Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus
The major is based on fundamental and applied sciences, modern agribusiness principles, and appropriate social sciences. The curriculum encompasses winegrape cultivation, enology, and wine business and fosters an academic alliance among production agriculture, food science, and agricultural business interests to provide an academic understanding of the “vine to glass”.
Concentrations
Enology
Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus
The science of winemaking and its creative and practical application. Students monitor and assess wines and winemaking choices using sensory, chemical and microbiological analyses. Graduates are able to make creative winemaking decisions, manage a winery and provide successful solutions to winemaking challenges.
Viticulture
Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus
Intensive training in all aspects of quality wine grape production. Students learn site evaluation and vineyard development, disease and pest management, sustainability, and state-of-the-art cultural practices. Graduates typically become vineyard managers, pest control advisors, or vineyard owners.
Wine Business
Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus
Students learn financial management, principles of vineyard and winery operations, strategic planning, branded wine marketing, packaging, wine consumer behavior, and government compliance. Graduates are prepared for a variety of wine industry careers, with many planning to operate vineyards or wineries of their own.
Program Learning Objectives
- Describe the fundamental principles of wine grape growing, winemaking, and wine business, both domestically and globally, with in-depth knowledge in a chosen sub-discipline (viticulture, enology, or wine business).
- Demonstrate the ability to think critically and creatively, analyze and interpret data, and make reasoned and informed decisions.
- Apply effective leadership skills, and strong written and oral communication skills.
- Describe legal and environmental issues, and sustainability principles, within the wine industry.
- Explain the importance of a high commitment and respect for cultural diversity and its effect on the wine industry.
- Apply strong interpersonal skills and abilities for collaborating with other wine industry professionals.
- Develop skills that will assist with lifelong learning.
Degree Requirements and Curriculum
- 40 units upper-division
- 2.0 GPA
- Graduation Writing Requirement (GWR)
- U.S. Cultural Pluralism (USCP)
Note: No Major, Support or Concentration courses may be selected as credit/no credit. In addition, no more than 12 units of cooperative or internship courses can count towards your degree requirements.
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| MAJOR COURSES | ||
| WVIT 1102 | Global Wine and Viticulture | 3 |
| WVIT 2202 | Fundamentals of Enology | 3 |
| WVIT 2233 | Basic Viticulture | 3 |
| WVIT 3331 | Advanced Viticulture - Fall | 4 |
| WVIT 3339 | Internship in Wine and Viticulture | 3 |
| WVIT 3343 | Branded Wine Marketing | 3 |
| WVIT 4423 | Wine Law and Compliance | 3 |
| WVIT 4442 | Sensory Evaluation of Wine | 3 |
| WVIT 4463 | Issues, Trends, and Careers in the Grape and Wine Industry | 2 |
| Concentration | ||
| (See list of Concentrations below) | 33-36 | |
| SUPPORT COURSES | ||
| AGB 2214 | Agribusiness Financial Accounting | 3 |
| or BUS 2214 | Financial Accounting | |
| BOT 1121 | General Botany (5B & 5C) 1 | 4 |
| BRAE 3340 | Irrigation Water Management (Upper-Division 2/5) 1 | 3 |
| CHEM 1120 | Fundamentals of Chemical Structure and Properties (5A) 1 | 4 |
| ECON 2040 | Macroeconomics (4B) 1 | 3 |
| Select from the following: (2) 1 | 3-4 | |
| Calculus I | ||
| Business Calculus | ||
| SS 1120 | Introductory Soil Science | 4 |
| STAT 1110 | Applied Statistical Concepts and Methods | 3 |
| GENERAL EDUCATION (GE) | ||
| (See GE program requirements below) | 27 | |
| FREE ELECTIVES | ||
| Free Electives 2 | 2-6 | |
| Total Units | 120 | |
- 1
Required in Major or Support; also satisfies General Education (GE) requirement.
- 2
- If a General Education (GE) course is used to satisfy a Major or Support requirement, additional units of Free Electives may be needed to complete the total units required for the degree.
