The Cal Poly wine is something that changes every year, so you never know what to expect.
“We get our grapes donated to us each year,” wine and viticulture Cal Poly senior Bryn Hober says, “it’s definitely dependent on the harvest season and how the grapes look when the school year starts,” adding that, “this year we had a really early harvest,” meaning the grapes came in at high sugar levels.
The winemaking process is tedious, taking months of laborious tasks on top of the interns having to balance their personal lives and school, with any slip-up possibly ruining the wine. Interns come and go, trying to spend any free time outside of class to work on it, whether it’s a quick checkup in between classes or hours on the weekends.
“We spend as many hours as we can. Whenever we get a new batch of grapes, we’ll come in to help press them, sort them, and get them ready to ferment,” Hober adds that, “I’m excited to see how all the hard work turns out once we finally finish pressing, fermenting, and going through the whole process.”
The most challenging? Learning all the different steps, with Hober adding that the grapes don’t wait for anyone.
For interns, this can mean getting up at 6 a.m. to head out to the winery. From there, the checklist is long, as they precisely investigate the sugar levels, temperature and pH, having to keep track of everything. Being sure to take notes and use the right additives.
” It’s a lot of logistical things, and for me, I’m not a huge bug person,” Hober says. Adding that she wanted to get hands-on experience instead of reading a textbook, she reached out to winery manager Jim Shumate.
Hober says. “I wanted to understand how to do each step in each process. So I would say just reaching out, being vocal about what you want to do, what you want to learn, asking lots of questions, and giving yourself time to go and experience new things.”
The Cal Poly Center for Wine and Viticulture is used for research, wine production and project ferments, which are small-batch fermentation trials done by students.
The wine is expected to be ready a few months after bottling, when fermentation is considered complete; however, no exact date is confirmed.