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On the hillsides of Las Positas College lay 4 acres of vineyard. In mid-August, some of the trellises bear grapes that appear plump and juicy.
These grapes serve as school supplies for students at Campus Hill Winery, a teaching winery that gives LPC learners the hands-on experience of making award-winning wines in the Livermore Valley.
As students learn the process from “vine to wine”, they can pursue associate’s degrees, certificates and transfers through the school’s viticulture and winery technology program.
It’s a long-running program that recently unveiled its new facility on the northeastern portion of campus, just in time for California Wine Month in September. At the complex, which cost about $8.5 million, students will be able to use state-of-the-art equipment to become industry-ready for a career in the field.
In the viticulture and winery technology program, students can learn about viticulture, enology and wine hospitality. With these options, they can focus on farming, irrigation and soil studies or winemaking itself.
But the learning doesn’t just take place in the classroom. Budding winemakers also have the chance to get direct experience in a process that starts with grape harvesting by hand at Campus Hill Vineyard.
From here, there’s a million ways to make wine, according to David Everett, faculty and program coordinator. So there’s a lot of freedom in the process and stylistic choices.
It also means there isn’t one sequence that can be used to make every wine.
But after picking, students can destem the grapes, sort, crush or press, ferment, clarify, age and finally bottle the wine.
Of course the process is more complicated than that, since the method depends on the type of wine being made, Everett said.
Nan Ho, vice president of academic services at LPC, commented on the value of hands-on learning, “This approach ensures that our graduates are well-prepared for diverse careers in the wine industry, whether in vineyard management, winemaking or wine hospitality.”
As part of the hands-on experience, students will benefit from the program’s new teaching winery and classroom in buildings 3600 and 3700, which are seeing their first use this semester after about two years of construction.
The facility augments the preexisting program, ultimately enhancing the student’s learning experience, according to Ho.
It includes a covered crush pad stocked with equipment like a grape elevator, de-stemmer, vibrating sorting table, sorting conveyor, crusher/rollers and pneumatic press. The new space allows students to make wine in a structured area, Everett said.
Inside the facility are temperature controlled stainless steel tanks, a bottling line, cold storage room, barrel room and small lab for analysis. The equipment was still being installed in mid-August.
In a separate building lies the classroom, a small tasting area and prep kitchen for food and wine pairing classes.
“Together, these buildings elevate the program, offering students an unparalleled, real-world learning environment that mirrors professional winery operations,” LPC officials said.
It’s uncommon to find a facility like this at a community college, according to Everett. With it, students can pursue professional-level side projects they weren’t able to do previously.
“Here we provide them with the skills, the tools, the equipment, etcetera and let them go on their own to do it for real,” Everett explained.
Students can even follow their side projects into aging and bottling if they continue enrollment.
“This place kicks ass,” Everett said. “It’s amazing. I’ve been to other colleges with a wine program and what we’re doing here is mind-blowing.”
The impact of the new facility is already visible through high enrollment, as Everett had been forced to turn away students from the food and wine pairing class because it reached capacity. During the first week of school, he had to do the same for another course.
Opening the new teaching winery and classroom has been a big step for the LPC program, which started as just one class when it began in 2004.
By 2005 the campus winery began production, but it wasn’t until about six years ago that they began selling it. During the time in between, the product could only be tasted in analysis classes and provided at campus events like admin retreats.
“We started with very little, if anything,” Everett said. “We didn’t even have wine glasses, but now we are a full-fledged, real, operating, bonded winery that produces and sells campus wines, all supported by the students.”
Now the winery produces award winners like the 2021 Return of “The Hawk” Red Tail Blend, which was named Gold and Best of Show Red Wine at the West Coast College and University Wine Festival in Santa Maria earlier this year. Other Campus Hill wines have won awards at the Alameda County Fair.
Starting this month, Campus Hill Winery will open for free wine tastings, where the community can enjoy the flavors of Livermore Valley on its brand new patio.
Otherwise, people can purchase the wines every first and third Thursday of the month from 1-5 p.m. in Room 3601 beginning this week at LPC in Livermore, according to the school’s website. Available wines include the award-winning 2021 Return of “The Hawk” Red Tail Blend, 2022 Albariño and 2022 Rosé of Tempranillo. Revenue from the wine sales support the winery and its viticulture and winery technology program.
The winery will also host a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new facility and showcase its program on Nov. 19. The Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Board of Trustees is expected to be among those in attendance.
“If you build it, they’ll come,” Everett said. “And we built it. Now it’s time for people to get up here.”
To learn more about the Campus Hill Winery and LPC’s viticulture and winery technology program, visit laspositascollege.edu.
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