Iowa
State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2007
FALL 2007
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Romancing the grape
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Ask the Expert: Cultivating a taste for wine
A hands-on, minds-on, discovery program
What's in a name?
Working together
Sesquicentennial Trivia
SesquicenTENnial
News of Note
Ask the Expert: Cultivating a taste for wine (Return to top)
Americans have a love affair with wine. Last year, wine sales were $26 billion nationally. Never has the selection been so plentiful, the price point so varied. This is good news for wine lovers everywhere. But if you’re not a true wine connoisseur, the choices can be overwhelming. So we asked Stewart Burger (’72 MS institution management), a lecturer in hotel, restaurant, and institution management at Iowa State, to help us navigate the wine field. Burger teaches HRI 383 “Introduction to Beverages” and is coordinator of special events at The Knoll.
What are some good “starter” wines for someone who really doesn’t have any idea what kind of wine to choose?
The evolution of wine drinking is from sweet to dry, light bodied to heavier bodied, white to red, and cheaper to more expensive.
Good “starter wines” tend to be off-sweet, lighter bodied white, rosé, or light red, and not expensive. Some great “starter whites” are German Rhine and Mosel wines, especially Rieslings; French Alsatian wine; Pinot Grigio (Gris) from Italy, France, California, Oregon; and Chenin Blanc and Johannisberg Riesling from the United States. Other great “starter wines” are dry and off-dry rosé wines; French Beaujolais; Crianza from Rioja, Spain; and Italian Barbaresco. Good values are found in the $8 to $16 range.
What’s your advice for someone who’s very comfortable with Chardonnay and Merlot – some might say stuck in a rut – who wants to branch out and be a bit more adventurous?
Chardonnay drinkers may also enjoy Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and California, Viognier from the Rhône Valley in France and California, or even a lighter-bodied red such as a dry rosé, French Beaujolais, or a Crianza from Rioja, Spain. Merlot drinkers might want to try American and other “new world” Pinot Noirs, Syrah /Shiraz from the Rhône Valley in France, California, and Australia, or a red California Zinfandel. French Bordeauxs from the St-Émilion and the Pomerol regions are “Merlot forward” blends of Cabernet Sauvignon along with other grapes and yield very interesting wines.
The price of wine varies so much. How do you ensure that you’re getting a good value when you buy a bottle of wine? How much do you really have to spend to get good quality?
Here are some tips to help you find good values in your wine purchases:
• Shop at wine and liquor stores that are well stocked and staffed with knowledgeable employees.
• Ask for help and recommendations within your price range.
• Shop at times when the store is offering samples or hosting tastings.
Many higher-priced wines are so priced because of reputation, limited availability, or certain unique or pronounced attributes. There are many wines in every category or style, so there is no need to pay for something you do not want or need.
Your willingness to pay a little more for wines at the lower end of the price spectrum yields better wines than doing so at the top end. (For example, you will generally get a lot more for your money by paying an extra $5 when you’re looking at $10 wines than $50 wines.)
One of the greatest things about being a wine drinker today is that the quality of wine is improving at all price levels. Box, value, mid-range, and high-end wines are all improving.
Use this as a guide to help you decide what to spend on a bottle of wine:
• Everyday wines: $10 and under
• Once a week wines: $10 to $20
• Once a month wines: $20 to $40
• Very special occasions: Over $40
Besides Iowa wines (which we discuss in detail starting on page 10), what other emerging wine regions would you recommend trying?
White wines from South Africa and New Zealand. Red wines from Long Island, New York; Lodi and Paso Robes, California; Chile; and Argentina.
What are some other tips you could give someone who wants to become more educated about wine?
Sample as much wine as possible, read about the wines you are sampling, and then sample more! Many communities also offer wine classes.
For a great overview on wines, get a copy of the book I use in my Introduction to Beverages class: Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, by Kevin Zraly. If
you want even more detailed information, get the The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil.
A hands-on, minds-on discovery program (Return to top)
Angela Tague doesn’t expect every school-aged student who experiences Iowa State’s traveling Insect Zoo to become an entomologist. But she would like to see kids – and grownups – develop a greater appreciation for insects and the important roles they play.
“If we can get a kid to go from ‘Oooh, gross!’ to ‘Cool!’ then we’ve done something,” said Tague, the educational program coordinator for the Insect Zoo.
