Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Colorado State wine hopeful to be sold in local stores soon

Although this blog is centered on scientific studies and breakthroughs scientific fields, I decided to branch off from the original side of things and look at ‘scientific studies’ from a new angle. Being a student of Colorado State University, why not make a post about local news?

Colorado State University has the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, and one of the concentrations available through the department is viticulture, which is the science, study, and study of grapes, and enology, the science and study of wine and wine making. So this post does have the original concept of scientific studies in mind!

The department was developed back in 2008 by CSU professor Stephen Menke. He says that the two purposes for the program are to help students get a good background in enology to further help them get a job in the field, and to also help the Colorado industry viticulture and enology grow. ‘[We want the students] to take charge of making and deciding which vines to produce and implementing their innovative ideas’ said Menke.

CSU actually owns its one winery, called the Ram’s Point winery, which is located in Grand Junction, and is ran by Menke and the department’s students. The students are actually given the ability to grow grapes at a Fort Collins vineyard that are used at the winery.

So far, Ram’s Point wine is only sold online, but Menke hopes that with the department growing in popularity the CSU campus will embrace its own wine brand, and then demand it to be sold on the shelves of local stores. As of now, there is no definite date or time frame when Ram’s Point wine will actually be sold in local stores, but as a Fort Collin resident and a newly turned 21-year-old, I can only hope that it happens sooner than later!