Cal Poly Pomona’s Horsehill Vineyards 2009 Rose won a gold medal for the second year in a row at the 71st annual Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition.
The wine is available at the university’s Farm Store at Kellogg Ranch, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and will be poured during the Wine and Cars Under the Stars fund-raiser on Saturday, June 19, from 7 to 11 p.m. at Fairplex. The event benefits the Learning Centers at Fairplex and is the first opportunity for the public to taste the winners of the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition.
Horsehill Vineyards is a partnership project between The Collins College of Hospitality Management and the College of Agriculture. The Zinfandel rose wine is made by master winemaker Jon McPherson of South Coast Winery in Temecula from grapes grown on Cal Poly Pomona’s campus. In addition to this wine, South Coast Winery earned five best-of-class awards, two gold medals and numerous silver and bronze medals at the competition.
Horsehill Vineyards wines feature grapes grown from prize-winning Zinfandel cuttings from the historic De Ambrogio Ranch in Rancho Cucamonga. Before the ranch was razed for development in 2001, third-generation vintner Don Galleano combed the fields and selected 400 grapevine cuttings, some of them nearly 100 years old. Galleano donated the cuttings to the university.
Proceeds from the wine support a culinary garden, located near the student-managed and -operated Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch. Fresh vegetables and herbs from the garden are incorporated into the dishes at the restaurant. The sustainable garden creates a valuable farm-to-table lesson for both hospitality management and agriculture students.
For more information about Horsehill Vineyards, visit www.cpp.edu/~horsehill or contact Lisa McPheron at (909) 869-3151.