February 26, 1998
by Pat Krauss
Geneva, NY - New ground is being broken by Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.
For the first time in its history, the GENEVA Station is in the process of constructing a special laboratory that has been requested by and is being supported to a large extent by industry. The new Vinification and Brewing Technology Laboratory will be housed in a 2,000 square foot facility on the ground floor of the Station's Food Research Laboratory.
As a combination fundraiser and social event, the Station is sponsoring a $100 a-plate-dinner at the Ramada Inn Geneva Lakefront on Thursday, March 26, 1998. The dinner will be preceded at 6 p.m. with a sparkling wine and specialty draft beer reception, which will be held just outside the main ballroom at the Ramada. There will also be a silent auction of single cases of premium wines that are considered to be among the finest selections ever offered at a single function. More than 20 different wines and about half that many beers will be served during the reception and dinner.
Tickets for the event can be obtained from R. E. Krauss, assistant to the director, at the Geneva Station. Requests should be sent to him at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Jordan Hall, Geneva, New York 14456-0462. The dinner choices are: grilled sea bass on a roasted red pepper sauce; stuffed breast of chicken with apples, cranberries, and walnuts, pecan crusted with raspberry sauce; or roasted prime rib hickory marinated. Reservations should include choice of dinner and a check made payable to Cornell University for $100 for each dinner selected. Reservations will be accepted until March 10.
"Our goal is to raise $20,000 as a result of this dinner that can be used to begin construction of the Cornell Vinification and Brewing Technology Laboratory," said Dr. Mark R. McLellan, director of the lab and also chair of the department of food science and technology at the GENEVA Station. "I am especially pleased to announce that Canandaigua Wine Company has underwritten half of the cost of the actual dinners," commented McLellan. "We are still looking for another donor from industry to cover the remaining half of the actual cost of the dinner. This would then clear the way for the total income from dinner reservations to be used toward building the laboratory."
Master of ceremonies for the evening's festivities will be Daryl B. Lund, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, Ithaca. Guest speaker is Howard Jacobson, Canandaigua Wine Company, who will discuss "Marketing Trends for Alcoholic Beverages."
Even though the GENEVA Station has a 10,000 square foot fruit and vegetable processing pilot plant that has been used, in part, for fermentation studies, the growth of the wine and beer industry in the state has been such that a separate facility is required to properly serve the needs of the industry. Today, there are 125 farm wineries in New York plus three large breweries. Numerous pub breweries and microbreweries have been established in the last few years.
As a result, industry, the state, and the staff at the GENEVA Station have formed a partnership to construct the new Cornell Vinification and Brewing Technology Laboratory. The facility will have its own loading dock and a specially prepared floor and drainage system. Mashing and lautering vessels, a boiling kettle, and fermenters will be located at one end of the room and dedicated to brewing technology. The other end of the laboratory will have 100 liter to 500 liter wine fermentation tanks and an analytical laboratory and office. The central workspace will include de-stemmers, crushers, presses, filters, and heating and cooling equipment.
In addition to McLellan, the laboratory will be under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Henick-Kling, enology program leader, and Dr. Karl Siebert, brewing program leader.
The new facility will be used by the faculty and staff at GENEVA and be shared with wineries, breweries, suppliers, and equipment manufacturers as well as educators, consumers, national associations, and students. The GENEVA Station has a long tradition of working with fermented products. Food scientists have expertise in enology, brewing, other food fermentation, quality assessment of beverage products, flavor chemistry, engineering, process technology, and food safety. Horticultural scientists have developed new varieties of wine and juice grapes particularly suited to the New York microclimate. They also have made innovative changes in the growing, training, and breeding of grapes for the juice and wine industry. Plant protection specialists in entomology and plant pathology have focused on managing insects and diseases and reducing the reliance on traditional agricultural chemicals to control these pests.
Fermented products constitute a significant aspect of New York agriculture. This new laboratory is just one more reason how the GENEVA Station "means business for New York State.
NOTE: Click on artist's conception of the facility by William Bensen of Ithaca, NY, for a 300 ppi version.
Contact: Linda McCandless, Communications Services
Telephone: (315) 787-2417
e-mail: llm3@cornell.edu
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