Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/816747
78 WINES&VINES May 2017 WINEMAKING WINE EAST Various faculty members within Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have supple- mented these students' education with viticul- tural and winemaking projects and research. In addition, each year several students compete for co-op opportunities within Pennsylvania and other wine regions across the country, some- times opting for international harvest-hop ex- periences. Those harvest internships continue to educate students about new production skills. Allie Miller, a 2015 Penn State graduate in food science, is currently working as a vintage cellar hand and laboratory assistant for Water- shed Premium Wines in Margaret River, Aus- tralia. According to Miller, "The harvest-hop experience has been incredible in showing me a broad range of winemaking philosophies and techniques." She continues, "Harvest-hopping has given me immense networking opportunities, as I now know people from all over the world in the industry. The wine world is small! This is a global industry, and I encourage any aspiring winemaker to pursue international opportuni- ties because they are so fulfilling in both career and life experiences." WQI short course, explained The WQI program was established in 2007 by former Penn State extension enology educator Dr. Stephen Menke, who called it the Pennsyl- vania Wine Quality Initiative. The program focused on training six winemakers at each session to identify wine faults sensorially. The initial goal of the program was to reduce the number of wines with noticeable faults pro- duced in Pennsylvania. An enology graduate of the University of Adelaide, Mazza recognized the program's value to the local wine industry and, after Menke left for another position, helped main- tain the course until Penn State Extension re- established the program in 2011. A main priority of WQI was to provide prac- tical information for industry members. Instead of focusing on the end product of commercial wines, the program returned to a more tradi- tional extension model, which placed emphasis on sensory training and education. The goal was to provide attendees with the knowledge to help answer their own production questions, while the sensory exercises emphasized the need to continue working on identification of faults once the attendees returned to their production facilities. After the first workshop, I spent a year travel- ing from corner to corner within Pennsylvania and highlighting the importance of sensory evaluation of wines through this educational program. With support from the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant awarded to the Pennsylvania Wine Association (PWA), we hired Mitchell as a student intern to aid in the program's develop- ment and organization. With her help, program attendance reached just under half of the state's wineries in operation at that time. "The summer we traveled throughout Penn- sylvania was the first time I was exposed to the 251 Gambee Road, Geneva, NY 14456 Phone: 315-759-2118 Toll free: 888-234-6752 Fax: 315-789-1848 Email: cjennings@vancemetal.com Website: www.vancemetal.com Quality Rugged 12 gauge, Custom & Stock Stainless Tanks Catwalk Systems • Pump Over Carts • Custom Hoppers, Chutes & Bins PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA Workshop attendees identify potential wine faults in commercial wines.