The University of Missouri-Columbia has raised half of the $3m investment required to develop a teaching winery and is planning to add research and education buildings over the next coming years.
Meanwhile, the university is seeking the remaining funds from the state for the winery, which will be the first of three phases of the development, reported The Columbia Missourian.
The proposed winery, which will come in place of the existing experimental winery in the university, will teach how to make and bottle wine. It is scheduled for completion in fall of 2015.
This winery will have the capacity to manufacture around 2,000 cases of wine annually.
MU Grape and Wine Institute interim director Ingolf Gruen said that the experimental wine the university makes now is used only for chemical analysis.
"The winery we have now is just a hole in the wall.
"It's not up to a commercial level," added Gruen.
