The former Soviet republic of Georgia is reputedly the cradle of wine and has enjoyed at least 8,000 vintages. It has also been a major supplier of wine to Russia for at least 200 years, but to few other countries. In 2006, however, Russia imposed a ban on beverage imports from Georgia. Since then this relatively poor country, in which nearly half the population is rural and most farmers have a vineyard, has been seeking to develop new export markets for its wine. This paper assesses the potential for growth in Georgia's wine production and exports. It then outlines ways to addresses the challenges involved in trying to realize that potential, drawing on the experience of other countries that have rapidly expanded their wine exports in the past two decades. Implications for policy are drawn, particularly for ensuring that poverty is reduced as exports expand and the economy grows. (JEL Classifications: F14, F15, F54, Q17)

Organic wines are increasingly produced and appreciated. Because organic production is more costly, a crucial question is whether they benefit from a price premium. We estimate hedonic price functions for Piedmont organic and conventional wines. We use data on the production side in addition to variables of interest to consumers. Our results show that, along with characteristics of interest to consumers, some farm and producer characteristics not directly relevant for consumers do significantly affect wine prices. We find that organic wine tends to obtain higher prices than conventional wine. The price premium is not simply an addition to other price components; organic quality modifies the impact of the other variables on price. (JEL Classification: C21, D49, L11, Q12)

This study applies a multivariate model to examine the dynamics of mean and volatility transmission between fine wine and crude oil prices using daily observations from January 2004 to December 2011. The results suggest that the crude oil mean determines the wine market. In each series, volatility persistence is high and significant; innovations in each market seem to include figures that are valuable to risk managers seeking to predict volatility in other markets. During the financial crisis of 2008, wine and oil conditional volatilities climbed but then returned to their overall pre-crisis levels. (JEL Classifications: G11, G15, Q14, Q40)

We exploit the duality between the cost function and the directional distance function in value space to recover hedonic prices of product or asset characteristics. An application is offered for 96 Oregon vineyards located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon that sold between 1995 and 2007. Specifically, we recover hedonic prices for the number of high-, medium-, and low-quality vineyard acres and the number of nonvineyard acres sold in the parcel. Not surprisingly, higher-quality vineyard acres have a higher estimated hedonic price than medium- or low-quality acres, but as the number of high-quality acres increases, the hedonic price falls. (JEL Classification: D24, C61, Q10)

This paper reports a use of the real-options valuation methodology to analyze wine grape vineyard investment under price and yield uncertainty. Threshold annual rates of revenue per hectare to trigger entry and exit, respectively, were calculated for three different sizes of wine grape vineyards in northwest Victoria, Australia. The modeling identified lower exit and higher entry triggers than would be indicated by a conventional approach that ignores the uncertainty underpinning adaptive investment decisions. Between these triggers is a relatively wide gap of estimated indeterminacy in vineyard investment that highlights the intertwined influence of numerous economic factors—cost structure, economies of scale, market volatility, transaction costs, and sunk and salvaged asset valuation. Drawing on these determinants of vineyard investment and disinvestment, the paper discusses the role of investment incentives in affecting industry transformation and the scope for policy intervention to assist structural adjustment of the wine grape sector. (JEL Classification: C61, G11, I25, Q12)