Want to buy wine made by Sonoma Valley High students? You can!

While students in the viticulture program aren’t old enough to vote, they are old enough to work a vineyard and take part in making a wine with the Sonoma Valley High School name on it.

“One in three jobs in Sonoma are related to the wine industry. It’s important for students to know” the varied aspects of the business, said program founder Pat Stornetta. Making wine is more than just what ends up in a glass, she said.

“It gives kids an opportunity to do something a little different and watch the process,” Stornetta said. “This is something that happens in their backyard. It gives them a chance to be more hands on and be aware of what’s going on where they live.”

Stornetta, of Leveroni Vineyards, said she noticed a while back that the high school had some table grapes growing on its property.

“I thought, that’s nice, but this area is known for premium wine grapes,” she said. That led to: “Who can I find to help me put this together?”

She found Phil Coturri. The widely known and respected viticulturist and winemaker stepped in and got donated a lot of what was needed to build a quarter-acre sauvignon blanc vineyard. When he stepped back from the project a couple of years ago, Johannes Scheid, winemaker at Schug Carneros Estate, stepped in.

Students in the viticulture program work in the vineyards year-round, just like vineyard workers throughout Wine Country do, Scheid said, adding that the shelter-in-place orders have changed that for now.

The vineyard is farmed organic, teaching the students the importance of sustainability, he said. They don’t use any fungicides, pesticides or herbicides and he uses no commercial yeast in the winemaking process, “all to keep it as pure as possible,” Scheid said.

Casey Spencer, 16, a junior at Sonoma Valley High School this year, still tends to the vines that are located near where his steer, Butch, lives. Spencer is the chairman of the Food to Table committee, president of the Sonoma Valley 4H club, and vice president of the Sonoma chapter of FFA (Future Farmers of America.) He’s there to take care of Butch twice every day and helps to oversee the vineyard.

Spencer got involved with the high school’s viticulture program at Stornetta’s encouragement. He worked his first harvest as a freshman after overhearing someone talk about “picking,” he said. He showed up the next day at 5 a.m. to harvest the fruit and has been involved since.

Spencer has since used the skills he’s learned to take first place in his age category two years in a row in the Sonoma County Youth Pruning Contest.

He said he’s learned a lot about farming and the vines and was surprised to learn how many different jobs there are in the industry and during each season.

He’s tested the Brix to determine when it is time to harvest the grapes in the fall, pruned the vines in the winter and, a couple weeks ago worked with Scheid in suckering the vines. Typically other students would participate in the summer with crop management tasks such as canopy control and cluster drop, but the school won’t allow it due to the shelter-in-place rules.

Stornetta said the students learn about the agricultural side of winemaking, plus get an understanding of the business side from graphic designing, tasting-room management and selling the end product.

Scheid said some of the students are very interested in the process and will ask questions. Yet others would rather be at the beach, he said. They are interested in the growth of the berries, how old the vines get, how much a vine produces and are “fascinated” with what goes on at the winery, he said.

They are also surprised at “how sweet” the grapes and unfermented juice are, Stornetta said.

The school vineyard produces about 90 cases of wine, Scheid said, some of which gets the high school’s label, while some gets the Inceptum label – a label Scheid and his wife started – and the school gets a percentage of what is sold. They chose the name Inceptum because it means “initiative” in Latin.

Scheid does the selling of the wine and some is donated for fundraisers, he said.

“It’s easier making the wine than selling it,” Scheid said with a chuckle.

Contact Anne at anne.ernst@sonomanews.com.