UCC hopes to offer wine incubator at wine institute

A would-be winemaker should expect to come up with about $560,000 to start his or her own winery, according to Chris Lake, director of Umpqua Community College’s Southern Oregon Wine Institute.

And that figure is based on a 2005 study. The cost likely would be higher now.

But the community college is considering building what is known as a wine incubator, which would help would-be winemakers break into the business with a significantly smaller investment.

Lake and UCC’s president, Blaine Nisson, shared that vision at a Tuesday afternoon meeting of Roseburg’s Economic Development Commission at City Hall.

The college is hoping to include the wine incubator as part of its plan to build a facility to house the Southern Oregon Wine Institute, a viticulture and enology program that kicked off on campus in the fall. Viticulture is growing wine grapes. Enology refers to making wine.
After the meeting, Nisson explained the incubator would be a place where recent program graduates or those who want to get into the wine industry could learn firsthand how to make wine.

Through the college’s Small Business Development Center, they could get help developing a business and a marketing plan and securing financial assistance to get their business off the ground. The participants would pay a fee to use winemaking equipment at the incubator, as well as for the other services.

It’s hoped that within two or three years, the businesses would have grown enough to spread their wings and find a permanent home elsewhere, freeing up space for new start-up wineries.

At the commission meeting, Nisson said the wine incubator idea demonstrates the wine institute’s bigger mission of not just training people to work in the wine industry, but of “economic development and job creation.”

He said the college envisions the incubator as part of a planned new facility to house the wine institute. Now, Lake offers lectures online and students participate in hands-on viticulture classes at area vineyards.

After the meeting, Nisson said he estimates it will cost about $8 million to $9 million to build the institute’s new home. He said he will be asking within the next month for a congressional appropriation of about $6 million to $7 million to help with the project.

The college plans to raise the rest of the money. Already, a “former legendary Oregon retired winery owner” has tentatively pledged $300,000 toward the new facility, Nisson said. He declined to name that person.

If the congressional funding request is granted, the college could break ground on the new facility in “a couple years,” he added.

In the more immediate future, college officials planned to interview five architectural firms today and possibly hire one to design the new facility.

At the Tuesday meeting, Nisson asked the commission to endorse the college’s request for a congressional allocation for the new facility. The commission agreed to do so.

Nisson asked the commission to consider helping pay for the wine incubator, particularly for needed equipment and storage space. He suggested the commission appoint several members to serve on a committee that will help design the new facility.

The commission took no action on the funding request nor on appointing members to a design committee.