Surry Community College in Dobson, NC, is proud to be home to the Shelton-Badgett North Carolina Center for Viticulture & Enology.
The Shelton-Badgett NC Center for Viticulture and Enology (SBVE) serves the grape and wine industry, not only in North Carolina, but the entire Southeast by providing workforce training and industry support. The Center was completed in 2009 and houses a state-of-the-art commercially bonded winery. The $5 million complex was funded through NC General Assembly appropriations, NC Community College System grants, NC State bonds, and private donations.
The winery serves as a teaching winery and includes innovative crushing technologies, fermentation and barrel storage areas where students make, bottle, label and learn to market the wine they produced.
Winery and Teaching Facility
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Assembly Hall
The centerpiece of the SBVE is the Grand Hall, a 3,800 square-foot, ultra-modern hall which is used for technical workshops and meetings, trade shows and the Southeastern United Grape and Wine Symposium, hosted each year by SCC. This facility also includes nods to the wine industry with cork walls, the use of wood and glass, and wine-bottle shaped lighting fixtures. This facility is also available for private-rental.
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Classrooms
The SBVE boasts three technology-equipped classrooms with seating capacity of 30 students each. The classrooms are adjacent to the winery facility, crush-pad and within walking distance to on-campus vineyard facilities. This design allows instructors to seamlessly integrate hands-on teaching methods within a traditional classroom setting.
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Climate-Controlled Wine Cellar
Connected to the teaching winery facility is the SBVE wine cellar and barrel room. Here, wine is aged in 30+ oak barrels in a two-year aging program. In addition, this area houses the center’s sparkling wine production and allows for wine that is bottled to mature at a constant temperature and humidity.
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Microbiology Labs
The SBVE includes a microbiology lab with a state-of-the-art hood with UV capabilities for the growth of wine microorganisms. Classes are able to use the technology within the lab to measure microbial state, better understand wine microorganisms, and determine sterility of wines and of the winery itself.
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Teaching Winery
The focus of the SBVE is the teaching winery. The crush-pad combines state-of-the-art with a focus on quality using the first Delta Oscillys de-stemmer on the East Coast, a TRV-35 dual-grate sorting table, a 1/2 ton membrane press, a cluster sorting table, and grape elevators. The winery boasts a 3,000 gallon capacity with various glycol-controlled tanks, variable capacity tanks, pumps, and filters.
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Wine Resource Library
Within the SBVE is a wine resource library specifically designed for student engagement and learning. In the library, countless wine-related publications including wine science books, magazines and journal articles are available for students. This library also includes a 14 person meeting table with technology for group meetings, study sessions and even the on-campus Wines and Vines Club.