Officials break ground on the Finger Lakes Viticulture Center in Geneva

GENEVA, N.Y. — Construction of the Finger Lakes Viticulture Center is set to begin soon on the campus of the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park (also called The Technology Farm) in Geneva, adjacent to the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.

On Oct. 24, about 150 guests gathered at the Technology Farm to break ground on the new Viticulture Center, which will house Finger Lakes Community College’s (FLCC) viticulture and enology program, the only program of its kind in the Northeast, according to a news release on the Technology Farm’s website.

New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio (R–Fayette), State Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb (R–Canandaigua), and Regional Director of Empire State Development, Vinnie Esposito, joined Dr. Tom Burr, director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, and Dr. Barbara Risser, president of FLCC for the event, according to the release.

Nozzolio, working with Kolb, helped secure the $3.25 million state investment for the construction of the Finger Lakes Viticulture Center.

“As the art of winemaking continues to gain in popularity, we are witnessing an unprecedented growth in the number of wineries here in the Finger Lakes region and the construction of the Viticulture Center will support the continued growth of this important, job-producing industry. The new Viticulture Center will enable our state’s future winemakers to study at the same site where some of the most innovative agricultural research in the nation is taking place every day,” Nozzolio said in a joint news release with Kolb.

Viticulture is the science, production, and study of grapes.

Currently housed in the Flex Tech building, FLCC’s viticulture and enology academic program has grown so quickly that it is” bursting at the seams” and welcomes a larger space, the Technology Farm release stated.

FLCC believes the center will create jobs and economic opportunities in a “variety” of fields related to tourism and the wine and grape industry.

The venue will include a winemaking lab, a grape-crushing pad, rooms for storing and aging wine, classroom space, and a teaching vineyard.

The groundbreaking is a “culmination” of hard work, vision, and a commitment to investing in an emerging industry here in this area, Kolb said in Nozzolio’s news release.

“The Finger Lakes region has distinguished itself as a world-class area for its wineries, tourism and agriculture, and the new Viticulture Center will expand on that progress. This is an investment in our community, in job-creation, in education and in the future of our area,” said Kolb.

Additionally, Nozzolio and Kolb secured a $4.7 million state grant, for the reconstruction of new greenhouse and research labs at the Agricultural Experiment Station.

It’s “one of the largest” state grants to ever benefit the facility, the lawmakers said.

The research and innovation in these facilities will help to “enhance and support” the agricultural needs of the area, they added.

 “Having the Viticulture facility adjacent to our main campus at the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park will stimulate a strong Cornell-FLCC partnership for training of viticulture students who will be essential to the New York wine and grape-industry workforce. Our faculty and staff look forward to working with students and faculty from FLCC,” Burr, the Agricultural Experiment Station director, said in the news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com