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Fresno State's new wine tasting room is not in a posh -- or even pastoral -- setting.

The wine is poured in a corner of the rustic campus market that sells university-produced milk, ice cream and meat -- a sign that campus vintages come from a different kind of winery.

California State University, Fresno, started the winery 11 years ago -- calling itself the first American university licensed to produce, bottle and sell wine commercially -- and has turned out about 600,000 bottles and produced small profits over the years. Some vintages have won awards, but they're a difficult sell outside the Valley, one official says.

Students and graduates commend the winery for giving them practical experience. And the operation is looking to reach new customers. But whether tax-supported Fresno State poses unfair competition to Valley wineries risking their own money remains a nagging question for some vintners.

Wine lovers Bob and Jacque Garcia of Fresno focused on sensory details recently after sampling, then buying, a bottle of Fresno State syrah at the market, which began offering wine tasting in December.

"It had a big bouquet," said Jacque Garcia, 56.

Pleasing to the palate, added Bob Garcia, 60, who observed that it's only logical that Fresno State operate a winery. "It's the perfect setting, don't you think? We're in the middle of agriculture country."

The university's winery is one of 69 commercial wineries in the central San Joaquin Valley and one of nearly 2,700 in the state. Annual revenues have averaged $384,935 over the last decade, while profits -- which are plowed back into the winery -- averaged $26,759, officials said.

Suggested retail prices on Fresno State wines begin at about $7 a bottle and top off at about $22.

The winery lost money over two years, mainly due to making more wine than it sold, officials said. The biggest loss was $38,512 in the 1999-2000 fiscal year, with profits during the next several years covering that loss.

Running the winery is major work for university officials.

"If you're making 20,000 gallons of wine a year, you can't just stack it in a room, you have to sell it," said Robert Wample, chairman of Fresno State's viticulture and enology department. (Viticulture is the science of growing grapes; enology is the science of winemaking.)

Professors who started the commercial winery wanted students to learn the science, art and business of winemaking.

From the arrival of the first harvested grapes to the last bottles coming down the bottling line, students are involved either through class work, volunteer time or paid positions, said Ken Fugelsang, enology professor and wine master who's been at Fresno State since 1971. Fugelsang and John Giannini, a staff winemaker paid with winery revenues, oversee the students' day-to-day work.

Students also are required to promote the wines by chatting up consumers in the wine tasting room or community events where Fresno State wines are poured, Fugelsang said: "It gives them a chance to experience what a winemaker has to do in the real world."

That also means learning to handle consumer complaints about such things as taste, he added.

Students say they like the wide-ranging opportunities, although they're not equally fond of all aspects of the industry.

"The romantic side of winemaking was killed the first day we shoveled out a tank," Kathe Kaigas, 41, of San Diego said of the messy job.

Added fellow student Marc-Antony Martinez, 24, of Stockton: "You couldn't get a more realistic view of your career."

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