Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/450857
February 2015 Wines&Vines 75 wine east wine industry news G eneva, N.Y.—When spring semester classes started Jan. 26 at Finger Lakes Community College in Geneva, students found the new Viticul- ture and Wine Center ready for their use. For the past several years, viticulture and enology classes have been held at the nearby Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park, sometimes referred to as the Tech Farm. Ac- cording to Paul Brock, assistant professor of viticulture at FLCC, "The new building will be a better learning environment." The FLCC winery was de- signed to provide practical expe- rience for students in the college's certified two-year program, which offers an applied science associate's degree in viticulture and wine technology. Graduates of the program may transfer to Cornell University's viticulture- enology program in Ithaca, N.Y., or seek employment in the wine industry. The 8,900-square-foot center was designed in two parts. The west end of the building, which houses a teaching winery, was pre-fabricated using metal I- beams and construction. The walls in the winery are epoxy from the floor to a height of 18 inches and plastic above that. Brock told Wines & Vines, "I want to stand in the middle of the win- ery and be able to hose every- thing down." A crush pad is adjacent to the winery. The east end of the center is stick-built and contains class- room and office space, a tasting room, kitchen area and wine laboratory. The entire building was designed to be energy effi- cient and meet the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Envi- ronmental Design (LEED) silver rat- ing standards. Its southern exposure provides natural l i g h t d u r i n g t h e day; the roof over- hang will provide some shading on the south side dur- ing the summer. Brock is pleased to be moving into the new facility and expected to have the certifi- cate of occupancy for the class- room section by mid-January. The certificate for the winery proba- bly will not be available until sometime in February, at which time tanks and other equipment will be delivered and students will be able to use the winery fa- cility for their projects. The college is applying for a winery license so that students can produce wine from grapes grown at the FLCC's 2.5-acre re- N.Y. Viticulture and Wine Center Opens to Finger Lakes Students Paul Brock (right) bottles wine with David Diaz at Finger Lakes Community College, where a new Viticulture and Wine Center is opening in two stages. Wine East Covering Eastern North America Growth D O E S N ' T H A P P E N B Y A C C I D E N T . Visit www.PlanWithWaterloo.com today to find out how we can take the guesswork out of your packaging projections and help you achieve your goals in 2015. Suppliers of Wine Bottles, Corks, Caps and Closures 888-539-3922 • www.PlanWithWaterloo.com —continues on page 79