Purdue Food Science

For our monthly 4H activity we were invited to go see Purdue's Food Science area. It went over so well, and I am glad we went. We got to test out different ice cream and carbonated water. 

We also were able to see their lab and learn what a degree in Food Science is like. 

We had to test the product and see what flavor we thought it was and it was much harder than we thought! 

Nestled in a small corner of the Philip E. Nelson Hall of Food Science’s basement is a beautifully furnished cave-shaped room best described as a wine cellar. The Richard P. Vine Enology Library, as it’s officially called, was established in 1998 using a donation from the Bronco Wine Company in Ceres, California. Fred Franzia, the vintner’s CEO, wanted the Indiana Wine Grape Council to use the library to promote wine education, says Jill Blume, enology specialist for the Department of Food Science.

The library contains about 2,000 bottles of wine, most of which were collected by the library’s namesake, who is a professor emeritus of food science and a friend of Franzia. Purdue’s first enologist, Vine received the wine during the 1990s while he served as the wine consultant for American Airlines. During the 21 years he held that position, Vine traveled the world visiting wineries and sampling wine.

The library also contains Vine’s collection of more than 1,000 books about wine and wine making. One highlight is an 1826 printing of a book titled The Vine Dresser, signed by author John James Dufour, a prominent Indiana winemaker during that time period.

The library’s primary purpose is to engage its visitors and to deliver the latest scientific and promotional wine-grape information. “The library’s wine comes from wineries across Indiana as well as from places in France, Italy, Spain, South America, and a host of others,” Blume says. “We want those who visit the library to get a great sense of the wines’ international origins as well as to experience the kind of wine produced in our own state.”