Wine Production Classes Come to Moonshine Country

  When people think of the North Carolina Mountains, stories of moonshiners and bootleggers inevitably come to mind.  Appalachian State University is working to preserve that heritage in a much classier and legal way.

It looks as though ASU will be the proud new owner of a very unique program called Wine Production and Management, as the university has recently approved the new program.  All the university needs is a final approval from   the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, according to Director of University News, Jane Nicholson.

  Program Director, Grant Holder, said it will be a very practical mix of science, management, and entrepreneurship.  Holder explained, “It is designed to train people to start their own vineyards, their own small wineries in places like this.”

  Holder said students will take classes on the manufacturing of wine, on the distribution and sales of wine, and Holder himself will teach a class this fall about wine tasting and sensory analysis.  Holder also hopes to have 30 – 50 students majoring in this program every year.

  The new curriculum would offer students an opportunity to study at one of three universities in Europe for one year to get a taste of wine production overseas before finishing up in Boone.

  Holder explained there are other wine-related programs offered at many universities in California and Oregon, but they study how to produce and manage for a large winery.  ASU’s program is very different.  Holder said, “What we will be training here is the small independent ‘mom and pop’ because for the most part, that’s what our industry is.”

  When asked about students under the legal drinking age taking these classes, Holder assured that all drinking laws are complied with.

  Who knows, by the time ASU plays Western Carolina this football season, there may be a little something special in that Old Mountain Jug.