Wine sensory lab officially open at Okanagan College

PENTICTON – Wine and viticulture courses at the Okanagan College are about to get a sensory overload with the official opening of the B.C. Wine Information Society Sensory Centre.

The Centre is having its grand opening today thanks to a $300,000 donation form the B.C. Wine Information Society that made construction of the facility possible.

The centre is located at the Penticton campus of Okanagan College, which offers an extensive list of wine and food related courses, certificates and continuing education programs.

The purpose of the facility is “to create an environment to enhance learning experiences in wine studies, viticulture, oenology, and food and wine evaluation,” says Allan Coyle, the college’s director of public affairs.

The facility can hold up to 40 people and has already been used for courses over the summer, including the wine and food intensive that ran for the first time in August.

The college recognized the need to dedicate space for wine-related programs, and the donation from the society made it possible to create that space, Coyle says.

The grand opening will be held at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24 at the community hall in the Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence Penticton Campus of Okanagan College.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Meaghan Archer at marcher@infotelnews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.