SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA — The 7th annual Central Coast Viticulture and Enology Issues Conference presented by California State University, Fresno will be held Feb. 26 and 27 in San Luis Obispo.

Presented by Fresno State’s Viticulture and Enology Research Center and Department of Viticulture and Enology with support from industry sponsors, the collaborative event is designed for grape growers and winemakers as well as those seeking careers in the grape and wine industry.

The conference preregistration deadline is Feb. 19.

The two-day meet, which will be held at the Embassy Suites conference center, attracts growers and winemakers from Santa Barbara to the south, Santa Cruz to the north and Bakersfield in the Central Valley.

The focus for this year’s event will be Syrah, said Dr. Robert Wample, director of the research center at Fresno State and chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology in the university’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.

Speakers from throughout the state will participate in this educational event, which will include presentations and panel discussions on:

• the origin of Syrah, management practices and harvest decisions for the grower and winemaker;

• rootstock scion performance;

• Syrah disorder;

• high density and problematic fermentations; and

• the economic future of Syrah.

Educational wine tastings are also planned.

In addition to Wample, Fresno State viticulture and enology department faculty will participate including Winemaster and enology professor Kenneth C. Fugelsang and professor Sanliang Gu.

Industry speakers providing presentations include Doug Adams, University of California, Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology; Bill Turrentine and Erica Boyer both of Turrentine Wine Brokerage; Deborah Golino of University of California, Davis Foundation Plant Services; Mark Battany Farm Advisor, San Luis Obispo; Signe Zoller of Meridian Vineyards); Simon Graves of SouthCorp Wine Estates; George Donati (of Pacific Vineyard Company; Kelley Brophy Clark of Coastal Vineyard Consulting; Scott Williams of J. Lohr Vineyards, Bob Thomas of Mesa Vineyard Management and Harry Hansen of Edna Valley Vineyard.

This event receives support from industry sponsors who make it possible to offer affordable programs to the grape and wine industry.

Participants will have an opportunity to visit with sponsor representatives at exhibits throughout the two-day event. A sponsor reception is also planned for Feb. 26 at 4:30 pm to recognize the industry’s contribution to this program.

“It is our goal to offer practical programs that can truly benefit the growers and winemakers who attend,” said Wample who added the conference topics are based on the feedback from attendees at previous years’ events.

The Embassy Suites – located in the heart of California’s central coast at 333 Madonna Road, is offering a special discount rate on lodging for conference guests who request the “Fresno State” room block when making an advance room reservation (by Feb. 13) at (805) 549-0800.

Room reservations may also be placed online at www.embassysuitesslo.com. The online reservation group/convention code is FRP. All two-room suites include a complimentary breakfast each morning.

Registration and exhibits will begin at 7:30 a.m. daily.

On Feb. 27, the Turrentine Wine Brokerage firm has extended an invitation for central coast conference participants to attend its annual breakfast, also held at the Embassy Suites.

This breakfast, sponsored by Turrentine, is free of charge and will begin at 8 am in the conference center. The central coast program will resume at 8:45 a.m. and conclude by 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 27.

The deadline for the $275 per person preregistration fee to attend the conference has been extended to Feb. 19. Registrations received after this date are $300 per person. Registration fees include conference materials, admission to all sessions, breakfast, refreshments and lunch on both days, sponsor exhibits and a sponsor reception on Feb. 26.

A networking dinner will be held Feb. 26 to recognize event speakers and industry sponsors. The cost of this optional dinner is an additional fee and includes one meal, wine and an opportunity for professional networking.

Dinner registrations received by Feb. 19 are $30 per person; $40 per person after Feb. 19. Checks and/or credit card (Visa or MasterCard) are accepted.

A registration form and program details are available online, as well as information on Fresno State’s Department of Viticulture and Enology and the Viticulture and Enology Research Center, at http://cast.csufresno.edu/ve or call (559) 278-2089.

