.

As a public institution, the college was required to seek multiple bids for equipment purchases, Brown said. “We didn’t spend a ton, but we had to have a bottling line. Here it’s done by hand, not a monoblock. The manual process shows students exactly how things work,” he said.

The wine is packaged in standard 750ml glass bottles with natural cork closures and tin capsules. Photos submitted by students have been used on labels for seven different wines. “The main branding went through the college,” Brown said. “The college signs off on the branding before the label goes to the TTB for approval.”

As a brand new enterprise, the tasting room is focused on educating the staff and integrating the tasting room into the wine program. “Make this your own,” Brown advised. “Always expect the unexpected.” He’s written a handbook including wine history and the tasting room philosophy. “Staff needs to know what they are required to do. The expectations are clear.”

Yavapai College’s V&E program now has about 90 participants. “We want to show our partners here that they have skills and education,” stressed Brown, who seeks to build and retain relationships between the school and the wine industry.