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Beginning this fall, Texas Tech will offer courses in winemaking, viticulture and wine tourism as well as a new undergraduate degree opportunity in viticulture and enology, a first for Texas universities.
Written by Cory Chandler
The Texas High Plains is the second largest American viticultural area in Texas and third largest in the U.S. The high elevation combined with low precipitation allows for a favorable climate for fruit ripening.
As the wine industry booms in Texas and across much of the United States, Texas Tech University has added a degree specialization and slate of new courses teaching everything from grape growing to wine production and winery management.
The university is now the first in Texas and one of a handful in the nation to offer an undergraduate program in viticulture and enology, or the study of grapes and wine.
This influx of graduates should help fill the needs of wine production and retailing industries that have quickly spread beyond the borders of traditionally wine-rich states such as California and Washington.
Texas alone now has more than 162 wineries fermenting vintages, making it the fifth-largest producer in the U.S., and shows no signs of slowing down – Texans are sipping more wine than ever before, according to a recent study by Texas Tech’s Wine Marketing Research Institute.
“The wine industry has expanded rapidly in the past five years or so, and not just in Texas,” said Ed Hellman, a Texas Tech professor of viticulture with a joint appointment at Texas Agrilife Extension. “You look at states like Oklahoma, New Mexico – even Nebraska and Kansas – and there are burgeoning industries there. This has created a need for graduates, which is why we can offer this new degree specialization. Even eight years ago, we couldn’t have been teaching these subjects; we didn’t have the faculty to teach them.”
Beginning this fall, students pursuing a horticultural and turfgrass sciences degree will have the option to specialize in viticulture and enology. Texas Tech also will introduce courses on winemaking, viticulture and wine tourism. By 2010, offerings will expand to include winery business planning, wine marketing and vineyard management.
The courses draw on a wide range of programs at Texas Tech, including those in the:
- Department of Plant and Soil Science
- Department of Nutrition, Hospitality and Retailing
- Wine Marketing Research Institute
5 Responses to “Texas Begins Growing its Own Winemakers to Fill Widening Industry Need”
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Wine and Texas Tech
Texas Tech University offers unique education and research opportunities to those interested in the wine and grape industry through the:
Texas Wine Marketing Research Institute More >>
Certification Program in Viticulture More >>
NEW! Viticulture and Enology Program
- New Academic Program for the Wine and Grape Industry
- Wine Research in the Department of Plant and Soil Science
April 30th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Will the courses be offered online?
May 6th, 2009 at 10:35 am
As a graduate of Texas Tech (PhD in Marketing), I find this new degree to be great. I’m a Professor of Marketing at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts and have been researching materials on plant science and plant engineering for journal articles and a book I am writing.
Keep up the outstanding academic work at Texas Tech.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Interested in online course.
Also interested in olives.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Please direct your comments to katie.leigh@ttu.edu or call 806-742-1627. I would love to answer any questions you may have about the new Viticulture and Enology program that the Plant and Soil Science program has to offer.
Thanks,
Katie Leigh
Communications Coordinator
Plant and Soil Science
806-742-1627
May 6th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I am currious how this certification will affect the grape industry in our region. Currently we are seeing a growth in wine grape production in Terry and Yoakum counties. I am very interested to see whether or not farmers establish a connection, as well as working relationship, with Texas Tech and pursue their interest in the eneology certification. I would love to see Tech lead the way in term of grape research, production and management of related crops and products.