Nineteen Chemistry students and two professors visited the Woody Lodge Winery in Ashville last month to help harvest grapes.
The group also toured the wine-making facility and learned about the fermentation process during their visit on Sept. 19.
This is the second consecutive year that SFU Chemistry students have assisted the staff at Woody Lodge with the fall harvest. Students enrolled in this semester’s Inorganic and Fermentation and Flavor courses used buckets and hand pruners to gather grapes, which they later fermented to create wine.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Benjamin Smith leads SFU’s Fermentation Program. He said that fermentation extends beyond just food and wine production; it is a widely used method across many industries, including bioprocessing.
“The industry is moving away from people mixing chemicals to growing via fermentation,” said Smith. “For example, insulin, citric acid and diesel come from fermentation.
“The whole food industry uses it. But it is also, as many know, used to make beer and wine.”
For senior Chemistry student Sarah Evans, it was her first time visiting the winery. She was excited to connect her class material to real-life fermentation concepts.
“I have always been the type of learner who only truly understands things once I can connect them to a real-life experience,” said Evans.
“Seeing all the machinery at the winery allowed me to ‘put a picture’ behind the fermentation concepts that I have previously learned through lectures and PowerPoints.”
Chemistry Professor Ed Zovinka emphasized the importance of offering practical experiences to students.
“The easiest way for us to establish real-life experiences for our students was to reach out to our neighbors at Woody Lodge to see if we could work together,” said Zovinka.
That led to a partnership between SFU and the winery.
“Our efforts are collaborative – we help them out, and they help us out,” said Zovinka. “Woody Lodge provides research and internship opportunities for students and helps us fund our scholarships.”
Woody Lodge recently introduced the “175th Anniversary” (in honor of the University reaching this milestone) semi-dry Riesling and the “Red Flash Red,” with proceeds from the sale of these wines supporting scholarships for students at SFU.