Concentrations
Enology
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| REQUIRED COURSES | ||
| CHEM 1122 | Fundamentals of Chemical Reactivity | 4 |
| CHEM 2240 | Organic Chemistry: Fundamentals and Applications | 4 |
| CHEM 3350 | Biochemistry: Fundamentals and Applications | 4 |
| MCRO 2221 | Introduction to Microbiology | 4 |
| WVIT/MCRO 3301 | Wine Microbiology | 3 |
| WVIT 3365 | Wine Analysis and Amelioration | 3 |
| WVIT 4404 | Winemaking I | 4 |
| WVIT 4405 | Winemaking II | 4 |
| WVIT 4477 | Advanced Wine Sensory Analysis | 3 |
| Senior Project | ||
| Select from the following: | 3 | |
| Senior Project - Enology and Viticulture | ||
| Senior Project - Research Experience in Enology or Viticulture | ||
| Total Units | 36 | |
Viticulture
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| REQUIRED COURSES | ||
| CHEM 2240 | Organic Chemistry: Fundamentals and Applications | 4 |
| PLSC 3313 | Agricultural Entomology | 3 |
| PLSC 3321 | Weed Biology and Management | 4 |
| PLSC 3323 | Plant Pathology | 3 |
| SS 2221 | Soil Health and Plant Nutrition | 4 |
| WVIT 3302 | Wine Fermentation Laboratory | 2 |
| WVIT 3332 | Advanced Viticulture - Spring | 4 |
| WVIT 4414 | Grape Pest Management | 3 |
| WVIT 4428 | Winegrape Vineyard Management | 3 |
| Senior Project | ||
| Select from the following: | 3 | |
| Senior Project - Enology and Viticulture | ||
| Senior Project - Research Experience in Enology or Viticulture | ||
| Total Units | 33 | |
Wine Business
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| REQUIRED COURSES | ||
| AGB 2212 | Agricultural Economics | 3 |
| or ECON 2030 | Microeconomics | |
| AGB 2260 | Agribusiness Data Literacy | 3 |
| AGB 3308 | Introduction to Agribusiness Finance | 3 |
| AGB 3323 | Decision Making with Agribusiness Accounting Information | 3 |
| AGB 3369 | Agricultural Personnel Management | 3 |
| or BUS 3384 | Human Resources Management | |
| EIM 3320 | Strategic Event Planning | 3 |
| WVIT 3302 | Wine Fermentation Laboratory | 2 |
| WVIT 3345 | Wine Marketing Research and Market Analysis | 3 |
| WVIT 4433 | Wine Industry Sales | 4 |
| WVIT 4447 | Logistics for the Global Wine Industry | 3 |
| WVIT 4450 | Wine Business Plan Development | 3 |
| WVIT 4460 | Senior Project - Wine Business | 3 |
| Total Units | 36 | |
General Education (GE) Requirements
- 43 units required, 16 of which are specified in Major and/or Support.
- If any of the remaining 27 Units is used to satisfy a Major or Support requirement, additional units of Free Electives may be needed to complete the total units required for the degree.
- See the complete GE course listing.
- A grade of C- or better is required in one course in each of the following GE Areas: 1A (English Composition), 1B (Critical Thinking), 1C (Oral Communication), and 2 (Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning).
| Lower-Division General Education | ||
| Area 1 | English Communication and Critical Thinking | |
| 1A | Written Communication | 3 |
| 1B | Critical Thinking | 3 |
| 1C | Oral Communication | 3 |
| Area 2 | Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning | |
| 2 | Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning (3 units in Support) 1 | 0 |
| Area 3 | Arts and Humanities | |
| 3A | Arts | 3 |
| 3B | Humanities: Literature, Philosophy, Languages other than English | 3 |
| Area 4 | Social and Behavioral Sciences (Area 4 courses must come from at least two different course prefixes.) | |
| 4A | American Institutions (Title 5, Section 40404 Requirement) | 3 |
| 4B | Social and Behavioral Sciences (3 units in Support) 1 | 0 |
| Area 5 | Physical and Life Sciences | |
| 5A | Physical Sciences (3 units in Support) 1 | 0 |
| 5B | Life Sciences (3 units in Support) 1 | 0 |
| 5C | Laboratory (may be embedded in a 5A or 5B course) (1 units in Support) 1 | 0 |
| Area 6 | Ethnic Studies | |
| 6 | Ethnic Studies | 3 |
| Upper-Division General Education | ||
| Upper-Division 2/5 | Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning or Physical and Life Sciences (3 units in Support) 1 | 0 |
| Upper-Division 3 | Arts and Humanities | 3 |
| Upper-Division 4 | Social and Behavioral Sciences (Area 4 courses must come from at least two different course prefixes.) | 3 |
| Total Units | 27 | |
- 1
Required in Major or Support; also satisfies General Education (GE) requirement.