To: Virginia Vintners

From: Bruce Zoecklein

Subject: Viticulture and Enology Interns, Enology Notes vs. Vintners Corner

Internships. In 1995, the Enology-Grape Chemistry Group in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Tech established an annually funded internship program. This program has allowed qualified viticulture and enology students to gain practical skills while providing a new and often technical prospective. Originally established for my graduate students, this program was expanded to include students of horticulture, chemistry, biochemistry and related fields. This mutually beneficial experience has served the students, the Department and our industry quite well. Due to the high demand, I expanded our internships to include recent graduates, undergraduate students, and additional interested wineries.

Each year at about this time I inform Virginia Tech students of our internship program. I ask those with an interest in viticulture, enology or both to provide me with a written letter of intent, a resume and collegiate transcripts. Following a review, I interview qualified students and make my recommendations to the winery. Students are selected on a competitive basis for internships in viticulture, which run from mid May to mid August, or in enology, which run from mid August to mid November.

Wineries interested in participating in this program for either enology or viticulture students should contact me ASAP. The most important requirement for a participating winery is to outline the student's role and involvement in vineyard/winery activities and the winery's expectations.

This program is not designed as a source of cheap labor but to help students in their technical and practical understanding of the Virginia grape and wine industry. Additional winery requirements include a modest salary for the students, usually $100-$200 per week, and often lodging. The compensation specifics are between the student and the host winery.

For additional information please contact my office. If you are interested in either an enology or viticulture intern please email me and provide, in outline form, the specific tasks the intern would perform, any specific qualifications you would require, etc. Again, the money aspects of this experience would be between you and the student.

Enology Notes vs. Vintner Corner Newsjournals. The Enology Notes cover various topics and are sent out electronically. I have a separate subscription hard copy newsjournal, the Vintner's Corner which is mailed along with Dr. Tony Wolf's Viticulture Notes.

To obtain a subscription form for the Vintner's Corner and Viticulture Notes contact either my office or Dr. Wolf's office.