The college's undergraduate program in enology and viticulture is taking root this semester and will bear fruit when skilled graduates make their mark in New York's growing wine industry.

For 16 years, the same pleas have dogged Thomas Henick-Kling, associate professor of enology. "Find me a winemaker, find me a viticulturist!" say winery owners and vineyard managers from Long Island Sound to Lake Erie. Henick-Kling replies, "I look, but qualified people are not available. I might be able to find one or two in a year, but the need is much bigger than that."

The urgency behind the wine industry's request for help has increased markedly in the past decade. Wine grapes and wineries are the strongest growth segment of New York State's billion-dollar agriculture industry. In 1975 there were 19 registered farm wineries in the state. Today there are 180. More than half of New York's counties now have one or more wineries, clustered in five principal grape-growing regions: Lake Erie and Niagara, the Finger Lakes, the Hudson River Valley, and Long Island.

By 2013 the number of New York wineries is expected to rise above 220. The reasons for continued expansion are clear, says Ian Merwin, associate professor of pomology, who along with Henick-Kling, co-chairs a faculty committee charged by Dean Susan Henry with developing an undergraduate program and curriculum to prepare young people for careers in the wine industry.

"National and international awards have shown that New York State wines are definitely on the map," Merwin says. "We now produce not only consistently high-quality white wines but reds that are much better than we ever thought possible."

Location is another reason. New York's premier wines are produced right in the midst of 60 million consumers from Toronto to Baltimore to New York City. Too, New York's soils and microclimate constitute the least expensive vinifera wine-growing land in the nation-land that is being bought by investors from as far away as California.

"An acre of good land in Napa, California, can cost from $50,000 to $100,000," Merwin notes. "Here in the Finger Lakes, an acre of comparable quality goes for $2,000 to $5,000."

Until the college's program opened this fall, there were only two places in the United States that offered first-rate enology and viticulture training: the University of California at Davis and California State University at Fresno. Otherwise, students had to travel out of the country to Brock University in Ontario, Canada, or to universities in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand. However, each of the California programs only graduates 30 students, not nearly enough to meet the demand for skilled personnel as the wine industry grows all across the country and wineries gain popularity as tourist destinations.

In addition to meeting the national demand for highly skilled viticulturists and enologists, the college's program offers students knowledge and experiences tailored to the unique challenges and demands of the region's soils and climate, vineyard-pest complex, grape varieties, and local markets.

The curriculum was established by the curriculum committee composed of faculty and extension staff in the Department of Food Science and the Department of Horticulture in Ithaca and the Department of Horticultural Sciences and the Department of Food Science and Technology in Geneva at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.

 

"Teaching and research will come from a cooperative effort among the four departments, plus entomologists and plant pathologists from Geneva, says Marvin Pritts, chair of the Department of Horticulture in Ithaca. "Interfacing across various disciplines in this way produces a strong program while being healthy for the college."

Freshmen entering this fall were offered specializations in two separate but related activities. Students primarily interested in learning how to turn grapes into wine enroll in the food science major, with a concentration in enology and a minor in plant science. Students who enroll in the plant science major with a concentration in viticulture, study the cultivation of grapes, while taking several enology courses. (Down the line as the program grows, courses in the economics of vineyard management and wine marketing will be added.)

"To make good wine, students must be familiar with food analysis, food chemistry, food microbiology, and other basics of food science," says Joseph Hotchkiss, chair of the Department of Food Science.

For the past nine years, the college has offered a basic enology course called Understanding Wine. Initially designed by Harry Lawless, professor of food science, Terry Acree, professor of biochemistry, and Henick-Kling, whose research and extension in Geneva supports the state's wine industry, the course is now taught by the latter two. With the advent of a full undergraduate program, the course is now divided into two modules, a freshman-level introductory section to attract undecided students, and the 400-level version for majors. The committee developed other specialized courses in winemaking technology and the flavor development of grapes and wine, which will be offered for juniors and seniors in the program.

Hotchkiss and Chang Lee, chair of the Department of Food Science and Technology in Geneva, are currently recruiting a new faculty member to teach those courses and supervise the summer internship each graduate must complete in a New York State winery.

"We see the internship as critical because viticulture and enology rely greatly on technique, and the best way to learn that is by doing it," Merwin says.

On the viticulture side, the college has a knowledge base developed through more than a century of research in grape growing conducted in Geneva. The station's breeders have released more than 53 varieties of grapes. Six are hybrid wine grapes, including Horizon, Melody, Traminette, Chardonel, Cayuga White, and the newest release, GR7. Viticulturist Robert Pool is teaching the general viticulture courses, while other courses in grapevine structure and physiology, genetics, and pest management are taught by other scientists at Geneva.

Last year in collaboration with faculty in Geneva, the Department of Horticulture began establishing teaching and research plantings. Just 10 miles north of Ithaca, the Lansing Research Farm is well suited for growing all the premier vinifera grapes. Plantings there will include Pinot Noir, Riesling, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay. "Last winter it was one of the few vineyards in the region that had zero winter injury," Merwin says.

 

Undergraduate interest in the program runs high.

"For the last three years, the Under-standing Wine course has been so popular that we've had more than 100 students sign up for a course that can only accommodate 80," Lee says. And without any formal recruiting, the number of students in the viticulture course tripled this fall. Because the dearth of qualified personnel is a longstanding national problem, Merwin anticipates significant numbers of transfers and out-of-state students as well.

The future looks bright.

"Cornell has historically had a very close relationship with the agricultural sector in New York State," Merwin says. "In establishing what will become the premier enology/viticulture program for undergraduates in the eastern part of the United States, we're continuing this tradition."

- Metta Winter