For sponsorship details, contact Cynthia Wood at cynthiawcsufresno.edu

INDUSTRY SPONSORS

Actagro, LLC, Biola, California

American and Lake County Grapevine Nurseries, Cloverdale, California American Vineyard Magazine, Clovis California

Deerpoint Group, Inc., Fresno, California

Turrentine Wine Brokerage, L.L.C, San AnseImo, California

Vintage Nurseries, Wasco, California

Western SO2 Systems – Harmon Systems International, Moraga, California

Supporting Organizations

Central Coast Vineyard Team, Templeton, California

Dale Handley Irrigation Consultants, Ivanhoe, California

Paso Robles Vintners and Growers Association, Paso Robles, California

The 7th annual Central Coast

Viticulture and Enology Issues Conference

Feb. 26 and 27

San Luis Obispo

Presented by

California State University, Fresno

Viticulture and Enology Research Center and

Department of Viticulture and Enology

Presenter Bios (partial listing)

Douglas 0. Adams is an Associate Professor of Viticulture and Associate Biochemist in the Department of Viticulture & Enology at U.C. Davis. His research focuses on fruit ripening, especially as it relates to fruit composition. For the past several years his laboratory has been interested in tannin and pigment development in red Vinifera wine varieties, and in characterizing other fruit components that influence extractability of phenolic compounds during fermentation.

Mark Battany is the viticulture/soils farm advisor for the San Luis Obispo Cooperative Extension office. He received his B.S. in Agronomy, along with a minor in Spanish, at Colorado State University. After completion of his M.S. degree at UC Davis in the Hydrologic Sciences program, Mark received a Fulbright Fellowship and spend two years in Spain with the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture, a national research facility of the Spanish government, studying the water use of cover crops in dry-farmed olive groves and the runoff and erosion in olives with alternative soil management practices. Prior to his employment with the Cooperativ Extension, Mark worked with an agricultural meteorology firm in Sonoma County.

Ken Fugelsang is an associate professor of enology and Winemaster in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at California State University, Fresno. In addition to his teaching and winemaking responsibilities, he performs enological research through the Viticulture and Enology Research Center at Fresno State. Ken has authored and co-authored over ninety technical papers and seven books in the area of wine stability and microbiology, including Wine Analysis and Production and Wine Microbiology. He received is MS in biology at Fresno State and is a member of the American Society of Enology and Viticulture, American Society for Microbiology, and the Society for Industrial Microbiology.

Sanliang Gu received his Ph.D.in horticulture from Oregon State University in 1992. Dr. Gu currently holds the Ricchiuti Chair of Viticulture at California State University, Fresno, serving as a research scientist at the Viticulture and Enology Research Center and as an assistant professor of viticulture in the Department of Viticulture and Enology. Prior to joining Fresno State’s faculty, he was an assistant research

professor of fruit science for three and half years in the Department of Fruit Science at Southwest Missouri State University. His areas of expertise and research interests are in vine nutrition and vineyard fertilization, vine water relation and vineyard irrigation, environmental stress and cold hardiness, variety and clone evaluation, training and pruning system, and canopy management.

Signe Zoller is a winemaker at Meridian Vineyards and has been employed there for over nine years. Prior to that, she worked eleven years for Kendall-Jackson. She currently serves as president of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture, is a past president of the Paso Robles Vintners and Growers Association, and has been a board member of the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association and the Central Coast Winegrowers Association. She received her Masters Degree in Food Science/Enology at UC Davis in 1986.

Robert Wample holds a joint position at the Viticulture and Enology Research Center and Department of Viticulture and Enology at California State University, Fresno where he serves as the Julio R. Gallo Director and Department Chair, respectively. Prior to coming to Fresno State, Wample served more than twenty years in various teaching and research positions at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. His research interests include stress physiology, with specific attention to the effects of water and temperature related stresses on plant physiology and crop productivity.