Tough economic times have forced Robert Mondavi to put its wine and food conference, Taste3, on hold.

The Napa winery said it is postponing its Taste3 events until summer 2010 ‘due to the unfortunate nexus of the unprecedented economic downturn and the closing of our venue, Copia’.

‘These are challenging times both for event sponsorship and for ticket sales and Taste3 depends on strength in those key elements,’ it explained on its website.

‘The quality of the event is our number one priority and given these unforeseen circumstances, we believe that postponing the next Taste3 to early summer 2010 will allow us the best opportunity not only to secure the right venue but also to build the critical level of sponsor and sales,’ it added.

The Copia centre went into liquidation on 9 January with liabilities of more than US$78m. The US$55m centre opened in 2001, with extensive funding from the Robert Mondavi family. It did not succeed as anticipated.

Written by Rebecca Gibb

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Rebecca Gibb MW
Rebecca Gibb MW
Decanter Magazine & DWWA Judge

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).