WCCC’s Culinary Arts program offers a two credit bartending class, which teaches students about serving alcohol, pairing alcoholic drinks with entrees and going on field trips to learn the business of making and serving alcohol. On field trips, students are given the chance to sample different alcoholic beverages — if they’re over 21, of course.

“The field trips are the most fun part of the course,” senior biology major Brittany Hall said. “But the whole class is really interesting.”

The students visited a brewery and distillery, and have plans to visit three wineries in Palisade.

This semester’s bartending class will be the last one offered. Instead, the department will offer a wine and spirits class.

“The culinary program wanted to make a change,” bartending professor Tammi Kauffman said. “This is a wine region and we wanted to educate the students more on that.”

Although the students will not receive a bartending certification at the end of the class, they will obtain a CARE certification (Controlling Alcoholic Risks Effectively) and a certification from the textbook. According to Kauffman the bartending class is similar to a bartending school in Denver.

The wine and spirits course will offer wine tasting in the classroom. The program also has plans to operate its own bar on the Bishop Campus.

Regardless of a student’s major, the bartending course proves to be one that several non-majors have chosen to take. Although initially choosing to take the course for fun, Hall’s biology skills have come in handy throughout the class.

“We learned all about the fermentation process in biology class,” Hall said. “So it was really cool to hear about it at the distillery.”

The wine and spirits course will be offered next semester at WCCC and will be open to all students.