Wine Specialty Group Business Meeting Minutes
18 April 2008
Vineyard Room, Marriott, 4th Floor
Boston, MA

Meeting called to order by George McCleary about 7:00 pm.
12 members present.
George McCleary (President), Percy Dougherty (Past President), Ann Dougherty,  Denyse Lemaire (Vice-President), Juana Ibánez (SWAAG Representative), Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach (Mid-Atlantic Division Representative), Robert Czerniak, John Sporing, Jr., Matthew Bowling, Dawn Gazunis, and Kyle Schlachter.

George McCleary reported on AAG Chair Meeting.  The AAG has asked for more joint paper sessions for the Las Vegas meetings in 2009. 

General Discussion on potential paper sessions:

Climatic Change and the Wine Industry - Greg Jones Organizer suggested by Doug Richardson

Biodynamics of Vineyards - Organic vs Biodynamics session -- Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach Organizer with input from Bill Crowley, Sonoma State University

22nd Century Wine Perspective, Global Warming or Not - Johann Fedman (suggested by either Bob Czerniak or John Sporing)

Economics of Wine session -- John Sporing Organizer

Panel Discussion on Climate vs. Terroir with Tony Shaw, Greg Jones, Jim Newman and Scott Burns. -- Percy Dougherty Organizer

Geography of Wine in Colorado - Kyle Schlachter paper suggestion

GIS & Remote Sensing in Wine and Grapes - David Green, University of Aberdeen and Lee Johnson NASA  possible organizers

Wine Regions of the World - Percy Dougherty Organizer

Workshop Suggestions?
Confirm we can have wine workshops at the host hotel.  This should be done through the AAG Central Office before the call for papers and workshops is released

"Introduction to Wine" workshop - Percy Dougherty suggested a team approach like we did in Philadelphia with an emphasis of how the physical geography causes variation in the wine produced in various regions.  This should be a basic course repeated every year as a recruitment tool for the Wine Specialty Group

"Wines of Italy" workshop -- Percy Dougherty will contact Winebow for sponsorship
"Wines of Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah,"-Bob Cerniak, George McCleary and Kyle Schlacter expressed interest.

"Aureole Wine Angels" fieldtrip/workshop - needs an organizer

President of the American Wine Society, Cindy Heller lives in Las Vegas and may be able to help us do a workshop.  Percy Dougherty will work with the American Wine Society to try to have a joint AAG/AWS event.  http://www.americanwinesociety.org/web/welcome.htm

The President of the Sorbonne, Georges Molinié, could be invited to come and do a talk.  He's a wine specialist, too.  http://www.paris-sorbonne.fr/en/spip.php?article20

Jim Newman has suggested that we make Hugh Johnson an honorary member.  Jim is now in charge of getting Hugh Johnson to the meetings in Las Vegas.  (Johnson is the prestigious author of the best selling World Atlas of Wine and many other books).

Washington DC workshops?
Student Perspective Wine Tour of DC?

Las Vegas Dinner ideas
Perhaps we should have a dinner with a guest speaker?  If so, the diner will have to planned ahead of time and payment received ahead of time.  Denyse Lemaire has a potential location for the dinner and will report back to the Board.  Bruce Sanderson is a potential dinner speaker - he is a graduate of a geography department.  Percy Dougherty has contact information on him. {how is he related to wine?}(Bruce is the Senior Editor and is in charge of the wine tasting department at Wine Spectator)

Poster Session 
Folks have done poster sessions in past meetings but the Wine Specialty Group hasn't sponsored one.  A request for volunteers should be sent out.

Student Paper Session
An organizer is needed for the student paper competition.  The Board had previously approved a $200 prize but this was not publicized for this year's convention.  A notice should go out before the end of this semester to all geography departments.

Other ideas
Spring Publisher might have a reception for us at the Las Vegas Annual Meeting.  Percy Dougherty will contact them about this.

Any wineries in driving distance from Las Vegas?  Juana Ibanez will find out.

Larry Hathoway is a Kansas based geochemist with wine connections that may be able to give us a talk.

The possibility of having an AAG Annals specialty journal on geography of wine was discussed.  Specialty journals via Annals are known but likely that AAG has its own ideas of what journal themes are going to be for the next few years.  Juana Ibanez will ask the AAG about opportunity for Wine Specialty group journal in near future.  Gamma Theta Upsilon would welcome wine themed student entries for their The Geographical Bulletin. 

There is an Association of American Wine Economists http://www.wine-economics.org/. 

Current Membership
- there are about 126 known specialty group members but the email roster is larger than that.

Officers
2008- 2009 Officers (Election Results)

2008-2009 Regional Representatives (Appointed)

Denyse Lemaire will will check whether Zok Pavlovic is interested in continuing with the web site. 
Denyse update websites (Geography of Wine website http://www.geographyofwine.org/  and AAG website http://www.aag.org/sg/sg_display.cfm#Political%20Geography).

Meeting Adjourned