Northwest Wine Academy

With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. If you've been dreaming about a career as a wine maker or in the wine-making industry, you don't have to live east of the Cascades to make it come true.

The Northwest Wine Academy has been teaching the art at South Seattle College since 2004, churning out graduates hoping to start their own labels and those who just want a good foot in the door ...

BRANDON POTTEIGER-NWWA-3 = 21 sec ... "I feel like it's really a mix of both, at least for the wine production students. You see a lot of people who have aspirations of owning their own wineries or people who want to just work in the production field. Like they might not necessarily want to start their own winery, but want to work for a winery, and having a degree and more of that science-type background definitely makes a big difference in want to walk that route."

Brandon Potteiger says there are a few different tracts students can take at the Northwest Wine Academy ...

BRANDON POTTEIGERR-NWWA-1 = 15 sec ... "So students can get either a degree or certificate in Wine Making, Food and Wine Pairing, or Wine Marketing and Sales. And so the difference is, when you do the degree versus the certificate, your academic course-load is a little bit heavier."

And Potteiger says the students aren't your typical demographic ...

BRANDON POTTEIGER-NWWA-4 = 13 sec ... "I would say it's a good amount of, like I'm 33, so it's a good amount of people late 20s to early 30s, and I would say the other half to that would be people who are 45 and up."

Since releasing its first vintages in 2005, the Northwest Wine Academy now produces nearly 1,000 cases of wine per year and consistently creates award-winning, student-produced wines.