2026 Scholarship

The 2026 Scholarship Program Awards totaling $11,000 to students for assistance in wine and winery education, internship or field study in Texas, research work as it pertains to grape growing, and wine making in the state of Texas.

“We are excited about the quality of the applications we continue to receive. We are pleased to continue our long tradition of providing  meaningful scholarships to these worthy students who have a passion for the Texas wine  industry.”

— Shirley Choate, State President of the WST

Recipients

Rolf Koltulla

Harper Esterak

Michael Cook

Melissa Herrera Miller

  • Mr. Cook is a full-time Extension Viticulturist completing his PHD in horticulture at Texas A&M University. It is his goal to be promoted to viticulture faculty as a full specialist with Texas A&M AgrilLife Extension Service.

    Mr. Cook obtained his BS degree from Texas A&M and his master’s from Fresno State University. With all his duties as a program specialist he continues to maintain a 4.0 GPA.

    He serves on multiple boards and has written many publications. In addition, he has received numerous awards and honors over the last 11 years from various organizations.

    In addition, he has been serving as an Adjunct professor at Grayson College TV Munson V&E program. His current PHD project centers around looking at the optimization of grapevine water use efficiently East of the Rockies, centering around the Texas Hill Country and High Plains region, plus he is working with two national grape irrigation programs, OpenET and GRAPEX on the same subject.

    Mr. Cook was a 2023, 2024 and 2025 Wine Society of Texas scholarship recipient.

  • Mr. Kotulla is currently a full-time student at Grayson College working for an AAS degree in Viticulture and Enology. He is currently enrolled full-time with a 4.0 GPA completing coursework in viticulture, grapevine biology, winemaking, and management.

    He is currently employed at Enoch Stomp Vineyard where he has earned his Court of Master's Level 1 Certification and serves as Wine Ambassador. He also works in the production facility where he assists with winemaking, cellar operations, and inventory management. Distillation and public wine education.

    Before attending Grayson, Mr. Kotulla served as Law Enforcement Officer for 20 years.

  • Mrs. Miller is working towards completing the Winemaking Certification Program at Texas Tech University. In addition, she recently established experiential  grapevine plots in Jonestown, TX in the Hill Country to evaluate site suitability and growing conditions in this unique terroir for a future winery. Long term she also wants to complete her formal education in viticulture. She currently holds a PHD in Cell and Molecular Biology with a focus on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from the University of Texas Austin, a MS from Georgetown University in Washington DC, and BS in Biology from University of Texas San Antonio.

    Mrs. Miller serves as an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas.

  • Ms. Harper is currently working towards a master’s degree in Horticulture and Enology at Texas A&M where she has a 4.0 GPA. Her current research centers around conducting research finding the volatiles released when using Texas oak as a barrel source, as well as comparing the specific volatile profile of white oak grown in Texas versus that grown in other states. In addition to her research, she serves as a teaching assistant for the Enology class at Texas A&M

    After graduation she hopes to help the Texas wine industry by using her sensory evaluation and science skills to make an impact on the research and production side.