Cornell graduate students Andrew Harwood and Michael Lukianoff hope to create a wine growers' cooperative and winery in Virginia that will help farmers in depressed rural communities there replace their tobacco crops with biodynamically grown grapes.

The plan propelled Harwood and Lukianoff to among the top eight of the 66 teams that competed for best proposal for a socially conscious business at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business this year and notice in the national business press.

"With its echoes of 1960s activism, it is so old-fashioned it seems new," wrote The Wall Street Journal this April, citing the plan as an example of a growing trend toward a new type of socially conscious entrepreneur and investor.

The thoroughly researched plan for a Virginia Wine Growers Association in Pittsylvania County, Va., is also one that its authors have moved to put into action right after receiving their master of management in hospitality (MMH) degrees from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration this May.

Yes, Virginia, there is a market for wine from that region, and it's expanding. Grapes actually have been grown in the state ever since an edict from the king of England required 17th century Jamestown settlers to plant vines. Virginia currently is the sixth largest wine producer in the nation (with California No. 1 and New York No. 5). It's also a quality product, according to Harwood and Lukianoff. Wine Spectator gave a Piedmont Vineyards reserve chardonnay a 90-plus rating in 1993 and now classifies 13 Virginia wines as "very good." Their fame, like most of their customers, is regional, however, at least for now, but demand for the wine is already outpacing supply by 15 percent, and the entrepreneurs expect it to grow much more.

"Virginia wine in terms of acreage planted has increased threefold in the last 20 years," says Harwood. "Rh™ne varietals, the grapes used to make Ch‰teauneuf du Pape, do well in Virginia." However, "few people have recognized the potential yet, and land in much

of the state is only $2,000 to $4,000 an acre," a lot less expensive than in, say, California or New York state. That fact "changes the whole equation," he notes.

Some Virginia tobacco farmers will receive money as part of Phase II of the legal settlement with the large tobacco companies. While the settlement dollars aren't directed at helping them switch over their crops, they certainly could be used for that purpose. Currently "tobacco growers are in a real plight," says Harwood. "Even if they used 100 percent of their land to grow tobacco, they can only sell 70 percent at most" because of quotas, increasing supply from overseas competitors and decreasing demand." They need to find another crop to grow.

The winery cooperative "would keep jobs and productivity in the country where families live and have for many generations," state Harwood and Lukianoff in their plan. Their model, which requires community involvement, calls for the use of natural fertilizers and biodynamic growing methods. Pioneered by Rudolf Steiner in Austria in the 20th century, the process involves recycling, composting and creating a self-sustaining ecosystem and has proven successes in California and France.

"Tobacco and the chemicals used to grow it drain the soil of nutrients," says Harwood. "Grapes have the potential to produce a product that will be more profitable and less damaging. You can make a profit and be socially responsible." They plan to tell the story of the biodynamically grown product on the label of the wines they produce.

The plan also calls for training farmers in the latest viticultural methods, maintaining a nursery with vine cuttings and local root stock for planting, offering technical support and access to modern equipment and machinery, serving as a liaison between farmers and local and federal agencies and developing strategic partnerships with distributors outside the mid-Atlantic region.

Harwood and Lukianoff got advice from Cornell Hotel School faculty and help from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's viticultural department, which gave them maps on the region's microclimate and soil. Conditions can change from acre to acre, depending on the slope of hill, elevation, humidity and amount of rainfall and frost, says Harwood. Such information will be key to farmers who determine which grapes to grow where.

The pair hope to add tasting facilities, a cafŽ and bed and breakfast to the wine cooperative and winery, once they attract venture capital, funding and community support. They also will develop a web site to tell their story, sell their products and attract tourism to the area.

Before coming to Cornell for his MMH degree, Harwood majored in marketing as an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He learned about wine-making methods while working in Tokaj, Hungary, and Pauillac, France, both grape-growing, wine-making areas, and also spent time as a sommelier at New York City's exclusive Picholine restaurant. Lukianoff, who majored in finance as an undergraduate at Ithaca College, also worked in the industry as food and beverage director at the Inn at Silver Creek in Colorado and manager of a chain of restaurants in southern California.