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Southern University AgCenter in Baton Rouge tests grape varieties for Louisiana wine production
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BATON ROUGE - Southern University's AgCenter is working to build a grape growing industry in Louisiana, starting with a test vineyard on campus.
The AgCenter launched the vineyard six years ago to study which grape varieties can handle Louisiana's heat and humidity. Researchers are now in their production year, with more fruit coming in than ever before.
The vineyard holds 18 hybrid varieties and 34 muscadines. The hybrids are a mix of French and American varieties, while muscadines are native to the southern United States.
"It's basically a demonstration and a test plot that we have different cultivars just planted in this particular plot," said Devaya Kambiranda, a faculty member at the Southern University AgCenter.
"We are using it for making experimental wines, we are testing the fruit quality, the production practices, and we also have students in the field," He said.
Southern has already released an experimental wine from the campus grapes called the 801 Collection. The team plans to add seven more acres of grape production in the coming years.
"Grapes usually take four years to grow, and then the fifth year is actually the production year, so we actually have right started our production year, and so right now we have a lot more fruits that are coming up, and then we can harvest more fruits to produce more juice and more wine," Kambiranda said.
Every month, at least three to four people visit the vineyard to taste the grapes and learn which varieties grow best in the region. Kambiranda said the AgCenter is also developing fact sheets to help beginning farmers who want to start their own vineyards.
"Every month we have at least three to four people coming here, visiting, tasting the different types of grapes we have, and also getting information about how different cultivars do well in this region," Kambiranda said.
Students are also hired each spring and fall to help with weed management, plant propagation, and analyzing the chemical profiles of the grapes.
Research associate Michael Walker said many people don't realize grapes can grow in Louisiana, but the right varieties make it possible.
"I feel like with people just not knowing how well grapes can grow in Louisiana, they just don't grow it," Walker said.
"So it'll be ideal in the next 10, 15 years that we increase the grape growing population around Louisiana, southern region, producing more grapes, more juice, more wine, just adding to that whole agricultural existence in Louisiana," he said.
Researchers don't expect grapes to replace sugarcane or soybeans, but see it as a crop that can carve out its own place in the state's agricultural market.
Disease management remains one of the biggest challenges the team faces. Walker said that, unlike other crops, there is limited information available on how to handle grape diseases in this climate.
If individuals would like to taste the SU Ag Center’s 108 Wine Collection, which is made from the grapes grown in the Vineyard, they can do so at the Vino on the Bluff Wine Tasting Scholarship Fundraiser.
The fundraiser will be held on October 2, 2026 at the Leon Tarver Center on Southern’s campus. Proceeds will benefit students enrolled in the Southern University College of Agriculture. Visit www.suagcenter.com for ticket information.
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