The zoo is something of a hot commodity in the state of Iowa. Since it opened in 1998, the traveling educational program has been taken to schools, libraries, science centers, museums, and summer camps more than 1,500 times. And an estimated 118,000 kids and adults have experienced the wonder of the zoo’s Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches, Giant African Millipedes, tarantulas, scorpions, Tomato Hornworm Caterpillars, and New Guinea Walking Sticks.
“In the past year, we hit 66 Iowa counties,” Tague said. “Some dates have been requested five times over. We just typically can’t handle more than one venue per day."
The Insect Zoo is funded by the Department of Entomology, and since 2002 the department has charged a nominal fee for the Insect Zoo’s outreach program.
“I’ve had teachers pay for this out of their own pockets,” Tague said. “That tells you a lot.”
Tague would eventually like to see the Insect Zoo expand to include on-campus visiting hours for the zoo, which is housed in 407 Science II – possibly one or two Saturdays a month – to allow families and smaller groups a chance to participate. She’s hoping to involve more undergraduate students in the program, and to initiate “Bug Clubs” for kids and teens.
She says, “I think this is a wonderful program to spark interest in the sciences."
What's in a name? (Return to top)
1. Iowa State's College of Agriculture is now the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The name change was approved by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, in June.
"Iowa State University has a 150-year tradition of excellence in agriculture," said Wendy Wintersteen, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "The new name for the college is the right direction to take as we enter a bold new chapter for the many areas touched by agriculture and the life sciences in Iowa."
2. Goodbye, Elwood, hello University.
Elwood Drive will become University Boulevard beginning Sept. 17.
The name "University" will also replace part of Pammel Road, extending University Blvd. from the intersection at Stange Road to the city limits south of Highway 30.
The university's request for the name change was approved by the Ames City Council in April.
Working together (Return to top)
All across Iowa this summer and fall, something special happened.
In every county in the state, from April to September, local alumni, students, and other volunteers worked toward a singular goal: Create a lasting legacy in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding
of Iowa State University.
Each county Extension staff – some with the help of local committees or county councils – chose a service project that was special to them. Some projects were extr-emely ambitious: Marshall County built a $50,000 observation platform. Some were on a smaller scale but no less meaningful: Chickasaw County donated copies of the university’s 150th anniversary history book to each library in the county.
In between, groups planted trees, built benches, painted murals, cleaned and renovated parks and fairgrounds, gathered food, expanded historical museums, and constructed playgrounds.
In Moville, volunteers gathered June 9-10 to paint the historic Sadler House in the Woodbury County fairgrounds. The Woodbury County project was especially important to one family on the painting crew. The old Sadler House came from a homestead in the area, originally built as a hired man’s house in the early 1930s. The Sadler family owned the building, and Brian Sadler (’78 animal science) donated the house and had it moved to the county fairgrounds in the mid-1980s. Brian, his wife JoAnn (’80 textiles and clothing), daughter Laura, and son Matt all wielded paintbrushes and did their part to beautify the old house’s exterior.
To view a list of all the county projects, go to www.extension.iastate.edu/150th/
Sesquicentennial Trivia (Return to top)
1. Who was the first person to receive an M.S. degree
from Iowa State?
a. J.C. Arthur c. Edgar Stanton
b. J.B. Davidson d. John Stevens
2. Who purchased the first 10 bells for the Campanile?
a. Edgar Stanton c. Anson Marston
b. Adonijah S. Welch d. William Beardshear
3. One of our most famous graduates is George Washington Carver. At the time he attended school at Iowa State (1891-96) he was acquainted with three future U.S. secretaries of agriculture. Which of the following secretaries did not live in Ames in
the 1890s?
a. Henry A. Wallace c. James “Tama Jim” Wilson
b. Ezra Taft Benson d. Henry C. Wallace
4. Which of the following was never an
Iowa State faculty member?
a. Orange H. Cessna c. Peerless Price
b. Precious Mabel Nelson d. Jules Cool Cunningham
5. What Iowa State professor won the Pulitzer Prize?
a. Dave Barry c. Jane Smiley
b. Ted Kooser d. Lauren Soth
6. Who was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from
Iowa State?
