I look forward to discussing and assessing with you the wonderful world of wine. This course was developed for the first time in Spring 2009 with us knowing little about the exciting journey that we would be taking. Since its inception, we have received tremendous support and encouragement from many people at Michigan State University as well as leaders in the Michigan and global wine industry. Thanks must also be given to the producers and professionals in the retail and wholesale wine businesses in this state who have given assistance any many ways. You are the beneficiary of a lot of folks wanting to see you succeed in following your passion to learn about the marvelous world of wine.

I also wish to acknowledge Dr. Carl Borchgrevink, Associate Professor of Hospitality Business, MSU for his patience and encouragement as we jointly sought to develop this text so that it could accommodate the needs of the many MSU students taking our courses across disciplines. Without his expertise, contacts, and insights this text would have been a thin compendium!  Lastly, we must acknowledge Great River Technologies for their patience and encouragement as we put together our first ever, Electronic Textbook, “Wines and Other Hospitality Beverages”. While this book focuses on wine, the reader will find topics on other beverages which applies primarily to a Hospitality Beverages course taught by faculty in Hospitality Business.

Dr. Perry grew up in a fruit orchard operation in the Santa Clara Valley of California and received his BS in Fruit Science at Cal Poly and a Masters and PhD in Horticulture at Texas A&M. While at Texas A&M, he focused on viticulture where he identified wine grape growing regions, conducted grape variety and rootstock trials and studied root dynamics of Vitis. His work began at MSU in 1980 where he focused on rootstocks, soils and high density systems for tree fruit. He served on the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council during his 7 year tenure as Chairperson of the Department of Horticulture at MSU. Dr. Perry retired and is Professor Emeritus as of September 2016 and will continue teaching HRT 430 and conducting some cherry research for the industry. Now retired, he was hired part time to continue teaching HRT 430 that was developed by him in 2009 and enrolls over 120 students from across the University. He co-authored an electronic textbook to support the wine course “Wine and Other Hospitality Beverages.” Dr. Perry collaborated with P. Sabbatini and J. Burns to provide a map to industry regarding regions regarding “Growing Wine Grapes in Michigan”. He serves and has served as a judge in wine competitions in the region; Tasters Guild International (Grand Rapids), Great Lakes Great Wines (Novi), Indy (Indianapolis), and Michigan Wine Competition (East Lansing). He also served as Chairperson of the Department of Horticulture from 2000-2007. He and co-author/Viticulturist, Dr. Paolo Sabbatini, published an industry bulletin in 2015 to assist Michigan grape growers in considering grape rootstocks for the state MSU Extension, E.3298.