Hidden on the flat, alluvial plains between Santa Maria’s suburban tracts, strip malls, senior centers, and ballfields, the Allan Hancock College Vineyard doesn’t boast the steep hillsides or stellar views that typify so much of Central Coast wine country.
But these four acres, where 50 different varieties and clones of wine grapes grow, serve as an outdoor classroom, teaching the next generation of vintners how to prune, when to pick, and almost everything else required to manage a vineyard. Just across the street, hidden behind the institutional facades of a community college campus, these same students learn how to turn those grapes into wine, working together to produce more than a dozen bottlings each year.
“We are focusing more on the practical winemaking operations,” explained Alfredo Koch, the head of Allan Hancock College’s viticulture and enology department, where he started in 2007 and helped build the on-site winery in 2014. “The students love the challenge of making the wine.”