Thomas Henick-Kling is a member of the faculty at Washington State University. He is a professor of enology — the study of wine. This sounds like an enjoyable career — we can imagine many relaxing evenings in the lab — but this professor is not satisfied. Henick-Kling is one ambitious enologist.

He is the new director of WSU’s viticulture and enology program, based at the university’s Tri-Cities campus. Move over California — he expects WSU to have the top wine-making grape-growing wine-marketing program in the nation, soon. He expects it to be among the world’s best. He expects the university’s scientists, with adequate research, will help solve the mysteries of “terroir” — the combination of soil, topography and climate that can make Washington wine taste different than any wine in the world. This will give Washington wines true world-class distinction. They would not just mimic other great wines, but become unique. When people worldwide think of Washington wine, they will have an identifiable taste in their heads. Preferably it will be a pleasant memory that will bring a yearning for more.

Henick-Kling arrived at WSU in March after a serving as director of the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre at Charles Sturt University in Australia. Before that, it was 20 years at Cornell University. He has been all over the state since arriving, meeting with winemakers and grape growers and, in the case of Wenatchee, speaking to the downtown Rotary last Thursday. He will be the recognizable connection between the university and the real world, where the university’s research and its graduates are put to use.

This is a continuation. The Washington wine industry had its beginning when WSU horticulturist Dr. Walter Clore began testing European grapes at the university’s Prosser experiment station in the 1930s. Then in the 1960s, Clore and WSU food scientist Chas Nagel combined to show that Washington could produce high-quality wines (and have the Legislature lift the thumb of the state’s archaic, restrictive laws). Then, in the last 20 years, it exploded, and the blast isn’t finished. “There is a lot of potential for this industry to grow,” said Henick-Kling. There were just over 600 wineries in the state when Henick-Kling arrived. There are nearly 650 now — 29,000 jobs, 30,000 acres of wine grapes, 16.5 million gallons of wine, a $2.9 billion economic impact. “That’s all thanks to the farmers taking the risks,” he said.

Washington has about 7 percent of the premium wine market now. The industry’s goal is to reach 10 percent by 2011. At the university, the goal of the viticulture and enology program is to move into the top five programs in the world, Henick-Kling said. The top program in the United States is the University of California at Davis. “I think we will overtake them.”

This will require resources not now easy to find. The state’s wine industry needs about $3 million a year in research, he said. There is now only about $500,000 available, and the wine industry’s contributions are relatively small compared with tree fruit and others. “It will take a bigger investment from the wine industry, and the industry knows that,” said Henick-Kling. The near-term dream is a $17 million Wine Science Center at WSU Tri-Cities, complete with a teaching winery, paid for with private and public funds. It will be in the heart of it, an hour’s drive or less from the major growing areas.

A big part of wine research is to help decide what variety of grape can grow where, to replace trial and error. A comprehensive mapping of the state’s soils and climate is part of it. The Ancient Lakes area south of Quincy shows a lot of promise, Henick-Kling said. The Lake Chelan area has proven it can produce high-quality white wines, with perhaps some future for syrah and the holy pinot noir.

Henick-Kling said he has a taste for crisp whites and big reds. For those there is much demand, and worth working for, and many people are finding that in the wine industry, the quest is a pleasure.

Tracy Warner’s column appears Tuesday through Friday. He can be reached at warner@wenworld.com or 665-1163.