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6
FEATURE
nov
9
2012
Wine
Country Wine sparks academic pursuit by Adam brayton and kaili Masamoto Feature Editor and Staff Reporter
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alla Walla’s wine industry is certainly a nice addition to the town for parents and seniors, but its emergence and growth also hold academic promise. Professor Kevin Pogue of the geology department has a sign hanging from his office door emblazoned with the pun, “Terroirist Headquarters.” Though he has been teaching geology at Whitman since 1990, he has been involved in the study of terroir for the past sixteen years. Terroir as a science refers to the soil composition or compositions of a given region, which are affected by a number of factors, and how that soil composition affects the growth of crops such as wine grapes. “Around ‘96 or ‘97, people really started showing up here and the industry started expanding,” said Pogue. “People just started knocking on my door and calling me up asking me to provide insight into where certain soils might be found or what the climate was like just because I was a local geologist.” Pogue offers a special topics class to interested seniors in alternate years, and goes into overload to make it happen out of a passion for the subject that goes beyond geology. Over the years, he has managed to bring his love of terroir to the classroom in a two-credit class. “We basically deconstruct the whole idea of terroir and talk about what the philosophy of terroir is, the origin of the word, what it means to the French,” said Pogue. “Once we sort of define it ... we take it apart and talk about physical versus cultural terroir.” In this class, students do more than just taste some wine—they learn about the entire wine experience.
“A lot of people think it’s a wine tasting class, but it’s [actually] anything but,” said Pogue. Though he disagrees that Whitman is incredibly involved in working with the wine industry, Pogue notes that his course is just one of a bundle of Whitman College academic pursuits that have tapped into Walla Walla’s wine culture over the years. Another pursuit looked at wine economics a few years ago. “We had a wine economist here for a while named Karl Storchmann ... he was [the managing editor] of the journal Wine Economics, so that was based out of Whitman for a while,” said Pogue. “I think I am the only person doing sort of direct wine-related research at Whitman right now.” The class itself is an interdisciplinary endeavor by design, only providing limited spaces in the class for geology majors. “Every year there are a couple [of] students who are interested in the wine industry that take it [because] they just want more exposure to wine and want to learn about terroir, students who are working in tasting rooms now or have a parent or a relative who’s in the wine business or thinking about maybe pursuing that,” said Pogue. “I only let half of the students be geology majors.” Pogue hopes to expand the program to take advantage of the resources around us and to provide a more handson experience for his students. “I think this year I am going to propose to upgrade the class to a real class, give it a number and teach it on a regular basis, probably as a three-credit class,” said Pogue. “We could go on field trips and see the terroir, the different soils ... it would be during crush, wine making time, so we could actually go to the wineries while they’re making wine, talk to wine
makers about how terroir they are.” Walla Walla Community College has also taken advantage of the educational possibilities of the burgeoning industry by establishing a two-year viticulture and enology program. Myles Anderson, director of the community college’s viticulture and enology program, came to Walla Walla from Denver in 1997 to continue teaching at the Walla Walla Community College. He was an avid wine enthusiast, and helped operate Walla Walla Vintners on the side of his teaching career. When he was set to retire, he was charged by the community college’s president to take on founding the viticulture and enology school. “[He wanted to see if] the college [could create] a two-year program that would have a hands-on and practical curriculum,” said Anderson in an email. “The decision was an easy one for me to make. This was a dream come true: My vocation had married my passion.” After the program’s launch in 2000, the hands-on portion of the program took place at Anderson’s vineyard as Anderson attempted to grow the program. “We began the search for instructors and a local winery to host us until our facility was completed,” said Anderson in an email. “The students made wine at Walla Walla Vintners until the Wine Center was completed.” In 2003, the community college opened one of the first nonprofit commercial teaching wineries, College Cellars, which can be seen on Isaacs Street on the way out to the airport. “Students are crafting wonderful and affordable wines and sell them at the Wine Center to help finance the teaching winery,” said Anderson in an email. By pairing teaching with a hands-on experience with wine-
There is much to be studied in the creation of wine: from the geology of the soil, the chemistry of fermentation, and the culture and history of its consumption. The local wine industry presents a host of academic possibilities. Photos by Bergman
making and running a winery, the program is successful in unleashing its graduates in the community. “We are proud to have 145 degreed graduates who are 98 percent employed in the wine industry throughout the Northwest and beyond,” said Anderson in an email. Pogue sees the value of this kind of work, but recognizes that it would not fit in at Whitman College.
