October 7, 2024 — Whether you’re looking to launch a brand, increase sales, manage your vineyard, control pests and disease, or practice wine analysis, UC Davis CPE’s Winemaking Program has industry experts and world-renowned faculty to help you achieve your goals.
We recently interviewed instructor Paul Mabray, leading expert in digital transformation, to learn more about some of the challenges impacting the wine industry and what wineries should be doing to sustain their brand.
As a thought leader who has been at the forefront of all significant digital trends in the wine industry for more than 20 years, Mabray has been helping wineries and CPE students navigate and thrive in the digital age. As co-instructor in Tasting Room Design and Management, he helps students reach beyond the tasting room to inspire customers who have never tasted the wine, by embracing a digital mindset and providing actionable steps for students to apply.
“As a digital society, we need to connect with the tools our customers use every day—social, mobile, e-commerce and search,” said Mabray. “Mastering those tools puts a small winery on equal ground with even the largest wine companies. At that point, we can examine more complex technologies and tools for even greater success.”
Mabray adds that by investing dollars, people and learning in an e-commerce platform, customer relationship management software, an email marketing tool and a social media management tool, wineries will see great improvements in their business processes and profitability. “There are a lot of inexpensive solutions and adding them up together is very affordable,” he added. Read the full Q&A with Paul Mabray.
Mabray and tasting room consultant Craig Root’s course, Tasting Room Design and Management, provides practical fundamentals around hospitality and tasting rooms and how to achieve a digital mindset. Their course, along with CPE’s suite of Winemaking courses in viticulture and enology, wine marketing and wine business, are designed to provide both wine industry professionals and aspiring winemakers with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.
Set your winery on a path to success. Find the courses you need with CPE’s Winemaking Program. Check out courses now open for enrollment:
- Winery Sanitation: Learn to navigate sanitation issues in the workplace, develop preventive measures for them and implement a robust sanitation program for your winery. December 4 or March 12 • $350 • Online
- Step by Step Winemaking Part 1: Explore the main steps of winemaking: juice and yeast preparation, fermentation, filtration and aging. You will also learn about the cleaning and sanitation process, must analysis, alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, fining agents and wine tasting. December 12 • $350 • Online
- Basic Chemistry for Winemakers: Designed as a prerequisite for the Winemaking Certificate Program, this course introduces the basic tenets of general, organic and biological chemistry and serves as a foundation for understanding the science behind the winemaking process. Jan. 6-April 7 • $599 • Online
- Introduction to Wine and Winemaking: Explore topics in the history of wine, fundamentals of the winemaking process, wine and health issues, basic wine tasting, interpreting a wine label and wine-growing regions around the world. Jan. 13-March 31 • $685 • Online
- Wine Filtration Short Course: Learn to successfully filter wine and tackle any problems that may occur in this intensive, hands-on course. Feb. 4-6 • $525 • UC Davis
- Topics in Wine Analysis: Color and Tannin Measurement: Discover the fascinating and complex world of wine phenolics and the importance of these compounds during the different stages of the winemaking process. Feb. 18 • $350 • Online
- Winery Safety: Learn to identify specific workplace hazards faced in the wine industry, how to eliminate or reduce their impact and develop detailed procedures for performing tasks safely. Feb. 26 • $350 • Online
- Tasting Room Design and Management: Gain practical knowledge to design an engaging atmosphere for your wine tasting room and learn social media, web and other digital strategies to increase your business. March 4 • $350 • Online
- Small Vineyard Management I – Introduction to Vineyard Practices: Gain valuable information on vineyard management fundamentals, including site selection, vine establishment, selecting grape cultivars, pest and disease control and trellis design. The course includes in-class lectures and in-field application at the UC Davis Oakville Field Station in Napa Valley. March 20-21 • $625 • Oakville
About UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education
For more than 60 years, the UC Davis Division of Continuing and Professional Education has blended the distinctive academic expertise of UC Davis with practical training that immediately improves capability and job performance. This “Career Curriculum” supports working professionals as they refresh and expand job skills over the course of their careers. With nearly 56,000 annual enrollments in professional, academic and enrichment courses and millions of enrollments in Massive Open Online Courses, UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education serves lifelong learners in the growing Sacramento region, all 50 states and more than 100 countries.
