CKQ Examines College Majors: Viticulture & Enology

Each newsletter will provide readers with insight into a specific major that might pique your interest. This segment is all about introducing students to majors (and possibly careers) they may have never considered before. This time around, we will provide information on the Viticulture & Enology majors. Special thanks to collegeboard.org for providing some information in this article.

Usually our approach in this segment is to find unusual or not well-known majors for students to get to know better. We have stayed true to our word (and perhaps I am sharing a little too much personal information in my interest in sharing these particular majors) and are using that philosophy by selecting the Viticulture and Enology majors, which are currently offered at seven (yes, I said seven) U.S. colleges and universities. It’s such a short list that I thought it would be best to provide it to you (data courtesy of collegeboard.org):

Arkansas Tech University, Cal Poly SLO, Cornell University, Fresno State University, Michigan State University, UC Davis & Washington State University.

So what are Viticulture and Enology? Viticulture is the science and business behind grape growing. Enology is specific to the science behind wine making. You would think a multi-billion-dollar industry, which takes place in some of the most picturesque parts of the world, would have more than seven colleges spouting (pun intended) this major!

The field is a competitive one, and getting the best education possible requires both excellent instruction, lab time, and field time to be most beneficial. Viticulture will walk a fine line between the science and practical values of the grape industry – think of it like an interdisciplinary degree with emphasis in business, marketing, and natural science. From food safety and packaging to business management, a broad spectrum of information will be covered. Enology will have a much more concrete focus within soil science, chemistry, botany, and the like. Your education will also cover grape varietals all across the globe.

Consider this major if you are good at: attention to detail; creativity; critical reading/thinking; math; quantitative analysis; research; and teamwork.

What the study of this major is like: This is a major that only a few students will really identify with, especially knowing the end product, in most cases, is alcohol and consumed by an older audience. And knowing the list of eligible schools is already in short supply, more times than not, this is a major with an older population of students. Students who live in grape-growing regions obviously are the exception to the rule, as this is just normal life to them. That said, having some hands-on experience, whether it be in a field during a harvest or in an enology lab will back up that desire during the application process. For all the romanticism surrounding the wine industry, there is more science involved than you may ever know. Enology combines the fields of biology, chemistry, geology, mathematics, botany, zoology, meteorology, and geography, to name some of the disciplines, to be able to become a truly great winemaker and wine producer.

In terms of employment, you have to be willing to be where the grapes are; the good news is that grape growing has been on a slow rise for over a decade in the U.S. and there are wine and grape-growing regions all over the world (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, France, India, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain to name a few), so the amount of job opportunities are certainly out there. As this newsletter is designed for California families, the best news is that California’s wine industry has been booming and there are so many different regions within our own state to gain employment. It is also the reason why nearly half the list of colleges resides in California.

For more information on this field, I’m directing you to the UC Davis page; please visit:

http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/about/index.html