Viticulture & Enology

March 2022: Letter from the Director

Next week, the Spring semester starts, and for the first time since March 2020, students and staff are on campus and can forgo face coverings. The mask requirement change is a significant milestone for the college and our community, taking small steps back to normal. However, we are still committed to supporting one’s personal choice to wear a mask and will remain flexible in light of COVID developments.

The Art of Problem Solving

As someone who has studied viticulture and enology in both my bachelor’s and my current master’s program, I have learned that most grape-growing and winemaking is problem-solving. It’s up to the grape-grower and winemaker if they want to problem-solve proactively or reactively (or both), but trust me, the problems will come eventually and need solving—and you simply can’t prepare for them all.

Having a Nice Glass of French Wine?

From UC Davis News

If consumers cannot tell the quality of a product when they buy it, it can drive high-quality products, like a good French wine, out of the market. Consumers would not pay a premium, and producers would have no incentive to make costly quality improvements. This widely held economic tenet, formalized in a famed article by Nobel Prize-winner George Akerlof, suggests that without standards, consumers could be left with mostly “lemons,” such as defective used cars.

A Click and a Corkscrew

Since COVID-19, socially distanced, virtual, and remote functioning has become the norm. Many people, businesses, and institutions have had to scramble to adapt to this new way of life. However, Wine.com has been unknowingly prepared since it was founded in 1998 with its expansive digital shop and focus on bringing wine and spirits right to the consumer’s door.

Do you have what it takes to study wine at UC Davis?

Looking for an easy A with a happy hour? Don’t enroll in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California-Davis.

“A lot of students come here thinking they’re going to get to taste a lot of wine,” says Andrew L. Waterhouse, director of the Robert Mondavi Institute of Wine and Food Science and professor of enology.