A team of Cornell researchers recieved two grants, totaling $4.5 million, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Institute in September to study grape breeding in the New York region.

Cornell was awarded a grant to help develop the local wine industry.

Philip Arras ’07 “fell into the wine industry accidentally.” After taking HADM 4430: Introduction to Wines in his senior year at Cornell, Arras developed a passion for viticulture that inspired him to take jobs in various wineries throughout the Finger Lakes region.

Number 38 on the list of 161 things to do during your undergraduate career at Cornell: Go on a wine tour. A prime tourist activity of the Finger Lakes, wine and winemaking is a process has been perfected over the years, culminating in a myriad of colors, textures and flavors that can appease any palette. Ramon Mira de Orduña, viticulture and enology, studies the microbiological aspect of winemaking and how it can improve the winemaking process in light of environmental change.