04/24/2025
Good evening,
As the vote to discontinue the Viticulture and Enology program and sale of the property housing the program is on tonight’s Board of Trustees agenda, I thought I’d take a moment to thank the College for the amazing opportunity to lead that program.
When we started in 2008, Kansas had less than 20 w**eries and only a few hundred acres of grapevines planted. Today that number is over 50 w**eries and nearly a thousand acres of vines planted. The V&E staff received over $1.3 Million in grants from various organizations including National Science Foundation and USDA Rural Development. In 2024, the Kansas Department of Agriculture reported that the Kansas grape and w**e industry generates over $1 Billion in economic impact annually which results in over $80 Million in taxes generated for the State.
Highland Community College has had a profound impact on this industry and on countless entrepreneurs and their new businesses. For that, I’m proud to have been part of the program. The goal from the start was to create the premier grape and w**e program in the Midwest, and with the College’s support, that’s exactly what we did. HCC Viticulture and Enology is currently the only hands-on, on-the-ground Certificate program between Oklahoma and Canada. No other such program exists in Nebraska, the Dakotas, Minnesota, nor Iowa. The 456 Wineries business incubator is the only one of its kind east of the Rocky Mountains. And Highland is the only community college in the nation actively participating in research as a testing site for new cultivars of grapevines focusing on disease tolerance and chemical drift resistance.
When we approached the Kansas Department of Revenue to acquire a w**ery license in 2011, the Secretary stated that he wished more community colleges took on the challenge of building new industries. I hope we’ve set an example for other community colleges in Kansas.
Once again, thank you for the opportunity to lead this amazing program for all these years. My thanks go out to Candice Fitch-Deitz, our current viticulture instructor and vineyard manager. Not only are our vineyards in tip-top shape, but she just spent the winter learning to be our w**emaker. We just bottled the 2024 vintage, and it’s great! She’s an amazing asset to the college. I’d also like to thank all of the previous viticulture and enology instructors over the years. None of this would have been possible without all of their contributions.
I apologize for my absence this evening. In February I agreed to speak this evening at the Frankfort Public Library to educate their users about the history of the Kansas w**e industry and sample some of our w**es. I didn’t want to disappoint their audience by missing the engagement.
Thank you,
Scott Kohl
HCC Viticulture and Enology Program Director
