Wine Law Conference

Over the weekend, the Wine Law conference wrapped-up at King Hall.

The conference grew out of a trip that Beth Greenwood and I took to Cologne, Germany last year.  (See the previous blog entry and photos from the trip here.)  That’s where Beth and I met with Dieter Korten, a senior partner from an international law firm in Cologne and an International Commercial Law graduate, and Paolo Fabris, an International Commercial Law graduate from Torino, Italy, to discuss a possible conference at UC Davis on recent changes in laws related to wine. 

One year later, the conference became a reality.  Its title was "Toward a Common Standard:  New European Union Label Laws and Geographic Indicators of Origin."  The conference allowed U.S. and European government regulators, producers, academics and attorneys to discuss recent changes in the European and U.S. wine labeling laws.  As you might imagine, wine is a big issue around these parts, with the Mondavi Food & Wine Institute and Napa and Sonoma Valleys very close by.

We had some real heavy hitters from around the world at the conference, and it was a huge success.  Two of the attendees blogged about their experiences at the conference: http://mowse.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-uc-davisschool-of-law-eu-wine.html and http://www.winelawonreserve.com/2011/06/13/review-uc-davis-wine-law-conference-june-2-4/.

Our friend Dieter couldn’t make it to Davis, but I still thanked him in my opening remarks.  I think he would have loved the conference!