You may or may not be surprised to learn that there is an organization called the American Association of Wine Economists. It’s headquarters are at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where Karl Storchmann teaches wine economics.

The Association publishes the Journal of Wine Economics, which features interesting articles covering a range of wine economics topics under the direction of a most distinguished editorial board: Kym Anderson (University of Adelaide and World Bank), Orley Ashenfelter (Princeton), Victor Ginsburgh ( Université Libre de Bruxelles), Robert N. Stavins (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard) and of course Karl Storchmann.

The Association’s first annual meeting took place last year in Trier, Germany (click to view a pdf of the conference program). Karl aims to bring the meeting to Portland, Oregon this summer, probably in mid-August. Check out the links to the Association and the Journal if you are interested in how economists apply their technical tools to the analysis of wine markets.