Both Student-Made and UC Davis-Labeled Wine Available to Public
by Amy Quinton
June 11, 2026 — The University of California, Davis, Department of Viticulture and Enology will begin this year’s wine sales June 16 from noon to 4 p.m. The wines are made by students, faculty and staff from grapes they grow on campus and at the Oakville research station in Napa Valley. Six new student-made wines will be released as well as three new UC Davis wines.
Last year the department launched Hilgard631, a nonprofit that handles the sales. The move was more than a decade in the making, enabled by a change in state law. Prior to that, wine made by students in a 10-week winemaking course had to be hauled away. Wine sales allow the campus’s LEED Platinum winery to be even more sustainable by turning wine that was once discarded into a revenue stream for student scholarships.
All of the student-made wine released last year sold out — no small feat considering the challenges the wine industry faces.
“Consumption has decreased and some wineries have closed,” said UC Davis winemaker and winery manager Leticia Chacón Rodríguez. “But we were able to sell out of everything we produced, so I consider that a success.”
Last year’s sales brought in $100,000, which will go to student scholarships.
“Beyond the scholarship and program support that comes from the sale of the wines, students are seeing people buy and enjoy the wines they’ve invested their passion and energy in, often the first wine they have ever produced and that’s been a true value,” said Ben Montpetit, professor and chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology.
Their own personality
Chacón Rodríguez says all this year’s student wines have their own personalities. They include a sauvignon blanc, petite sirah, cabernet sauvignon, albariño, a red blend and a white blend. Like last year, students also bottled and designed their own labels as part of the winemaking course. The course added another component this year: Students had to provide a detailed cost analysis of the product to understand its business viability.
“Wine is a business — and a lot of our alumni have wanted our students to have a better understanding of the business side of things and so being able to incorporate that in class is great, especially as a new wine business and science minor is expected to be offered in the fall,” said Professor David Block, who created the winemaking course.
UC Davis releases will include a Napa Valley 2022 cabernet sauvignon, a Napa Valley 2025 sauvignon blanc and a Yolo County 2025 albariño.
UC Davis cannot provide wine tastings on campus as part of sales activities, so tasting notes are provided for each of the wines online.
Wines will range in price from $30 to $40 a bottle for student labels and from $40 to $125 for UC Davis labels. All wines are available exclusively for local pickup at the UC Davis Teaching and Research Winery at 631 Hilgard Lane.
