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F or more information about YVCC's Vineyard and Winery Technology Program, visit: www.yvcc.edu/wine. Trent Ball, agriculture department chair, can be reached at: tball@yvcc.edu or (509) 882-7007. The tasting room, run by students, is open Fridays and Saturdays. The students pro- duce all the wines under the Yakima Valley Vintners label. Wines are sold in the tasting room and in retail markets in Yakima, the Tri-Cities, and Seattle. The names of the wines change slightly each year, depending on the grape varieties used and the label names chosen by the winery operations class. Examples of past labels include Class Project Viognier, Teacher's Pet Rosé, Graduates Last Hyrah Syrah, Cap 'n' Gown Cabernet Sauvignon, Mid-term Red, Semester Abroad Sangiovese, Campus Red Blend, and Textbook White Gewurztraminer. Syrah wines from the winery's first vintage in 2007 won silver medals at the Tri-Cities Wine Festival and the Washington State Wine Competition. Many more awards have fol- lowed. "We've medaled every single wine that we've ever entered in competition," said Catherine Jones, vineyard and winery technology grant director at YVCC. "We're very proud of our students for creating such great products." Two incubator wineries located inside the teaching winery operate under the winery's Awards won by the student-made wines of Yakima Valley Vintners. With notebooks in hand, one team of students ran the winery's Diemme 2-ton- capacity whole cluster press, learning how to read the control panel, and analyzing pH samples from the Rousanne juice every 15 minutes. Another team ran Syrah grapes through the Diemme destemmer/crusher, a smaller machine that handles about 1.5 tons per hour. All were busy sanitizing equipment, bins, and lines before crush started. Along with the crushing equipment, the state-of-the art teaching winery has five jack- eted fermentation tanks of different sizes, five portable fermentation tanks, and a fully stocked laboratory for grape and wine analysis. Each year, students of the winery operations class will use about a dozen oak barrels for red wine storage and produce between 300 to 500 cases of wine. The teaching winery goes by the name Yakima Valley Vintners and has a tasting room onsite at the Grandview campus. Tasting room manager, Jensena Newhouse, is a winery operations class member. bond and pay rent for space and use of equipment. Current incubator wineries are Ced- ergreen and Parejas. "It's a win-win situation," said YVCC's Melissa Rowan. "Incubator wineries sign a five-year contract. We help the new wineries get started—they don't have to purchase all of the equipment at once, although they supply their own bottles and barrels. And, the rent helps support the building." Teaching vineyard A teaching vineyard was planted at the Grandview campus in 2010 to provide hands- on learning for students taking viticulture classes. The vineyard consists of three varieties, Lemberger, Riesling, and Cabernet Franc. The four rows of teaching vines located near the winery crush pad look a little out of place, sandwiched next to a public sidewalk, busy downtown street, and the campus parking lot. But they provide valuable experience as students learn about care of the vine and vineyard skills, such as pruning and canopy management. As the 2012 harvest neared and the grapes began to ripen, the vines were wrapped up tight with netting to discourage sampling by birds and passers-by. The 2012 harvest marks the first year that grapes from the teaching vines will be used by students making wine. • Committed to Dedicated Service & Quality Trees For 74 Years & Counting Hickman: 19701 Lake Road Hickman, CA 95323 209-874-1821 21200 E. Dinuba Ave. Reedley, CA 93654 559-638-6675 Reedley: www.davewilson.com www.facebook.com/DaveWilsonNursery 800-654-5854 www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER NOVEMBER 2012 39