a. Ada Hayden c. Margaret McDonald Stanton
b. Carrie Chapman Catt d. Jane Armstrong-Byrne
7. Who is the only Iowa State graduate to serve as president?
a. Robert W. Parks c. Charles Friley
b. James H. Hilton d. Albert Storms
– From the University Archives, ISU Library
Answers: 1) a. J.C. Arthur, who specialized in plant pathology. 2) a. Edgar Stanton, Iowa State’s first graduate, in honor of his first wife, Margaret. 3) b. Ezra Taft Benson. 4) c. Peerless Price. 5) c. Jane Smiley, an English professor, won for A Thousand Acres. (The others, although each has received a Pulitzer Prize, never taught at Iowa State.) 6) a. Ada Hayden (botany, 1918). 7) b. James Hilton (animal science, 1923).
SesquicenTENnial (Return to top)
Gone but not forgotten:
Things that are no longer part of Iowa State
1. WOI TV. (The campus TV station went on the air in 1950, and despite the objections of many faculty, staff, and com-munity members, was sold in 1994.)
2. The Bomb. (Iowa State published its last yearbook in 1994, 100 years after it began.)
3. Freshman beanies. (The practice of forcing freshman men to wear beanies ended around 1934.)
4. Ice cream made and sold on campus by the ISU Dairy Industry Department. (ISU went out of the ice cream biz in the late 1960s, but students in the Animal Science Department still make and sell ice cream during VEISHEA.)
5. Clyde Williams Field. (The old football field was razed in 1978.)
6. Lunch at the M-shop. (The Maintenance Shop in the Memorial Union is still a favorite spot for evening concerts, but lunch is no longer served there. We miss the nachos!)
7. Dirt roads on campus. (Thankfully, the roads were paved in 1913.)
8. Pammel Court. (Demolition of the “temporary” housing units initially built in 1945 finally began in 1997.)
9. Five pound parties – secretly hosted by Iowa State women to celebrate becoming “pinned” or engaged. (If these are still going on, we’re not aware of it!)
10. The Dinkey. (The train that ran between campus and downtown Ames was replaced by an electric streetcar in 1907.)
News of Note (Return to top)
Jack Trice Stadium renovation project approved
A $19.5 million stadium renovation will begin at the end of the 2007 football season, following approval June 13 by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa. This will be the first phase of the stadium improvement plan and will include adding 22 suites at the concourse level, enlarging two existing suites, replacing concession and restroom buildings, and renovating the club section.
C6: A new need for speed
On April 26, the doors opened on a new and improved C6 virtual reality room, and, well, let’s just say it’s really cool. When C6 opened in 2000, it was the country’s first six-sided virtual reality room. With the recent $5 million upgrades, the room has improved its projection capabilities 16 times. The difference “is like putting on your glasses in the morning,” explains mech-anical engineering professor James Oliver, director of the Virtual Reality Applications Center. In addition to higher speed and better picture quality, the improved C6 will also be much more versatile. Among the practical applications of the facility are the ability to train soldiers for urban combat, show students how plant photosynthesis works, display data from an atom probe microscope, and take people on a variety of “virtual tours” of far-off places.
Women’s Rugby Club wins national title
The Iowa State Women’s Rugby Club pulled off the upset and defeated defending Division II national champion UC-Santa Cruz 26-19 to claim the 2007 women’s rugby D2 national title in Palo Alto, Calif., last May. The Cyclones jumped out to a 12-0 lead and fought off a UCSC comeback to seal the victory.
Ames: A great place to retire young
Ames was included on a Top 10 list of “Best Places to Retire Young” in the April 2007 issue of Money Magazine. All 10 places were said to “offer thriving economies and plenty to do.” The magazine described Ames as “real, American, Midwest living” and says, “Life here is quiet and calm, just the way you might like it.” Guess they didn’t visit on a game-day Saturday, huh?
State financial situation improves
On May 29, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver brought to a close what was historically the best legislative session for state support of the Regents universities. Two bills passed in this session helped reverse several years of huge state fund-ing cuts that led to dramatic increases in tuition, loss of key programs, and difficulty for the state’s universities to retain and attract top faculty. The new appropriations will bring state general fund support back to approximately the level provided in 2001.
Governor signs Power Fund Bill on campus
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver visited the Food Sciences Building at ISU May 23 to sign the Iowa Power Fund Policy bill into law. Money from the fund will be used for research and development of new energy technologies, something in which Culver says he expects ISU will play an important role.