California Ag Network

Tag: Fresno State Winery

  • Hard work and Fine Fruit Results in Five Medals for Fresno State Wines

    Fresno State enology and winery student assistant Karley Curtis, August 27, 2021, photo by Geoff Thurner

    Karley Curtis, an enology senior from Easton, was drawn to Fresno State so she could channel her passion for science into a lifelong career. However, the Jordan College honors research cohort member, had to make a slight detour from her initial path as a pre-nursing major.

    “I loved my chemistry course that first semester, but realized that the hospital setting wasn’t the best fit for me,” Curtis said. “Luckily, my dad suggested enology, and I was able to quickly shift to another of Fresno State’s top programs. Constantly checking on the wine during the fermentation process involves a lot of the same training as we monitor various pH and acidity levels and potentially add other things to hone it to perfection.”

    Her appreciation for wine grapes started at an early age as she played in a neighbor’s vineyard. Its career potential took root while traveling with her father, Brett, on his work calls. The Fresno State agricultural business alumnus works as an irrigation consultant and created systems for vineyards throughout the Central Valley and Central Coast.

    Now as the Fresno State Winery’s lead student assistant, Curtis will have a chance to help extend its reputation as a top collegiate winery — a standing further solidified after the winery earned five medals at the recent San Joaquin Valley Winegrowers Association wine competition.

    Fresno State claimed double gold medals for its 2018 Barbera and Cabernet Sauvignon wines; a gold medal for its 2019 Albariño; and silver medals for its 2018 Alicante Bouschet and 2019 Chardonnay.

    “This was definitely our best showing in 10 years at this competition,” said Kevin Smith, winery marketing and sales director. “It also reflects the improved quality of our wines, thanks to the hard work that our students are putting in, and the fine fruit our winemaker, Tom Montgomery, is sourcing for us.”

    The Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay came from grapes harvested in the Napa and Sonoma areas through industry and alumni contacts. The Albariño fruit was harvested from the nearby Saviez Vineyards on the San Joaquin River, as well as Alicante Bouschet grapes from the Papagni Vineyards near Madera.

    Fresno State Winery, viticulture and enology honors cohort member & winery student assistant Karley Curtis and winemaker Tom Montgomery, first crush day of 2021 (Saviez Pinot Gris grapes), August 11, 2021, photo by Geoff Thurner

    “Among all the awards, I’m extra proud of the Barbera since it is from the Fresno State vineyard,” said Tom Montgomery, the campus winemaker. “Other California areas have had national recognition for a long time, and now the San Joaquin Valley is becoming equally well known for its own types of varietals that excel specifically in our weather and soil conditions.”

    Several of these wines were also recognized earlier this year by the San Francisco Chronicle, which awarded a gold medal to the 2019 Chardonnay and silver medals to the 2018 Alicante Bouschet, President’s Reserve Barbera and Sargent Zinfandel wines.

    Looking ahead, the campus winery hopes to add more wine awards from two international wine contests that will be held later this year: the San Francisco International Wine Challenge and Sommelier Challenge.

    All of the campus wines are currently available at the Fresno State Winery website and are equally popular with its wine club. Members receive 20% off wines through three, four-bottle shipments throughout the year, as well as special access to limited edition wines and special events.

    Members might have noticed that a select group of campus wines now brandish black labels. The redesign showcases wines that are initially prioritized for wine club members for three months after bottling. Any remaining wines are then available online, at the Gibson Farm Market, area stores, and fine restaurants that now include Harris Ranch.

    As new lots of grapes arrive at the winery this summer and fall, Curtis will use her winery and lab training as a member of the Jordan College Honors Research Cohort. The fifth-generation agriculturist will assist enology faculty member Dr. Kristy Sun to study Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, and how vine canopy treatments and aging affect wine anthocyanin content.

    Curtis, a former Washington Union High School valedictorian and Fresno State dancer, is unphased by the workload since she has always successfully juggled multiple interests, and still works as a youth dance coach.

    “It’ll be a busy year, but it will be so rewarding,” she said. “Being able to walk from classes and lab to the winery and vineyard next door is such an exciting balance and I can’t wait.”

    Fresno State Winery, December 9, 2020, photo by Geoff Thurner

  • New Fresno State Wine Club Features Alumni-Produced Brands

    Although they graduated more than a decade apart, Fresno State alumni Nathan Cardella and Joseph Maldonado fondly shared the same memories as many current enology students.

    “The smell that would radiate during crush, bottling or racking,” Cardella said. “The best part was being able to still smell it during classes. It brought back memories of working in our family vineyards while I was growing up.”

    That experience also prepared Cardella to start the Cardella Winery with his father, Rod, on their property in Mendota after he graduated in 2004. It’s also the same Italian-style boutique winery that employs Maldonado as its winemaker.

    The Fresno State Winery has long dubbed itself as the “Home of Tomorrow’s Winemakers,” and it has now created a new wine club to reunite its supporters and alumni like Cardella and Maldonado.

    The Alumni Vintners Wine Club’s first installment in May quickly sold out and featured Cardella’s 2014 Barbera and 2018 Pinot Grigio editions, along with four of the campus winery’s student-made varietals. The shipment also included a coupon for a two-person tasting at the scenic, Panoche Circle-area winery that is situated in the Central Coast foothills.

