NVCC hosts Connecticut Wine Symposium March 31

WATERBURY (March 22, 2007) — On Saturday, March 31, Naugatuck Valley Community College will host the eighth annual Connecticut Wine Symposium, a day-long event designed to educate and inspire anyone who is passionate about wine.

The event will be held from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in NVCC’s Founders Hall, located on its main campus at 750 Chase Parkway, Waterbury. Advance registration is required for the symposium, which sells out every year and attracts participants from around the state, as well as New York and Rhode Island.

This year it will include speakers on a variety of topics, a luncheon buffet and an afternoon wine tasting open to participants age 21 and older. Speakers will include:

• Renowned liquor liability consultant Elizabeth Trendowski, president and CEO of S.M.A.R.T Programs in Centerbrook, Conn., who will discuss the issue of social host liability for businesses and homeowners;
  
• Wayne Stitzer, proprietor of WINETECC analytical service for home winemakers, who will discuss the proper use of oak alternatives throughout the winemaking process;
  
• Bill Hopkins, owner Hopkins Vineyard New Preston, Conn., who will explain the procedure for creating award-winning sparkling wine; and,
  
• Dr. Richard Kiyomoto of the University of Connecticut, who will explain how to produce a quality crop every year.
  

Cost is $95 for the general public and $55 for American Wine Society members. For more information or to reserve a seat, contact NVCC Professor Peter Cisek (203) 575-8198 or cisek@americanwinesociety.org

The eighth annual Connecticut Wine Symposium is sponsored by NVCC’s hospitality management department, the Connecticut chapter of the American Wine Society, the Connecticut Wine Trail and the Connecticut Vineyard and Winery Association. The afternoon wine tasting is sponsored by Michael Gelven, owner of Wine Pirates in Branford, Conn.

NVCC created a wine curriculum in 1998, becoming the first community college in the Northeast to have one. That same year, an experimental vineyard was planted on campus that has been producing wine since 1999. NVCC’s wine curriculum falls under its associate degree program for hospitality management.

The college serves 35 communities across western Connecticut from Litchfield to Waterbury to Seymour to Southbury and Danbury. Its 110-acre, main campus is located off exit 18 on Interstate 84.