Drink Wine and Earn a College Degree

Wine is the last thing you'd expect to see in a classroom, but soon some students in Tompkins County will have to become experts on it. Drinking it will be part of a new degree program.

It seems too good to be true. Drink wine while getting a college degree. Come fall it will be a reality at Tompkins Cortland Community College, when a new wine marketing degree will produce the newest wine stewards of America. The two year program will teach students the ins and outs of the popular drink in Upstate New York. The state is home to 250 wineries.

Professors in charge of the program say the wine industry is one business that hasn't been hurt to bad by the recession, and there are jobs out there. Some wine tasting jobs starting at $150,000 a year.

The degree still needs the approval of the State Board of Education, and SUNY. The approval is expected in time for classes to begin in the fall. If approved, TCCC will become the only community college in the state to offer a wine marketing degree.

Click the video icon to see Jon Dougherty's full report.