A $1 million gift from Trinchero Family Estates, a family-owned wine company in the Napa Valley, will help the University of California, Davis, build new facilities for a program that provides disease-free rootstock to California nurseries and is of critical importance to the grape and wine industries.

The donation was presented to the university Nov. 12 at a meeting of Foundation Plant Services, a program of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences that produces, tests, maintains and distributes premium plant materials.

“We are delighted with the Trinchero family’s decision to help us expand our facilities for Foundation Plant Services,” said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “Their generous gift helps California grape growers maintain access to healthy planting stock, which is essential for a competitive and economically viable industry.”

“For decades, UC Davis has educated many top industry leaders in the wine community and we have benefited from the winemakers, viticulturists and scientists who have studied in UC Davis halls,” said Bob Trinchero, board chairman of Trinchero Family Estates. “Foundation Plant Services has helped shape our industry by providing state-of-the-art technologies and services for growing the finest grapes. Our decision to make this contribution to UC Davis and its Foundation Plant Services was based on our exceptional experiences with the university and its profound effect on the wine business.”

Grape rootstocks are one of the principal horticultural crops supported by Foundation Plant Services. In 2008, the program released five new grape rootstocks with resistance to nematodes and phylloxera — two of the most damaging vineyard pests.

In 1994, the unit moved into the university's National Grapevine Importation and Clean Stock Facility located west of the Davis campus. Since then, its programs have more than tripled, necessitating expansion for new staff and information technology needs.

The Trinchero Family Estates gift will support construction of a planned $3.8 million, 5,600-square-foot new building adjacent to the current facility. The project aims to achieve LEED silver certification with a variety of sustainable design features, including water and energy efficiency. It will include a meeting room for hosting classes and stakeholder gatherings.

“I’m extremely grateful for this gift and overwhelmed with the Trinchero family’s generosity,” said Foundation Plant Services Director Deborah Golino. “This new building will help us build greater capacity to better serve the California grape and wine industries. And we’re thrilled that it is in the process of being named the Trinchero Family Estates building.”

About Trinchero Family Estates

Trinchero Family Estates is owned and operated by the Trinchero family, who came to the Napa Valley in 1947. Immigrants from northern Italy in the 1920s, the Trincheros purchased an abandoned 19th-century winery named Sutter Home in St. Helena. For the next quarter century, the family ran Sutter Home as a small mom-and-pop winery.

Second generation winemaker Bob Trinchero, son of founder Mario Trinchero, was the creator of Sutter Home White Zinfandel, a wine first sold in the winery tasting room in 1973. The wildly successful white zinfandel allowed the Trinchero family to expand their winery portfolio to include 23 different wine labels, including Sutter Home, Trinchero Napa Valley, Napa Cellars, Terra d’Oro, Montevina, Trinity Oaks, Folie à Deux, Ménage à Trois, and the alcohol-removed wine, Fre. The company also imports Angove Vineyards and Little Boomey wines of Australia, and markets and sells the Three Thieves and Joel Gott brands. Trinchero Family Estates also produces luxury-class single-vineyard wines from the family's estates in prime growing regions throughout the Napa Valley. Their 13-acre sustainably farmed cabernet sauvignon vineyard brings the family's Napa Valley vineyard holdings to more than 200 acres.

About Foundation Plant Services

Foundation Plant Services is a self-supporting unit of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. It is dedicated to the distribution of disease-tested, true-to-identity plant materials that are produced by UC researchers, improved by UC researchers, or valuable to California’s agricultural community. It is responsible for clean stock programs for grapes, strawberries, deciduous fruit and nut trees, roses, and sweet potatoes; a hybrid pistachio rootstock seed program; and importation programs for grapes, strawberries and chestnuts. These programs have played a key national and international role in distributing new crop varieties and healthy planting stocks.

It takes many years to establish the healthy live plant collections that are the core of clean stock programs. Clean planting stock programs use disease detection, pathogen elimination techniques, and isolation strategies to produce, maintain, and propagate healthy planting stock. Clean plant programs must use state-of-the-art technology to ensure that producers stay competitive in the global market. Collections must be continually protected from infection, monitored for disease, farmed, and documented.

About UC Davis

For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.