California College Wineries & Wine Ed

SANTA MARIA:Allan Hancock CollegeCaptain's Reserve available at Building O, Room 211, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays.

After 16 years of having a successful agribusiness program, Hancock College officially got bonded to sell its wine, a process that took nine years. The third community college in California bonded to sell wine sees this effort as part of a whole package for students seeking to immerse themselves in the wine business. 

Hancock's wine program with two practice vineyards, one 4-acre outdoor classroom on the Santa Maria campus that includes a  greenhouse  and vineyard equipment, plus the Los Alamos field, hopes to grow and thrive, with wine sales proceeds funneled back into the program as specified by the the type of license.

Students such as Nick Refice from Orange County attend Hancock College to learn the winemaking process in hands-on opportunities such as working in the the winery picking grapes, racking wines, learning the fermenting process and labeling. Performing tasks and studying about wines allows them to get real life experience before entering the work force.

Captain's Reserve named after Capt. Allan Hancock, currently offers 11 wines such as pinot noir, syrah and chardonnay. Every step from bottling to labeling strives for perfection.  

http://www.sonoma.edu/sbe/wine-business-institute/

Sonoma State is the first in the United States to offer an undergraduate degree (since 1998), an MBA (since 2008), and most recently an Executive MBA (since 2012) focused on the business of wine.
Today, our full slate of degree and certificate programs serve the wine industry and those aspiring to be a part of it.

Our Alumni and board of directors are industry leaders. Our faculty are globally respected.

Our location, in the golden trinity of Napa, Sonoma, and San Francisco, is second to none.

For further information contact us at (707) 664-3235 or winebiz@ sonoma.edu.

Community colleges make wine education accessible to professional hopefuls as well as curious consumers. While the wine world is aware of the state's powerhouse wine-education universities—notably UC Davis, California State University, Fresno, Sonoma State and California Polytechnic University—not everyone knows about the valuable (and lower cost) community college wine programs. These can prepare people to enter new careers or advance in existing ones within the industry, or to continue on to four-year programs in California or elsewhere.

Some of the state's 112 community colleges maintain campus vineyards and wineries to provide students with a global experience of the wine industry.

Napa Community College and its associated Napa Valley College Estate Winery, endowed by the Napa Valley Vintners, is known as a destination school, drawing enrollment not just from the huge local industry but from around the world. It's a partnerships between the college programs and the Napa vineyard/winery/hospitality business. Students who might be transferring to Cal Poly or UC Davis, but also to cellar workers who want to move up to the lab; farm workers who want to become vineyard managers; those who want to continue working while in school; or entrepreneurs seeking a career path change. In one class, we might have a billionaire high-tech early retiree learning beside the child of a farmworker beside an enology student.   Students from as far afield as Brazil and China contribute to the mix as well at this open-access destination campus. The teaching winery, Napa College Estate Winery, is where students grow grapes and produce wines. The college provides contract training for winery staff in the mandatory TIPS program for food service, and administers California's Small Business Development Corp. in Napa and Sonoma counties.

With its main campus in Sonoma County s county seat and largest city, a satellite in Petaluma and the 40-acre, organically certified Shone Farm in Forestville, Santa Rosa Junior College offers a viticulture program since 2006. Students choose between career certificates or associate of science degrees. Certificate programs   include enology, wine and vine, marketing, wine evaluation and service.  The viticulture program is closely integrated with the local wine industry.  Because of its location amid Sonoma County's 765+ wineries,  many students get jobs even before they get their certificates. Wines grown and produced at Shone Farm are sold at retail locally.

AgriBusiness program includes courses in enology/ viticulture, wine marketing and sales, and wine and food pairing.  Hancock has a 4-acre vineyard on campus and also sources grapes from a nearby vineyard owned by Kendall-Jackson.

Shasta College in Redding teaches winemaking and viticulture courses. Shasta has a 2.5-acre vineyard, planted mostly with red varieties. Collaborating with the Shasta Cascade Viticulture Association, the college offers a two-year winemaking program.

Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz County has had an on-again, off-again wine program within the Culinary Arts Department. Community support and Santa Cruz Mountains Winery Association have helped keep it going.


Shasta College is one of four community colleges in the 112-college system to have a bonded winery. That federal designation allows the college to bottle wine with its own label. The college doesn't sell the wine, but has uncorked it for tastings at campus events.

Commercial winemaking in higher education is nothing new. California State University Fresno has had a commercial facility since 1997.

The School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State University offers an executive wine MBA at the Upper Valley campus of Napa Valley College in St. Helena.

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