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Hungry for more stories on science, culture and technology?Check out Brain Food: Insights and Discoveries from Northern Arizona. From ground breaking scientific research to global music projects, Brain Food profiles some of the unique projects happening in the region and the interesting people behind them. While there are no new episodes of Brain Food, we will continue to maintain the archive here.

Brain Food: The Science Of Making Wine

KNAU/Bonnie Stevens

Wine making is an art. It's also a science. Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona is teaching that science in the Southwest's only viticulture program. 

Nikki Bagley is the director of the "wine school". She says, "What a student will get when they get in this program is experience from planting the vine in the ground, managing it through its entire life. They'll get experience with that and then move into the winter - producing the wine, labeling the wine and selling the wine out of our tasting room."

Over the last decade, the Verde Valley has become a hot spot for boutique wine makers and sellers. The impact to the local economy is estimated at $50,000,000 annually. Bagley says the Verde Valley is ideal because of its temperate climate, mineral-rich soil and helpful bugs.

"In this vineyard we've got a ton of lady bugs and lacewings. There are parasitic wasps and all sorts of beneficial insects that we're lucky to have naturally here", Bagley says. "So, that's a part of learning about pest management is to deploy integrative pest management so that you're not being detrimental to those beneficial insects that are already there."

John Henderson is a student in the program. On this day, he's planting his first grapevines in the campus vineyard at the base of the Black Hills in Cottonwood. "It sounds simple to dig a hole and throw a plant in there", he says. "But you've got to make sure you learn how to set the roots right so they don't grow up out of the ground." 

Henderson will spend about two years in Yavapai College's wine making program before becoming certified in viticulture. His vines need about four years before graduating to a Bordeaux varietal.

Brain Food is produced by KNAU, Arizona Public Radio.