Students in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) can start majoring in viticulture and enology -- grape growing and winemaking -- in the fall, just in time to enjoy the university's new on-campus teaching winery.

The new interdisciplinary major will involve faculty from half a dozen departments at CALS and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva. It is intended to fill a critical need in New York and the Northeast for trained people to manage vineyards and make world-class wines.

The college has offered degree concentrations in viticulture and enology for several years and has recently hired four new professors to bolster this program. However, up until now, the 38 undergraduates in CALS' Enology and Viticulture Program were grouped within the plant science and food science majors. That changed when the independent bachelor of science major was recently approved by the New York State Education Department and the State University of New York.

The major is tailored to address the challenges that the industry faces in cool climates -- including soils, varieties, winter injury, pests and markets. In addition to course work in the basic sciences relevant to grape-growing and wine-making, students in the new program will complete at least one paid internship in commercial vineyards and wineries.

Also this fall, Cornell will open a 2,400-square-foot teaching winery at the Cornell Orchards, which will complement the fruit storage laboratory, sales room and cider-making press room already there.

"There are long-term plans for a state-of-art teaching-research winery to be located in the food science department in Stocking Hall, but it could be eight to 10 years before that facility is completed during the planned renovation of Stocking Hall," said Ian A. Merwin, Cornell's H.M. Cohn Professor of Pomology and International Agriculture. "We could not wait that long, because wine-making is a very hands-on process, and practical experience with the various equipment and methods of winemaking is an essential part of any good undergraduate program."

The teaching winery at the orchards, therefore, will serve as a temporary facility until the Stocking Hall winery is ready. According to Merwin, the winery will help students learn such techniques and processes of wine-making as determining when grapes are at peak quality for harvest, crushing and destemming the clusters, analyzing and adjusting chemical and flavor attributes of the must (unfermented juice), conducting fermentations under controlled microbiological and temperature conditions, filtering, clarifying, blending and bottling wines, as well as learning to evaluate quantitatively and qualitatively the important tastes, aromas and other complex sensory attributes of wines.

Cornell's wine and grape studies boost New York's economy

The wine and grape industry in New York state is the third largest in the nation with more than 200 wineries and 600 vineyards across eight regions. It contributes more than $6 billion in gross sales to the state's economy, and in each of the past 10 years, New York wineries have enjoyed 10 to 15 percent growth. About 36,000 people are employed directly in grape, grape juice, wine products and related industries in the state.

Enology and viticulture students work with Cornell researchers to help growers and vintners determine what cultivars can be grown in New York; how to grow them; how to manage pests, soils and water; how to select grapes for optimal flavor maturity; how to determine what wine flavor profile can be expected; and how consistent wine quality can be achieved. Students will explore the chemistry and biochemistry of grape-flavor ripening and how these grape flavors translate into wine flavors.

Among the noteworthy accomplishments of the Cornell Enology and Viticulture Program: