SOWI hosts dinner presentation
Nearly 150 guests of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute were presented with a history of the wine program at Walla Walla Community College and the impact it has had on the economy in that region during a special Friday, April 23 2010 event.
The evening also included a catered dinner prepared by UCC Culinary Arts students and wine from local vineyards and the WWCC winery, including College Cellars of Walla Walla’s 2006 President’s Blend and Henry Estates 2007 Oregon Pinot Gris from the Umpqua Valley.
After dinner, Blaine Nisson, UCC college president, introduced the first of two speakers for the evening’s presentation.
Steven L. VanAusdle, president of Walla Walla Community College started by outlining some suggestions that could be used to increase the success of a wine program. “There is definitely a role of higher education in the wine business,” said VanAusdle.
Near the end of his presentation VanAusdle suggested, “The arts are just so important and when you combine the wine, food and art, what you are doing is you are developing and creating economy.”
The SOWI Program will be modeled after VanAusdle College Cellars of Walla Walla, a teaching winery located at WWCC’s Center for Enology and Viticulture which provides students with the opportunity to make wine as a part of their study of the industry.
Many of the graduates of The Center for Enology and Viticulture are able to find work within the wine industry or go on to start their own wineries, according to literature presented on the website www.collegecellars.com. Currently, The Center for Enology and Viticulture is one of the first two-year commercial teaching wineries in the United States, according to www.collegecellars.com.
Walla Walla Community College also has a culinary program that has “a focus on pairing food and wine. We teach that pairing of food and wine, and that is an art and a science itself. And students who can do that have a competitive advantage in the marketplace,” said VanAusdle.
VanAusdle dismissed the notion of UCC being in competition with WWCC. He suggested that there are a large number of wine connoisseurs in the state of California headed to Walla Walla as their destination. They may need a place to stop over, and he wouldn’t mind if they stopped here, in Roseburg.
The final speaker of the evening was Gordon Burns, the founder and president of ETS Laboratories of St. Helena, California.
Winemakers in the developing wine industry increasingly look to Burns’ laboratories for more advanced testing. Burns is familiar with the logistics of investments in modern testing equipment and techniques, according to the website www.etslabs.com.
Burns has committed to locating a working commercial laboratory on UCC’s campus. A branch of his operation will be housed in space designed by the architects in the new 24,000 square foot, LEED-certified Danny Lang Teaching, Learning and Event Center that is to be built on the top of Knob Hill in the upper west side of UCC’s campus.
SOWI and the ETS Laboratory will serve students and wineries from Lane, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Coos and Curry Counties.
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