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Faces& Forums UC Davis Hosts Wine Executive Program Winemaker Cathy Wright of Oklahoma's farfalla Wines takes special interest in enology sessions. Constellation Wines' grower relations director Scott Warren takes a break between classes. A group of 57 reviews facets of the wine industry avis, Calif.—The 11th D UC Davis professor David Block leads participants on a tour of the Robert Mondavi Institute's "Winery of the future," including clean-in-place water equalization tanks (background). annual UC Davis Wine Executive program, presented by the UC Davis Graduate School of Man- Walter Haig of Eastern Washington's White- stone Winery shares his regional perspective. Management topics are of particular interest to Stryker Sonoma winemaker Jennifer Berman. agement and the Department of Viticulture and Enology, was held March 20-24. Attendees represented a diverse range of wine and non-wine industry sectors. Some participants had legal and financial backgrounds, while others had professional winemaking and grapegrowing backgrounds; all of them sought to broaden the scope of their wine industry knowledge. At the start of the program, attendees were given two choices for a focused boot camp: accounting and finance for non- financial managers or the fundamentals of grapegrowing and winemaking. Winemaking attendees had the opportunity to focus on financials, and finance folks could build their enology and viticulture knowledge. The two boot camp groups reconvened on day two for wine industry-focused courses on topics such as winemaking, maximizing wine quality, modern vineyard operations, market- ing, innovation through networking, brand creation, cost management and legal issues. One of the most valuable aspects of the program was the opportunity to network and develop a lasting camaraderie with fellow attendees over the span of the rigorous four- day course. —Kerry Kirkham Wines & Vines JUne 2011 31 NEWSMAKERS BRIDGET WILLIAMS