What you'll learn
While focusing on procedures used in smaller vineyards and wineries, you'll delve into three main areas:
Viticulture
- Learn in detail about grapes and how they grow.
- Visit top growers to observe vineyard practices.
- Gain hands-on experience practicing key grape-growing techniques in real vineyards.
- Taste wines that demonstrate the effects of vineyard practices on wine quality.
- Enjoy a winemaker's dinner at a winery.
- Study the effects of climate and terroir on grape and wine flavors.
Enology
- Train for and practice the sensory evaluation of wines, identifying positive and negative attributes and learning how these flavors develop in wines.
- Investigate the general steps in the winemaking process and deepen this knowledge through discussions with Finger Lakes winemakers.
- Learn about the importance of microbiology to winemaking.
- Practice yeast and bacteria inoculation techniques to start fermentations.
- Experience the flavor perception effects of interactions between foods and wines.
- Practice blending wines to create the best possible final product.
- Evaluate wines chosen to demonstrate outcomes of scientific enology principles discussed in lectures.
Business
- Attend a luncheon business seminar on starting a wine business. Speakers will include a Cornell economics faculty member and winery owners, and there will be ample time for questions.
Cornell University Viticulture & Enology Experience (CUVÉE)