COURSE NUMBER: MBA 294.2
COURSE TITLE: Wine Industry
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1
FACULTY SPONSOR: Tom
McCullough (mccullou@haas.berkeley.edu)
STUDENT ORGANIZERS: Steve Felter
EMAIL: felter@haas.berkeley.edu
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Thursday,
PREREQUISITE(S): none
CLASS FORMAT: Classroom
activities will consist of a series of guest speakers who will lecture on
various aspects of the wine industry. There may be some panel discussions as
well. Although tasting and evaluating wine is not the primary focus of the
class, there will be several opportunities in the class to develop and refine
those skills.
REQUIRED
COURSE FEE:
To cover administrative and
copying expenses, as well as wine tastings, there
will be a course fee of $70.
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
Class attendance and a final
paper will be the basis for the final grade. The final paper topic will be
announced in class.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT
AND OBJECTIVES:
The goal of the course is to
offer an informative class to MBA students on all the aspects of producing,
distributing, marketing and selling wine. The course focuses on a wide range of
topics from knowing which functions and organizations are critical in the wine
industry to being familiar with what it takes to set up your own business in
the wine industry. Obviously, wine tasting and familiarizing the audience with
different varietals and wine regions is a fun and important aspect of the
class!
Topics that will most likely
be covered include:
How mass-market producers
(e.g., Gallo, Kendall Jackson), prestige labels and smaller wineries brand
their wines and develop their marketing strategies;
The complexities of
distributing wine through the three-tier system (from winery to distributor to
retailers);
Different models of success:
the negotiant winery (buying grapes and bulk wine
each year from outside sources) versus estate winery (growing each grape that
goes into the bottle);
International
trade and influences.