Washington states wine industry is replete with stories of established winemakers who helped others break into the business, or who acted as mentors to their competitors in other ways.


As the industry has grown, however, that approach has become less practical.


Its unreasonable to think that Gary Figgins could get around to 240 wineries and still have time to run his own operation, Leonetti Cellar, in Walla Walla, says Stacie Jacob, spokeswoman for the Seattle-based Washington Wine Commission. Figgins has been credited by many other winemakers in the state as being particularly generous with his time and talent to others in the industry, but the days are gone when one or two winemakers could be older brothers to the rest of the industry.


Thats why, several years ago, the states wineries collectively decided it was time that Washington needed one of the same resources available to California or European vintnersa college-level program in viticulture (the cultivation of grapes) and enology (the art of making wine).


Working with the wine commission, they designed a program thats now available or soon will be through Washington State University and four community colleges located in Washingtons wine country. Although the program has only been in existence since last fall, about 100 students already are enrolled in various parts of it, ranging from full-time students to industry workers who are seeking additional training, Jacob says.


It had a huge response, she says. To have already 100 students in the system, it shows you the demand is there.


The Washington Wine Education Consortium, a group formed by those organizers to spearhead the development of a baccalaureate viticulture and enology program in the state, estimates that Washington wineries will need another 4,500 workers in the next five years, on top of the 11,000 already employed in that industry, Jacob says.


Those jobs will range from picking grapes to managing vineyards, from making wine to marketing it, she says.


Ray Folwell, a WSU professor who is interim coordinator of the schools viticulture and enology program, says that most of the top jobs in the wine industry require a four-year degree in viticulture and enology, but until now, such a degree wasnt available in the Pacific Northwest. Previously, people who sought formal education in those disciplines have had to go to California, where there are several viticulture programs, such as the renowned curriculum at University of California-Davis, or to Europe, he says.


Graduates of those programs who returned to Washington state have had to be retrained because of the states climate and the unique qualities of its grapes, he asserts.


Says Jacob, Wine is a regional product, and its different in every place. Winemaking in Washington is a lot different than winemaking in California.


The wine-education program developed by the consortium here involves courses offered through Yakima Valley, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, and Columbia Basin community colleges.


Folwell says WSU is in the process of drawing up articulation agreements with those community colleges so that students would have the option of attending one of those institutions for two years, then move on to WSUs program for two years and graduate with a baccalaureate degree. Technically, that degree is a bachelor of science in horticulture, with an option in viticulture and enology.


In addition, WSU Cooperative Extension offers an 18-month professional certificate program in viticulture and hopes to add a similar enology program in January, Folwell says.


The Legislature this year provided nearly $1.3 million in funding to build viticulture and enology education programs statewide, Jacob says.


Folwell says WSU is using part of its share of that moneynearly $1 millionto fund three teaching positions in its program.


Jacob says that through the statewide wine-education program, the Washington Wine Commission envisions a blossoming of research related to grape growing in the state, which could help propel the wine industry here to become an even greater economic contributor.


Currently, Washington is the second-largest wine producing state in the nation, with 240 wineries and 28,000 acres of grapevines, the wine commission says. Folwell says he remembers when there were six wineries and less than 500 acres of grapes here, in the early to mid-1970s.


Jacob says the new education program will help protect the jobs that already exist, and, she hopes, bring more state residents into the booming industry.


Lets train them at home and keep them at home, she says.