Imagine a culinary student who couldn’t taste their food.

This is the same frustration faced by undergraduate viticulture students of Washington State University’s School of Wine Business Management.

With the legal drinking age set at 21, all viticulture students under the legal limit were unable to taste the wine that is part of their class curriculum. That is until Governor Jay Inslee recently signed House Bill 1004, making it legal for these students to participate in laboratory activities that involve wine-tasting.

“…the application is for a special permit to allow tasting of alcohol by persons at least eighteen years of age,” states House Bill 1004. The bill affects all students enrolled in culinary, sommelier, wine business, enology, viticulture, wine technology, beer technology, or spirituous technology-related degree programs.

Part of the wine business management program focuses on blending learning, a process in which students make wine and blending decisions toward the final product. This will make a huge difference in students’ learning experiences, said Kaelin Campbell, Enology Club president.

“Half of wine-making is in your pale. You can’t know if you’re making something good if you can’t taste it,” Campbell said.

Campbell is a 20 year-old student who said that she has been unable to take the wine-tasting portions of some of her lab credits. She said that having the ability to participate in the labs will significantly increase student viability in the curriculum.

Erika Holmes, communications coordinator for the College of Agricultrual, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, said that prior to the passage of House Bill 1004, students under the legal drinking age had to taste grape juice and hot sauce in place of wine.

Holmes said that the changes will allow all students to have the integral part of the wine curriculum.

“It’s not like we’re letting them drink,” Holmes said.

For the laboratory courses, the student’s utilize the taste-and-spit method, in which they are not consuming alcohol.

“The alcohol served to any person in the degree-related programs under of this subsection is tasted but not consumed for the purposes of educational training as part of the class curriculum with the approval of the educational provider,” House Bill 1004 states.

Campbell said that the new regulations may create a stereotype that wine business management is a drinking major, but said the general consensus for the decision is positive.

Holmes also said that the new rules will benefit the curriculum.

“It will further improve an already great program,” Holmes said. “It’s about the importance of the program and the support of Washington’s wine industry.”