A three-way partnership between Woodinville Wine Country, Chateau Ste. Michelle, and DeLille Cellars will aim to recruit students from diverse backgrounds for WSU’s wine science program.

As racial justice protests erupted across the country last summer, Amber Schmitt, Director of Marketing for Woodinville Wine Country, said the organization was challenged about what they were doing to help.

“It made us take a look inward and realize really quickly that there are not a lot of Black owned breweries and wineries in Washington,” said Schmitt. “We contemplated the best way to use our combined voice and resources for greater inclusivity and diversity within the wine industry.”

The Woodinville Wine Country Association represents the winemakers of the Woodinville area, which features a plethora of tasting rooms within a three-mile radius.

Schmitt said the scholarship endowment for WSU’s Viticulture and Enology program is the perfect way to support diversity amid future winemakers and industry professionals throughout the state. “This is a small step toward solving a bigger issue.”

“This Viticulture & Enology scholarship will enable us to continue working toward equitable opportunities for students from all backgrounds,” said André-Denis Wright, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences.

DeLille Cellars is the third oldest operating winery in Woodinville, Wash., known for pioneering Bordeaux-style blends from grapes sourced across Washington State.

Keri Tawney (’98), a WSU graduate and director of marketing for DeLille Cellars, said being part of the team that brought this endowment to fruition has been rewarding.

“DeLille has provided me a wonderful opportunity to combine my advertising degree from WSU with my passion for Washington wine. Now it comes full circle with DeLille being a founding member of this scholarship for the V&E program to further enhance and create more inclusivity in our amazing wine community,” she said.

When awarding the scholarship, special consideration will be given to students who have overcome socioeconomic obstacles, educational disadvantages or disabilities, or are the first in their family to attend college.

“WSU has a world class viticulture and enology program, and we’re honored to partner with Chateau Ste. Michelle and Woodinville Wine Country in creating this scholarship,” said Tom Dugan, CEO of DeLille Cellars. “It reflects the great collaboration and community of Washington wine.”

Chateau Ste. Michelle has supported the WSU wine science program steadily for over 30 years by contributing funds for research and student scholarships. In 2015, WSU  the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates WSU Wine Science Center in recognition of these significant contributions.

“We believe diversity is important not just for our winery, but for the wine industry overall. It brings a wealth of creativity and innovation to our teams, research and most importantly our winemaking,” said Melody Zhang, Chief Human Resources Officer at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. “We know there is more to be done, and believe that by helping to establish this scholarship, we are taking the first of many steps to develop future leaders in the wine industry that represent diverse cultures, backgrounds, experiences and insights.”

Details of the scholarship are still being finalized, with the first scholarship most likely being awarded for the 2022 academic year.

Community members who would like to make a donation to grow the endowment fund for the Woodinville Wine Country Diversity Scholarship Fund can donate via the .

By Brandon Schrand, College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences

RICHLAND, Wash. – When Madeleine Higgins was trying to pay the rent in New York as a struggling fashion writer, she never dreamed that one day she would be interning in a custom-crush facility in Walla Walla, Wash., learning to make wine as a top-student in and garnering national distinction.

A Los Angeles native who grew up in Seattle, Higgins attended Loyola Marymount where she majored in Psychology, minored in English, and sold shoes part time to foot the bills. After graduating in 2013, Higgins landed a job in New York writing for Condé Nast’s , though she quickly found herself living in an unsustainable situation.

“I wasn’t surviving in New York,” she said. “I couldn’t afford to eat.”

It was when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer that Madeleine finally said goodbye to New York and returned to Seattle to be with family. As her mother recovered, Higgins started selling shoes again, helping out where she could.

“It was during this time I realized that writing wasn’t going to happen for me,” she said. “I don’t think I had enough passion to move through the difficulty of getting started. That’s when a chance encounter changed everything.”

A winery tour that changed everything

Higgins said she had a family friend who worked for , and that hearing someone from the industry talk about wine was very interesting. The conversation led to a private tour of the Woodinville, Wash. winemaking facility.

“I was really inspired by that particular tour,” she said.

In researching winemaking as a career, she was immediately drawn to WSU’s viticulture and enology program. But it was still a big decision. Then her mother gave her the push she needed.

“She told me to jump in and go for it,” she said.

Empowered by her mother’s courage and triumph, Madeleine moved to the Tri-Cities and started classes in 2016, ready for the challenge.

“I can say that I have always worked hard, and in my family—we’re Irish—hard work is one of our things,” she said.

Hard work pays off

Over the last three years, her hard work has yielded great success. Beyond maintaining a high grade-point average, Higgins completed a research assistantship, won Best Undergraduate Poster at the Washington Winegrowers Convention, created a wine for WSU Blended Learning at and secured a coveted internship with in Napa Valley this summer.

Then this spring, she was named  Student of the Year, an accolade that comes with a $15,000 scholarship from the magazine’s scholarship foundation.

The honor, Higgins said, validates all the 5 a.m. routines of checking Brix, the grapes’ sugar content, in Walla Walla that turned into late nights at the studying phenolic compound structures, in addition to all the weeks of research with no days off in between her internship and school commitments.

But above all, she said the recognition told her that all her hard work and leap into a new life was worth it.

Looking back, she credits the program’s faculty for what she has accomplished.

“They are incredibly supportive,” she said. “At WSU, I have access to some of the most important wine researchers in the world.”

Life comes full circle

Many aspects of her life are now coming full circle, she said. Having once written for a magazine, she is now being honored by one. And after completing her internship in Napa Valley this summer, she plans on traveling to New Zealand.

“The same family friend who first introduced me to wine has a daughter there and a lot of wine connections,” she said.

In New Zealand, she said she wants to learn by comparison.

“The only way for me to make an impact is to learn what other wine regions are like,” she said.

But ultimately, she intends on making that impact at home.

“Washington is a really innovative place for wine making, she added. “Someone told me it’s the ‘rock and roll of wine.’ I love the idea of being a part of that.”

Learn more about  at .