Northwest Schools in Session

A record number of students enrolled in viticulture and enology courses at
colleges in the Pacific Northwest this past fall semester. Washington State
University, the second-largest viticulture and enology school in the United
States after the University of California, Davis, had 40 students, while 21
students enrolled in the 3-year-old program at Oregon State University. Hundreds
more took courses at community colleges throughout the region.

While viticulture and enology courses have been long-running features of science
programs at the region's major land grant colleges, more than a half-dozen
schools now are offering students training in the fundamentals of the wine
industry. And many of the long-standing course offerings are becoming part of
formal programs, as demand for training and the industry itself grow.

There were just 2,500 acres of vineyards when Anita Azarenko, head of OSU's
Department of Horticulture, came to Oregon in 1986. Today there are
approximately 17,500 acres. "There's just a tremendous need for research that is
regional but also AVA-based," she said.

That need has prompted the industry to raise $2 million to establish the Oregon
Wine Research Institute, which will serve as a hub for research and feedback for
viticulture and enology teaching at the university.

Similarly, the growth of the industry in Washington state rapidly rendered
irrelevant a 2001 study from WSU that projected job growth over time and was
instrumental in the establishment of formal training programs at WSU and Walla
Walla Community College. The industry added 1,414 to 2,351 workers in the last
three years alone, according to a study the Washington Wine Commission released
last fall, and projections estimate that between 1,080 and 1,791 new workers
will be needed by the industry during the next five years.

"The industry outgrew that study quickly, because nobody ever imagined that we
would have this type of growth," said Dan Bernardo, dean of the College of
Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at WSU in Pullman, Wash.

But the wine industry's growth is just one reason for the expansion of
viticulture and enology course offerings. While acreage devoted to grapes has
expanded rapidly across the Pacific Northwest, it has done so as the tree fruit
industry retrenched.

The broader economic view

Broader economic changes outside agriculture also are driving the change.

The Southern Oregon Wine Institute at Umpqua Community College has garnered
$443,000 to kick-start its program, the majority being funding designed to help
communities grapple with the loss of traditional employment options. Umpqua sits
in Douglas County, where the forest industry's woes have driven unemployment
rates into the double-digits.

Still, without the growth of the local wine industry, there wouldn't be the
demand for programs and courses that are preparing students for new employment
opportunities.

"There's going to be an acute need for high-quality enologists and
viticulturalists in the industry," WSU's Bernardo said. "We want to be in a
position where we're growing our own in the state of Washington, and not being
reliant upon importing those folks from California."

WSU's offerings have been joined by other schools in recent years, including
those at Walla Walla Community College and Yakima Community College.

The courses come in all shapes, covering viticulture and enology through to
management of wineries and tasting rooms. The Northwest Wine Academy at South
Seattle Community College presents courses geared to restaurant workers, while
the College of Business at OSU is poised for a greater role in the university's
viticulture and enology programs.

A number of extension programs are working to get research into the hands of
growers and winemakers in both states, programs the National Grape and Wine
Initiative believes are necessary if industry is to benefit from research.

A major concern for the NGWI is funding for the activities, and the funding
question is complicated by the growing number of Pacific Northwest schools.
While the industry's growth has spurred the development of more courses, those
offerings aren't tapping into a growing pool of education and research funding.

The Northwest Viticulture Center at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore.,
has seen enrollment in its viticulture programs increase to 719 from 506 five
years ago, but funding has remained relatively flat. An enology instructor was
added, and there have been budget allocations in support of a teaching vineyard
and winery equipment.

People at other schools tell similar stories of how annual budgets aren't
keeping pace with enrollment figures.

"In terms of base funding, we've had relatively modest increases," said Bernardo
of the challenges faced by WSU's viticulture and enology programs.

An increase in 2004 granted funding for five new staff positions, but overall
program funding has been steady at approximately $1.2 million per year, despite
staff positions doubling in number and a student enrollment that now tops 40
people.

"To continue to grow a premium wine industry in Washington, the research dollars
are going to have to increase at the local level. It's certainly not going to
come at the federal level," Bernardo said.

Competition goes international

The competition for funding and the need for better partnerships with the
industry is partly why WSU and Oregon State launched international searches for
directors of their viticulture and enology programs.

Azarenko said that even though OSU is a land grant university, the onus is on
the college to raise funds for special areas such as viticulture, which enj oys
very little targeted funding.

"Land grant universities are currently only partially supported by the state and
by the Feds. Much of the budget has to come from external funds," Azarenko said.

While much of the $2 million in industry funding for the Oregon Wine Research
Institute will support the institute's director for a five-year term, Azarenko
said the director's mandate will include raising research funds, creating
liaisons with industry and generally championing the cause of viticulture and
enology research in the state.

"If you have a point-person who can be advocating for specific needs like
viticulture and enology and business, there's a higher likelihood that the
university, institution, whatever, becomes recognized as a leader. And so this
person will be relied on very heavily to secure additional funding and just
expand the program," she said. "The industry will benefit from having someone
focused entirely on winegrapes."

OSU is expected to announce the results of its search for a program director
early in 2009. WSU already has snagged Dr. Thomas Henick-Kling, former head of
the enology program at Cornell University in New York and currently director of
the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre at Charles Stuart University in
Australia.

"He's a very effective advocate and champion with external stakeholders, funding
agencies but also the industry. The industry needs someone like Thomas who can
tell them exactly what the competitive landscape is that they're facing,"
Bernardo said. "We have a combination of a growing and supercharged industry, so
I think he saw it as a win-win combination. It needs that person to tie it all
together."

      Learning at a Distance
      

      
      Tight economic times and growing interest in viticulture and enology
      programs were among the factors prompting Umpqua Community College in
      Roseburg, Ore., to develop a unique program that allows students to take
      credit courses in viticulture and enology online.

      The University of California, Davis, and Washington State University both
      offer online extension courses in viticulture and enology as part of
      continuing education programs, but these are not for credit.

      Chris Lake, director of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute at Umpqua
      Community College, said the online offering allows the college to reach
      students in previously underserved parts of the counties that are part of
      its geographical mandate. Rather than travel to the college two or three
      times per week for evening classes, students need only travel for Saturday
      labs.

      "(With gas) at $4 a gallon, it was difficult for people in a large county
      like Douglas to get all the way to Roseburg, even if we offered evening
      classes," he said.

      Tailoring viticulture courses for online delivery presented challenges,
      however. Lake, instructor of the college's viticulture and enology
      classes, found a solution in breaking courses into theory and practice,
      lecture components and lab sessions.

      "We've taken the knowledge base, the lectures and translated them into the
      online delivery, and then the labs occur on weekends," he said.

      Lake joined the Southern Oregon Wine Institute as its first director this
      past July. He previously worked as viticulturist and assistant winemaker
      at Stone Bluffs Cellar in Haskell, Okla.