Wine is Culture: College Admission Essay Sample

When I was sixteen, my parents handed me an itinerary and said, “Make sure you don’t speak English.” I arrived in Bordeaux by myself, with just four years of classroom French, and waited for my cousin to pick me up from the airport.

I have visited countless châteaux and tasted history through red, white, and pink too many times to remember. Much of my family lives in the wine capital of the world, where they work at the oldest brokerage house in Bordeaux. Spending my summers with them served as a natural catalyst for my eventual choice of major.

When I studied at Cornell Summer College, wine once again found its way into my summer break. Working at a vineyard in Trumansburg proved to be an excellent time for reflection and discussion with Cornell alumni Kim and Debra Bermingham, who provided significant insight into their experiences at the college.

My past, however, is certainly not the only factor in my decision to study in the College of Agriculture. Viticulture and Enology is a field that attracts me for much more profound reasons.

I am an artist, an intellectual, and a scientist. I am introspective, constantly seeking truth and meaning. In a similar perspective, I see wine as an expression and product of culture no different from music or literature. Furthermore, the chemistry and agriculture of winemaking is not only a creative process, but also one that requires a high degree of scientific understanding and intellect. I am excited to study a process as old as Classical Greece.

Armed with a degree from Cornell, I plan to use my experiences in environmental activism as well as my work in green product design to establish more sustainable techniques in the realm of my major.

I can’t wait.