Though alcohol on college campuses has a less-than-positive reputation, a new club is hoping to establish a thoughtful drinking culture at UCLA.

brvino, UCLA’s undergraduate wine club, seeks to educate students on wine history and wine growing – or viticulture – to create a community of like-minded individuals interested in the diversity of the wine industry, according to the club’s official mission statement. The club holds a combination of discussion meetings and tasting sessions, according to a post on its Instagram.

Timofey Zhitenev, a third-year mathematics/economics student and the club’s CEO, said he feels the club is an important space because wine has had cultural and culinary significance for thousands of years.

“People actually come out, and they’re interested,” Zhitenev said. “It’s very exciting for me personally to see that many people on UCLA campus were interested in something I’m interested in.”

Valentina Thurber, a third-year international development studies student and the assistant executive officer of brvino, said she wanted to help combat a harmful drinking culture at UCLA.

Thurber added that the club originally involved her and a group of friends meeting for dinner, but after deciding they wanted to reach a larger audience, they officially registered as a campus organization. The club brings together students who are passionate about wine to discuss their shared interests, she said.

Thurber said the club teaches students how regional wines are made and where they come from.

Rabiga Arip, a fourth-year mathematics student and the club’s chief financial officer, said the club also hosts events where students have the opportunity to taste different types of wine as well as foods that pair with them.

“We had four different wines and four different types of chips that we paired with certain ones, and then you taste those and see how the combination (works),” Arip said.

She added that the tasting events provide a fun way to connect with fellow students while also developing a wine palate.

She also said to ensure that participants have a genuine interest in the topic and want to participate, the club requires students to attend a dry meeting – a setting without alcohol – or take a quiz about wine knowledge before attending a tasting event.

To stay compliant with the minimum legal drinking age, separate off-campus events can only be attended by club members over 21 years old, Zhitenev said, adding that the high costs of liquor licenses and hiring certified bartenders make it difficult to hold events on campus.

However, for students under 21, Arip said the club still hopes to build a community passionate about wine without necessarily needing to drink.

“We just recently had a game night where we had different smells,” she said. “We basically had a one-hour game of people trying to guess different smells and develop their palate that way.”

Arip added that the club allows students to engage in a community space while simultaneously deepening their cultural knowledge surrounding wine.

Thurber said recently, the club focused on pinot noir and hosted a dry session where students explored the attributes and regions associated with the wine as well as a tasting session later in the week.

“Alcohol is not the main purpose of the function,” Thurber said. “It’s just something … that happens to be in that beverage that also has a lot of other qualities that we learn about .”