The Wine Science Center is being built by the city of Richland and directed by Wine Science Center Development Authority. It will be located on land owned by the Port of Benton next to the Richland campus, on a bluff overlooking a vineyard planted a few years ago by WSU students, faculty and staff.

The Wine Science Center could not be built by WSU because of a long list of projects on the university's priority list. The city, the Port of Benton and the Tri-Cities Research District came up with the plan to build the center and donate it to the university after completion.

The building will be almost 40,000 square feet in size and include research labs, classrooms, conference space and a gravity-flow winery. It will be operated under the direction of Thomas Henick-Kling, who joined WSU in 2009 as the director of viticulture and enology. The program has more than 30 faculty members in Richland, Prosser and Pullman.