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Promoting the Umpqua Valley’s wine industry is a campaign we’ve consistently supported, so we’re ready to get behind the latest idea for further developing the business.
A wine incubator has been proposed as part of the newly established Southern Oregon Wine Institute on the Umpqua Community College campus.
The facility would be designed to give local winemakers a place to start making and bottling wines for a few years, before moving on to establish their own wineries at a different location in the Umpqua Valley. It’s basically a place to get started, at a much lower cost.
Chris Lake, director of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute, said a 2005 study estimated the cost for starting a winery at $560,000. That’s a lot of overhead to absorb for a fledgling business.
With an incubator, winemakers would pay rent for the facility and fees for using the winemaking equipment. In the meantime, they could get help developing a business plan from the UCC Small Business Development Center and arrange financing for their own business ventures.
It’s an idea that’s already under way in the Walla Walla wine country of Washington state, an area that UCC has frequently looked to in modeling its wine institute. The number of wineries in the Walla Walla region has grown rapidly in the past decade and the area is now home to 80 wineries. Viticulture, or wine-grape growing, and enology, winemaking, are taught at the nearby community college, just as UCC began doing this past fall.
The Port of Walla Walla opened a $1.1 million wine incubator facility in the fall of 2006 and offers nonrenewable six-year leases to tenants who want to make wine, according to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. One of the most recent winemakers moved in with a plan that included being ready to move out of the facility and trade his lease payment for a mortgage payment on a winery and property within five years.
When he does that, it will open a space for another beginning winemaker to move in. That’s the plan UCC would follow as well. While the beginning winemakers are using the facility, they would have an opportunity to really concentrate on the growing and making of wine before having to deal with so many other aspects of a business. Plus, they would be able to share ideas easily while they work in the same facility.
It would be a great starting point for anyone who has recently completed the viticulture and enology courses at the college.
Furthermore, it would help grow the wine business in our region. If the Umpqua Valley were to become a destination wine region, the area would provide a lot more opportunity for businesses that go hand-in-hand with the industry, from aspects of agriculture and construction through tourism and hospitality.
We’ve got the land and we’ve got the climate for growing nearly every type of wine grape, an advantage that many other wine regions cannot boast.
It’s going to take some money to bring this idea to fruition. Blaine Nisson, UCC president, said building the wine institute’s home — which would include the incubator, along with an on-site vineyard, classrooms, a laboratory and more — is estimated at $8 million to $9 million. He’s looking for a congressional appropriation to help with the project, as well as grants and other fundraising efforts.
It’s just the kind of project that could bring a much-needed boost to economic development in the area.
A wine incubator has been proposed as part of the newly established Southern Oregon Wine Institute on the Umpqua Community College campus.
The facility would be designed to give local winemakers a place to start making and bottling wines for a few years, before moving on to establish their own wineries at a different location in the Umpqua Valley. It’s basically a place to get started, at a much lower cost.
Chris Lake, director of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute, said a 2005 study estimated the cost for starting a winery at $560,000. That’s a lot of overhead to absorb for a fledgling business.
With an incubator, winemakers would pay rent for the facility and fees for using the winemaking equipment. In the meantime, they could get help developing a business plan from the UCC Small Business Development Center and arrange financing for their own business ventures.
It’s an idea that’s already under way in the Walla Walla wine country of Washington state, an area that UCC has frequently looked to in modeling its wine institute. The number of wineries in the Walla Walla region has grown rapidly in the past decade and the area is now home to 80 wineries. Viticulture, or wine-grape growing, and enology, winemaking, are taught at the nearby community college, just as UCC began doing this past fall.
The Port of Walla Walla opened a $1.1 million wine incubator facility in the fall of 2006 and offers nonrenewable six-year leases to tenants who want to make wine, according to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. One of the most recent winemakers moved in with a plan that included being ready to move out of the facility and trade his lease payment for a mortgage payment on a winery and property within five years.
When he does that, it will open a space for another beginning winemaker to move in. That’s the plan UCC would follow as well. While the beginning winemakers are using the facility, they would have an opportunity to really concentrate on the growing and making of wine before having to deal with so many other aspects of a business. Plus, they would be able to share ideas easily while they work in the same facility.
It would be a great starting point for anyone who has recently completed the viticulture and enology courses at the college.
Furthermore, it would help grow the wine business in our region. If the Umpqua Valley were to become a destination wine region, the area would provide a lot more opportunity for businesses that go hand-in-hand with the industry, from aspects of agriculture and construction through tourism and hospitality.
We’ve got the land and we’ve got the climate for growing nearly every type of wine grape, an advantage that many other wine regions cannot boast.
It’s going to take some money to bring this idea to fruition. Blaine Nisson, UCC president, said building the wine institute’s home — which would include the incubator, along with an on-site vineyard, classrooms, a laboratory and more — is estimated at $8 million to $9 million. He’s looking for a congressional appropriation to help with the project, as well as grants and other fundraising efforts.
It’s just the kind of project that could bring a much-needed boost to economic development in the area.