    Cardella’s Barbera vintage received an impressive 90 point score from Wine Enthusiast magazine. The Pinot Grigio’s profile was equally complex and a nod to the family’s roots in Tuscany, where Nathan Cardella worked and studied for a year after graduation.

    “Fresno State armed me with the knowledge to make flawless wines,” Cardella said. “The industry knows that Fresno State is a premier school that teaches not only the science of winemaking but also how to use winery equipment and run a wine business.”

    The Cardella Winery and vineyard are rooted in the family tradition that goes back to Marlia, Italy before Carlo Cardella emigrated to Firebaugh in 1902. The winery still specializes in Italian varieties that are all grown on the estate, and currently includes Chardonnay, Merlot, Moscato, Prosecco, Ruby Cabernet, Syrah and Vin Santo vintages.

    “I fondly remember classes with Dr. (Sanliang) Gu and experimenting in the campus vineyard to make wines from crop-forced vines,” Cardella said. “That was a tremendous experience learning that you could shift the ripening period of vineyards from summer to fall and produce grapes with more color, tannin and acid. We share those same general ideals at Cardella. We want to share incredible San Joaquin Valley wines with the people that live here.”

    He reconnected with the Fresno State Viticulture and Enology Department by hiring Maldonado soon after he graduated in May 2016. Cardella now focuses more on the family’s commercial vineyard and ranch operations while serving as a winemaking consultant.

    Maldonado may not have had the same family connection where he grew up in Dos Palos, but quickly found a similar passion once he arrived at Fresno State.

    “Helping out at the campus winery and working in the cellar at Toca Madera Winery were instrumental experiences,” Maldonado said. “Also being able to assist faculty like Dr. Thornton and Dr. Rodriguez in research while being involved with the fall crush helped prepare me tremendously for the industry.”

    Looking ahead, future campus Alumni Vintners Wine Club deliveries will occur three times a year in the same delivery time frame as normal wine club shipments. The next shipment, featuring Chateau Montelena wines from Napa Valley, will take orders through mid-September and will then be shipped in October. Chateau Montelena and its CEO and president Bo Barrett, a Fresno State alumnus, were featured in the 2008 film “Bottle Shock” — a Napa Valley love story highlighting the rise of California wines.

    New members should sign up by mid-September for the October shipment at: https://store.fresnostatewinery.com/Wine-Club.

    The campus winery also welcomes new wine club members outside of California by registering at: https://store.fresnostatewinery.com/Wine-Club/Out-of-State-Clubs.

  • Enology Building Named in Honor of Jordan College and Winery Supporter

    Donald Emil Gumz was a Valley native, who like many lifelong residents, had a love and passion for the region, including Fresno State. He came from a family of grape farmers but worked with numbers, in an accounting career that started with a local entrepreneur and developer, and ended with the Vie-Del Company, which produced brandy, wine and juice concentrates, where his love for wine and the winemaking process began. He also developed an interest in water education through his second cousin, Dr. David Zoldoske, who oversaw Fresno State’s Center for Irrigation Technology and the University’s water initiatives for 35 years.

    Gumz, who died in September 2018, left $4.66 million in his estate plans to support the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology. His generosity will provide $3.7 million toward renovation of the research winery while the other $933,000 will be used to support the Center for Irrigation Technology.

    To recognize this transformational gift, the enology building at Fresno State, which includes the research winery, will be named the Donald E. Gumz Enology Building. The California State University Trustees approved on Tuesday, May 12, the naming of the building in his honor.

    “We are deeply grateful for Mr. Gumz’s generous and impactful gift, which aligns perfectly with his passion in winemaking while also broadening the University’s national reputation for research in the fields of viticulture and enology,” said Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro.

    About a decade ago, Gumz started attending yearly wine-tasting events hosted by the Ag One Foundation at the Fresno State Winery. There, he met many enology students over the years and enjoyed learning about wine. His first cousin and Zoldoske’s father, Robert, would often accompany him to the wine tastings. It was through Dr. David Zoldoske that Gumz learned about the importance of water for growing grapes.

    Gumz’s father grew grapes, and his maternal grandfather was Henry Engelman, who started farming grapes near Biola in the early 1900s. The family continues farming wine grapes today and produces local wines at Engelmann Cellars and LoMac Winery.

    Gumz had many interests, which led him to make annual gifts that would improve the student experience in Jordan College programs that included horticulture, the Center for Irrigation Technology and the Viticulture and Enology Research Center.

    “While Don never personally attended Fresno State, he knew superior educational opportunities would help build a strong community,” Zoldoske said. “His many significant gifts will leave a lasting legacy here in the San Joaquin Valley.”

    Gumz’s generosity will help the winery bridge the gap between laboratory-scale wine research and commercial winemaking, said Dr. Stephan Sommer, director of the Viticulture and Enology Research Center.

    “By enhancing our abilities to make wine in small batches while still using modern technology, we enhance learning opportunities for our students and the potential for state-of-the-art research in the same space,” Sommer said. “This will build on Fresno State’s national reputation to provide students with an applied and hands-on learning experience. It will also intensify our collaboration and partnership with the grape and wine industries.”

    In addition to Fresno State, Gumz also supported a number of community organizations to help fight hunger, abuse, children’s health and the arts. Recipients include Valley Children’s Healthcare, Marjaree Mason Center, Poverello House, Fresno Art Museum, Ronald McDonald House and Hinds Hospice.