A Vision of the Future
Cal Poly Alumni Pledge $1.2 Million to Support Cal Poly’s Proposed Wine and Viticulture Center
Cal Poly alumni Troy and Basia Gillespie, longtime agriculturalists in California’s Central Valley, have pledged $1.2 million to the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences’ new Center for Wine and Viticulture.
The gift will help fund a new viticulture lab that is planned as part of the center.
Basia Gillespie’s parents started farming raisins 30 years ago in Madera County. Today the family grows almonds, prunes, raisins and wine grapes.
“We know the value of viticulture and want to invest in its future because it is so important that students go down that path,” said Troy Gillespie. “You need good, quality grapes to make good wine, and Cal Poly’s hands-on style of teaching is invaluable to the future of the industry.”
Cal Poly’s new Center for Wine and Viticulture will feature a commercial-grade, bonded winery and learning facility that will provide students a holistic understanding of the wine and viticulture industries -- from growing the grapes and making the wines to marketing and distributing the finished product.
“We are stepping forward and putting our pledge down in the hope of inspiring others to do the same,” Gillespie said. “This is our way of shepherding the dream to a reality.”
The couple’s daughter, Courtney, is a wine and viticulture senior at Cal Poly. Their son, Austin, is studying business at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
The nearly 40,000-square-foot bonded winery will include crush, fermentation, bottling and barrel rooms, plus teaching and meeting facilities. There will also be sensory, enology and viticulture teaching labs and commercial and catering kitchens and university and public meeting spaces.
“The Cal Poly Center for Wine and Viticulture will be a model for the hands-on learning for which Cal Poly is known,” said Andrew Thulin, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. “With the visionary support of generous individuals and families like the Gillespies, we will soon have a world-class facility for teaching the next generation of wine professionals.”
The center will complement the university’s existing 14-acre teaching and commercial vineyard that produces chardonnay, pinot noir, syrah and tempranillo grapes. The center is currently being designed, and construction is expected to begin within the next couple of years.
In September, viticulture and fruit science Professor Emeritus Paul Fountain donated $250,000 to the Wine and Viticulture Department to make improvements to the teaching vineyard.
The department’s other notable supporters include Jerry Lohr, owner of J. Lohr Vineyards and Wines, who supports Cal Poly’s wine and viticulture program as an advisor and through his generous gifts for the Center for Wine and Viticulture. His own vineyards in Monterey, Napa Valley and Paso Robles frequently employ Cal Poly students and alumni.
| Wine & Viticulture Building | E. & J. Gallo Winery & Family Building |
|---|---|
| 1. Winery Naming | 8. E. & J. Gallo Winery & Family Building Naming |
| 2. Fermentation Hall |
9. Event/Lecture Hall
|
| 3. Research Fermentation Lab | 10. Sensory Lab |
| 4. Crush Pad | 11. Enology Lab |
| 5. Analysis Labs | 12. Viticulture Lab (Troy and Basia Gillespie) |
| 6. Bottling Room | 13. Event Plaza |
| 7. Conference Room |