“We don’t have a viticulture program [because] that’s not a very liberal arts sort of thing, learning how to make grapes,” said Pogue. These are but a few of the educational prospects derived from Walla Walla’s wine industry. From practical education to interdisciplinary work, wine isn’t just something to enjoy with dinner or to taste in town. It’s a subject ripe for study.
Alumni, students run Walla Walla wineries by Hannah bartman Staff Reporter
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alla Walla boasts being home to over 100 wineries alone, and tourists flock during all parts of the year to partake in this unique
product of the land. It is no surprise that to come here for college can inspire some students to join the wave of winemaking that is sweeping the region. Out of the host of wineries in town there are many that are operated by Whitman graduates. One
L’Ecole No. 41 is another winery closely tied to Whitman, founded by former trustee Baker Ferguson and operated by his daughter, Megan Clubb ‘91. Photo by Bergman
such winery is Revelry Vintners, a winery four miles from campus that is run by alumnus Jared Burns ‘03, a Whitman graduate who has hired Whitman senior Joe Volpert to work in the tasting room. The tasting room, which is described by Revelry’s enologist and cellar master Anthony Thomas as both “classy” but “unpretentious,” is where Volpert does his work for the winery. Currently a politics major, Volpert expresses the fascination that he has found with the local wine industry and the enthusiasm which he has acquired for wine while working at Revelry. “Through working at Revelry, I’ve become more interested in the winemaking process,” said Volpert in an email. “I’ve talked with the enologist at Revelry a lot about the process and how it works, and winemaking is something that I could see myself doing in the future.” Working in the tasting room gives Volpert the job of welcoming and serving any costumers that enter the tasting room, as well as answering any questions that they might have about the wine. Other than the knowledge he has gained about the specific wine that is offered by Revelry, Volpert has been given the chance to partake in the process of creating the wine. “I’ve helped with bottling the wine twice, and I got to help with a ‘punch-down,’ which is pressing down the grapes into a vat of fermenting wine. The punchdowns are really hard physical work, which I wasn’t expecting!” said Volpert in an email. The wine-making process is one that is deceivingly com-
plicated and works on an intense second-by-second basis. In order to work with the wines, a person must be aware of the multiple chemical processes that are taking place at one time, requiring an ability to adapt and the knowledge to make informed decisions. “You’re dealing with a product that is chemically speaking very complex. Because of that, you have to be very careful to monitor [the wine] at every step, so that if something happens that makes it go in the direction that you don’t want it to go in then you have to be able to change it. You have to understand the chemistry and the biology involved so that you can make the instant decisions that are informed decisions,” said Thomas. The unique opportunity that Walla Walla holds for Whitman students to be involved in the wine industry is one that opens a whole new area of exploration. It is a profession that draws on the multifaceted ideals that Whitman holds as a liberal arts institution. “I think the people who study wine and are successful are people who are actually passionate about wine. They are interested in not only the product itself but the process—the chemistry, the biology and the historical aspects of it,” said Volpert. Likewise, despite Burns’ interest in the sporting industry after his graduation from Whitman, he found his true passion was in wine. Revelry Vinters opened in 2006 and Burns added his unique vision for his wine to the mix of Walla Walla’s growing wine community. Ever since the first few com-
mercial vineyards started popping up here in the 1980s, Walla Walla has been greatly transformed by wine. However, its development has not reached the critical levels that other wine industries such as Napa or Sonoma Valley have reached in California. “Walla Walla has not grown exponentially as a wine industry because it is not near a metropolitan area. Napa Valley is right above San Francisco, which made their industry grow at a faster rate. We have a different environment that is conducive to making a different but also a good wine,” said Thomas. The unique environment of Walla Walla creates this ideal space for winemaking, and also adds to the cultural assumptions about the industry. Despite the cultural stigma that wine tasting and enology is targeted at the upper class, Thomas believes that wine should be viewed as an indulgence for everyone. “A lot of people assume that wine is reserved for people of a certain class, but that’s totally wrong,” said Thomas. “It’s not geared towards a certain class; it can be enjoyed by everyone. Everyone should have a chance to enjoy the cultural, social and historical richness of wine, and find the kind that they like.” With this social and cultural permeability that can accompany wine, this industry opens up many opportunities for Whitman students. Whether opening a winery is an aspiration or tasting it is a hobby, winemaking has created a culture that will continue to define and expand Walla Walla.