North Bay Business Journal

ROHNERT PARK — Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute is expanding its reach nationally and internationally, first by making certificate courses available online for far-flung professionals then as one of a three business schools worldwide to be a host site for a traveling wine MBA program.

This fall Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute plans to launch a three-level online Wine Business Management Certificate series of courses.

Currently, the 2011 grape markets in Sonoma and Napa have become more active. Market discussions and more transactions occurred in the first quarter of 2011 than during the same period in 2009 and 2010.

Increased wine mergers and acquisitions activity anticipated this year likely won’t be dominated by troubled-finance sales, according to one of the experts at the Business Journal wine business conference Thursday.