The academic year is coming to a quick end with students preparing for final exams and commencement ceremonies on the horizon. The Robert Mondavi Institute closes out the term with two amazing sold-out events.
On May 11, 2026, certified sommelier, debut author, and change agent in the world of wine and beverage, Cha McCoy came to UC Davis with a mission to reframe how we think about wine, food, and who gets a seat at the table.
Spring is slowly unfurling in Davis with grapevines and olive trees starting to bloom around the Robert Mondavi Institute. It feels appropriate that the monthly newsletter is filled with news about wine and olive oil.
Students are finishing their finals and next week is spring break! I always look forward to the spring quarter and am excited to share two events that showcase UC Davis alumni.
Long before Napa, Bordeaux, or Tuscany became synonymous with great wine, people cultivated grapes and fermented wine.
At a recent Sips and Bites event, UC Davis Ph.D. candidate Arpa Boghozian guided guests through that deeper history. The tasting explored four ancient wine cultures, Lebanon, Greece, Georgia, and Armenia, pairing each wine with the traditions and techniques that shaped it.
This February, the Robert Mondavi Institute's Sips and Bites series welcomed two professors from UC Davis's Department of Viticulture and Enology.
Dr. Andrew Waterhouse is a professor emeritus, holder of an honorary doctorate from the University of Bordeaux, and an ISI Highly Cited Researcher. Dr. Liang Chen is a newly appointed assistant professor whose résumé includes work at E. & J. Gallo Winery and the analysis of wines that traveled to the International Space Station.
Our first two programs of the year have been successful and well-received, selling out quickly and drawing a full crowd to the Robert Mondavi Institute Sensory Theater.
When three members of the UC Davis Viticulture and Enology Executive Leadership Board sat down with students in October 2025, they talked about building careers, setting boundaries, and why your 20-year plan might be holding you back.
What happens to your favorite wine or beer when the climate that shaped it starts to change?
That question was at the heart of Sips of Change, a dynamic panel at Terra Madre Americas, where UC Davis scientists and an Argentine winemaker came together to talk adaptation, tradition, and what fermented beverages might look like in the decades ahead.
When winemakers press grapes, they're after the juice. But what happens to the skins, seeds, and stems that make up nearly 30% of the harvest?
At Terra Madre Americas in Sacramento in September 2025, two UC Davis researchers revealed how this "waste" is becoming the wine industry's next frontier of innovation.
The Sensory Theater fell quiet as Ned Spang, Director of the Robert Mondavi Institute, welcomed a familiar face back to campus. Dr. Hoby Wedler, a UC Davis alumnus who has been blind since birth, returned not just as a chemist, entrepreneur, and sensory expert but as the guide for the first public tasting built entirely around UC Davis student-made wines.
Every Thursday evening during the quarter at UC Davis, undergrads, graduate students, faculty, and researchers come together with wine glasses in hand for VITIS, the wine tasting club run through the Davis Enology and Viticulture Organization (DEVO). Here, they taste wines while learning directly from the people making them.
When Michael Mondavi steps into a room, he brings decades of wine expertise and the living history of Napa Valley with him. On October 7, 2025, the "quiet icon" of California winemaking shared his history, and hard-won lessons about surviving the industry's ups and downs, with students, alumni, and faculty at the Robert Mondavi Institute's Sensory Theater.
