Fruits of their labor

Tasting Cal Poly’s fruits just got easier with the release of three student-produced wines.

The 2006 vintage pinot noir, chardonnay and the Mustang Red, a red blend of zinfandel and syrah, were grown on campus at Trestle Vineyard by a select number of enology (the study of wine-making) students. They were made at Orcutt Road Cellars in Edna Valley with the help of wine makers there.

Although the vineyard has been in place for about 20 years, these 2006 vintages mark the first time where students have been involved in every step of the process, from vine to bottle. Even the labels were created by students, with the pinot noir and the chardonnay featuring a mustang and the Mustang Red adorned in black with a splash of red.

Alumna Nicole Chamberlin was involved with the 2006 vintage while interning with Orcutt Road Cellars. She graduated in June 2008 with a degree in wine and viticulture, a concentration in enology and a minor in agricultural business.

“I think Cal Poly’s whole learn by doing philosophy is really put to work in this major,” Chamberlin said. “You go to viticulture class, you’re out there in the vineyard on campus, pruning and counting clusters and all that, and then you actually see it get to come into the winery and get crushed. I think that part of it was really valuable for all the students that worked there.”

July Ackerman, the Cal Poly wine program’s project coordinator and a lecturer in the wine and viticulture major, said the six to eight students involved in the vintage went through a long process before they came to this point.

“What’s involved in the wine-making process is they first start over the summer monitoring the fruit as it is maturing,” Ackerman said. “Then, when it’s ready to pick, they are working with the wine makers at (Orcutt Road Cellars) to crush the fruit when it comes into the winery. Then it goes through fermentation process and when fermentation is complete, it goes into tanks or barrels for aging.”

Bottled in October, the three wines have been slowly released into the market at places like Cal Poly Downtown, which got a license to sell alcohol specifically for the wines, and TASTE, a cooperative tasting room run by the San Luis Obispo Vintner’s Association.

A recent Thursday evening saw TASTE fill up with students and residents alike eager to sample the wares at a Cal Poly wine release party.

“I think these sell the most here of all the wine,” said TASTE employee and wine and viticulture senior Tori Kline. “People come in all the time and they’re like, ‘I hear you have Cal Poly wines.’ They want to know about them.”

Another TASTE employee and wine and viticulture senior Olivia Teutschel was kept busy pouring wine for the flow of eager tasters.

“What’s nice about the chardonnay is that it’s more acidic, more fresh fruit than a lot of the chardonnays around here that are more oak-y,” Teutschel said. “The pinot noir is a lighter-bodied red wine. The blend is more a syrah-smelling and a zinfandel-tasting wine and easy to drink.”

Teutschel said the Mustang Red was the most popular wine among customers and also the least expensive at $16. The chardonnay cost $24 and the pinot noir was $30.

Wine and Viticulture senior Erin Yolo was at TASTE, trying the wines with her experienced palette. Although she was not involved in the creation of the 2006 vintage, she makes wine independently.

Yolo said the class was a valuable experience for students to learn about the realities of winemaking.

“(It’s) a good experience for people who want to be wine makers in the future and that want to get in the wine industry,” Yolo said. “Because it’s a really hard class; there’s a lot of chemistry that goes along with it. It’s not just fun wine-making class.”

Chamberlin said that making the wines required stamina, but was worth it in the end.

“It’s something that you really have to experience firsthand. Physically it’s hard work as far as maintaining the wine, doing punch downs and pump overs to keep the fermentation going and monitoring the grapes,” Chamberlin said.

“(But) tasting the wine, smelling the wine throughout the whole process from berry to finished wine (is great). That’s the part that really gets me going.”

She added that the next batch of Cal Poly wines should be even better with the vineyard getting a makeover of sorts.

“They’re really old vines and when it was planted; I don’t think they knew the proper rootstock to use,” Chamberlin said. “There are sections of it that when you see it, you’d be kind of horrified because the pruning was off. There was a lot of experimentation going on so as far as a vineyard to produce wine on a commercial level. It was not really that viable so they want to re-plant it, making sure they have the right rootstock and proper trellising.”

Once the new vineyard is in place, Chamberlin said Cal Poly can keep up with the competition from other schools that offer wine and viticulture majors such as UC Davis.

“When you tell someone I graduated from Cal Poly in enology they’re like, ‘Did you say ‘Davis?’ I think it will be great, one to promote the school as an agricultural school and also for the wine and viticulture program,” she said.

“It’s pretty crucial to build a program to have students be able to see the wine go from berry to glass. We definitely have a long way to go as far as a reputation but we’re getting there quickly.”