Grand Sponsor UC Davis is known for cutting-edge research and teaching related to wine, its technologically advanced Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building, and its community gateway, the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. In fact, some people point to just two degrees of separation between UC Davis’ Department of Viticulture and Enology and anyone in the wine world. Join the UC Davis Facebook, Twitter and Instagram communities.

For more than 80 years, UC Davis has driven innovation in grape growing and winemaking for California and the world, from contributions to the science of grapes and wine to training future wine-industry leaders.

The Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis blazed that wine trail by utilizing a balance of art and science: introducing modern sanitation in the 1950s, crafting the first standardized lexicon for wine with the debut of the Wine Aroma Wheel in the 1980s and developing stainless steel tanks, controlled temperature fermentations and pest-resistant grapes.

Then, in 2001, famous California wine producer Robert Mondavi gave a personal gift to UC Davis to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute, providing a point of convergence for growers, scientists and enthusiasts who are intent upon enhancing the quality of life for all through wine, brewing and food science.

Of course, with UC Davis, sustainability is always front and center. Right now, the viticulture and enology department is developing self-cleaning fermentors capable of recycling 90 percent of its water. The goal: affordable technology and alternative practices that use less than one gallon of water to produce one gallon of wine.

However, it’s not only the art and science of winemaking that UC Davis excels at–it’s also the business. The Wine Executive Program at the Graduate School of Management has been growing strong for almost two decades, bringing wine industry executives together to discover more about growing and marketing their business in a constantly shifting landscape. Additionally, UC Davis Extension’s Winemaking programs offer the general public and wine execs continuing education on everything from tastings to technology.