Chronicle Online e-News
Cornell announces plans for an on-campus teaching winery
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/April08/NY.wines.ga
la.ka.html
April 8, 2008
By Kanika Arora
cunews@cornell.edu
Cornell has announced plans to launch a
2,400-square-foot teaching winery at the Cornell
Orchards this fall to enhance the education of
tomorrow's enologists and viticulturists.
The announcement was made by Susan A. Henry, the
Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Agriculture and Life
Sciences, at "Cornell Celebrates New York Wines,"
a dinner gala and auction held April 2 at Chelsea
Piers in New York City to celebrate 100 years of
Cornell's partnership with New York's wine
industry.
In New York alone, the number of wineries has
jumped to 212 from a mere nine 30 years ago. As a
result, more skilled experts than ever are needed
to manage the growing number of vineyards and
wineries in the region, said Thomas Burr,
associate dean of the College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences and director of the New York State
Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.
Already, Henry said, Cornell has a new
undergraduate major in enology (winemaking) and
viticulture (grape growing) under review and
continues to conduct cutting-edge research to
benefit New York's wine and grape regions, from
Lake Erie to Long Island. In just the past year,
she noted, three new faculty members and an
enology extension associate have joined Cornell's
enology and viticulture program.
The teaching winery is now in its design phase
with architects from Beardsley Design Associates
in Auburn, although the project has not yet
undergone site review. Construction funding is
from the State University of New York.
The facility will be an addition to the existing
Pomology Cold Storage Building, where the
Orchards Store is located.
Ram�n Mira de Ordu�a Heidinger, Cornell associate
professor of enology, said the facility is
expected to have "several additional
temperature-controlled rooms, giving us the
ability to efficiently teach winemaking
procedures and chemical and microbiological
analyses to our students."
At the gala, more than 20 different wines were
served to over 200 guests, and a live auction
after dinner offered cases of premium New York
state wines. All proceeds from the event went to
support Cornell's enology and viticulture
programs and field extension efforts.
Cornell's problem-solving research approach is
what sets it apart from viticulture and enology
research at other schools, said Alan Lakso,
Cornell professor of horticultural sciences: "For
many ... the focus is on studying abstract theory
in order to make it relevant to practical issues.
Our approach, instead, is to begin with a problem
and then use different aspects of cutting-edge
science to respond to it."
Cornell's strong extension component also is
unusual, said Tim Martinson, a Cornell senior
extension associate. Problems and opportunities
in the New York wine industry are explored on an
almost daily basis between members of the Cornell
Enology Extension Program and grape growers and
winemakers in New York. "Many workshops and
personal visits are [also] organized in order to
facilitate information exchange between
researchers and the industry," he said.
To keep such a groundbreaking exchange active,
the industry does its part donating time and
resources, said Peter Saltonstall, co-owner of
King Ferry Winery in upstate New York and
chairman of the New York State Wine and Grape
Foundation Board of Directors. He recently hosted
a class of undergraduate students at his vineyard
on the east side of Cayuga Lake, for example.
"After years of talking about individual enology
and viticulture programs, it was only when the
first class came to my vineyard that the whole
experience began to feel real," he said.
The event was sponsored by Stoutridge Vineyard,
Constellation Wines U.S., Antica Napa Valley,
Channing Daughters Winery and Raphael Winery.
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Kanika Arora, MPA '07, is a Cornell Chronicle writer in New York City.
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