Richard Vine

Richard Vine taught FS 470 (wine appreciation) from the day he stepped on campus in 1990 to the day he retired last December. To say he “wrote the book on wine appreciation” doesn’t quite tell the story. He’s written five books on wines, including THE textbook still used by students in FS 470.

Renowned for his expertise as well as his contacts throughout the wine industry, Vine was a professor at Mississippi State University when Phil Nelson, the food science department head, first tried to woo him to Purdue in 1990.

“Finding an enologist to come to Indiana, where we had very few wineries, was tough,” Nelson recalls.

Vine thought his next move would be west to California, not north to Indiana. He had an offer from California Polytechnical Institute at San Luis Obispo. While it may not be the epicenter of the American wine industry, San Luis Obispo is much closer to it than West Lafayette. Advantage: Cal Poly.

But Vine’s wife, Gaye, liked Midwest winters as much as she disliked California crowds and stratospheric real estate prices. Advantage: Purdue.

The tiebreaker came when Nelson invited Vine to campus to lead a seminar and meet people in the department.

“That was it,” Vine says. “Everybody was so nice. Looking back now, if I have one regret, it’s that I didn’t come to Purdue earlier. Working there was the highlight of my career. I loved the kids, the Nelsons (Phil and Sue). Purdue is a terrific institution. What’s not to enjoy?”

But there were hurdles to overcome.

“It was very difficult at the start,” Vine says. “There were many people who didn’t think students should be tasting wine as part of a class.”

But Vine had learned through the hiring process never to underestimate Phil Nelson.

“Once Phil Nelson sets his mind on doing something,” Vine says, “you can bet it will get done.”

By the time he retired last December, some 400 students a semester were taking his class. Originally taught in a classroom in Smith Hall, FS 470 gained such popularity with students it was moved to bigger venues three times to accommodate ballooning enrollment.

“I think the reason the class is so popular is the subject matter,” Vine says. “Wine is enormously popular. It appeals to people across all ages and cultures. I don’t think you could generate the same kind of response from a jelly appreciation class. You’ve never heard of a milk appreciation course, have you?”

Vine’s influence poured all across Indiana and beyond. During his tenure, the number of Indiana wineries grew from nine to 33.

“We would have workshops or other public forums and people would ask us if we thought they had what it takes to start a winery. I had to play devil’s advocate to many people,” says Vine, who is as proud of the wineries that never materialized as he is of the ones he helped get started.

“It was important to make sure they understood it would take administrative, marketing and financial expertise, as well as a knowledge of production techniques, to make a winery successful.

“Then maybe four out of five people would say ‘Maybe this isn’t for us.’ There’s nothing worse than starting a business with $100,000 only to find out you really needed $200,000. I took great pride in saving some people from starting wineries who weren’t qualified.”

Though retired to Lake Monroe, south of Bloomington, Vine is still active in the wine industry, working each summer with the Indianapolis International Wine competition, an event he helped grow into the second-largest wine competition in the United States.

He also is the wine consultant for American Airlines. But most of his time Vine says, is spent on the calm, quite waters of Lake Monroe: “Fishing is what I do now, lots and lots of fishing.”

Contact Vine at richard.vine@aa.com