BATON ROUGE — One of Southern University's hidden gems is its working vineyard, where students get hands-on experience growing grapes that will one day become wine. 

"The vineyard was established in 2020 by Dr. Devaiah Kambiranda," Enologist Joshua Reason said. "He started off with muscadines and hybrid grapes. Now we have 34 varieties of cultivars of muscadines and we have 14 different cultivars of French hybrid and American hybrid grapes."

Southern's vineyard and its viticulture program are not currently in their growing season, which starts in March and continues through September, but Reason says that a single vine can produce grapes for around 30 years, and while students wait for the season to start, they are prepping vines. 

"We're just watering and cleaning up, making sure that all the plants are not getting any pest damage, just making sure things are going in the right direction," Damien Gardiner, an undergraduate research assistant, said.

The students and the faculty added that they have been meeting with farmers across the state to learn more about how to better train their grapes.