Programs focus on making wine business education more relevant amid an industry downturn.
By Jeff Siegel
Wine-centric business education, which boomed over the past couple of decades, is facing a brave new world in the wake of the U.S. wine slump. Educators and administrators at schools big and small are boosting recruiting, reshaping curriculum and sharpening the focus of their classes — whether for undergraduate and graduate degrees or for professional and certificate programs.
The idea, they say in an informal survey, is to make wine business education more relevant than ever.
“We just haven’t been focused enough on the wine business side of things,” says Damien Wilson, Ph.D, the incoming director of Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute. “We’ve done the sensory and the wine tasting, but the business and marketing was just added to the tail [end of our curriculum]. Frankly, we’re five to 10 years too late in response to the changes we needed to make.”
College enrollment dropping
The wine industry downturn complicates an already muddled demographic picture for many of these programs. The country’s college age population, already in decline from the heady days of the GI Bill and then the baby boomers who flooded college campuses, has forced many schools to make hard decisions about programs, classes and hiring across all of their offerings. Some schools have even closed; by one estimate, there could be 15% fewer college-age students by 2039 than there are in 2025.
Now, says Jon Hughes, Ph.D, director of Food and Agriculture Programs, Continuing and Professional Education, at the University of California-Davis, wine business programs must also contend with less interest among those who do attend college. If they don’t drink wine, he says, they’re going to be less interested in learning about the wine business.
And, adds Hughes, given the industry slowdown, there may well be fewer executives and professionals to enroll in continuing education and certificate programs or get an MBA.
Catering to a new student cohort
What are schools doing in response? Strategies include:
• Updating programs and classes. At Davis’ upcoming continuing education’s Wine Marketing Program, for instance, subjects include marketing to the “sober curious” and addressing the preferences of millennial and Gen Z consumers.
• Rearranging class schedules. This generation of students, who grew up with digital, are more comfortable taking online classes — especially after the pandemic. Many schools are focusing on flexibility by shifting in-person classes to the Internet, either partially or in total. Hughes says UC Davis is trying it and that administrators need to “adjust to virtual.”
• Going digital. This means more than online classes. Wilson says that one of the biggest changes in wine is access to more and better information about consumer preferences — the “big data” that comes from information gleaned from website visits, online transactions and the like. This information is more reliable, and schools need to teach their students how to access it and use the information to reach younger consumers.
• Emphasize recruiting. Maria Ponzi, director of The Center for Wine Education at Oregon’s Linfield University, says it’s not enough to look for career professionals who want an advanced degree, but to show undergraduates that the wine business is a rewarding career choice. At Linfield, as elsewhere, administrators are actively wooing undergrads with more effort and intensity rather than just assuming undergrads will to come to them.
In all, it’s a different landscape than a decade ago — but one that educators know they need to accept and adjust to.
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Jeff Siegel
Jeff Siegel is an award-winning wine writer, as well as the co-founder and former president of Drink Local Wine, the first locavore wine movement. He has taught wine, beer, spirits, and beverage management at El Centro College and the Cordon Bleu in Dallas. He has written seven books, including “The Wine Curmudgeon’s Guide to Cheap Wine.”
