(DD) - Jesus, it was said, was able to turn water into wine.

But how much water and how much wine? That question has never truly been answered.

And while a team at UC Davis may also not be able to resolve the matter, it is working to figure out ways to use less water for making wine.

A wine-grape crush held at the UC Davis vineyards on Thursday found researchers teaming up to help people in the state’s wine industry conserve water while making one of California’s more popular exports.

The demonstration was held at the Teaching and Research winery at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science on the UC Davis campus.

Winemaker and winery manger Charles Brenneman oversaw the harvest and crush, which was carried out by undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Viticulture and Enology. Faculty researchers, whose specialities ranged from plant physiology and grape genetics to wine chemistry and winery design, were on hand to explain projects aimed at demonstrating how wine can be produced with minimal use of water.

Water conservation has become critical as California’s drought has grown worse over the past year. While many wineries across the state practice water conservation measures in the vineyard itself, such as drip-irrigation or cultivating vines that need minimal water, there is still a need to use less water when grapes are being crushed and turned into the finished product.

According to Brenneman, wine processing, alone, takes about six gallons of water to make just one gallon of wine, mostly for washing and cleaning winery equipment. Add in irrigation water needed to grow wine grapes and — depending on the growing region — that figure can double.

It may not be quite as much water as it takes to grow a single almond — reputedly one gallon — but it is significant.

At Thursday’s event, students and staff hand-harvested chardonnay grapes, shoveled them into a large de-stemmer and crusher, and then pumped the grape juice into a wine press and then fermentation tanks.

Using new techniques, the UC Davis research team is marshaling a suite of technologies to tackle the problem from the ground up.