Fresno State's Student-Run Winery Earns Double Gold at San Francisco Competition

Fresno State's student-run winery hauled two double golds out of the 2025 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, along with a gold, two silvers, and a bronze across 21 varietals, a competitive result that backs up what winemaker Tom Montgomery already believed about the students in his program.

"They're making, what I would call, world-class wines at school," Montgomery said.

That assessment carries particular weight here because Fresno State operates the first commercial winery on a university campus in the United States, a distinction that separates its enology program from anything else in higher education. Students including Diego Mantelli and Clara Trenado handle the full production cycle: vineyard labor, microbiology, fermentation control, bottling, marketing, and retail distribution. During harvest, they conduct chemistry sampling once or twice a week as standard quality assurance. Sales and marketing student Adison Todd described the entire operation as "100 percent student-run."

Bottles from the program are sold at the Gibson Farm Market on campus and at retail locations across the Central Valley, putting the product in the same market it draws students from.

The practical payoff shows up at graduation. One recent graduate finished the program with multiple job offers in hand, including opportunities in Napa Valley, a corridor where Central Valley candidates have historically competed against students from far more established programs.

That placement record matters against a difficult industry backdrop. U.S. wine exports declined in 2025 according to the Wine Institute, a pressure that makes experienced, commercially trained graduates more valuable to regional producers trying to hold their footing.

For a region where agriculture underpins the entire economy, the winery represents an uncommon alignment of academic mission and commercial output. The double gold medals from San Francisco were earned by the same students who ran the harvest chemistry.