A glass of wine is a way to relax after a day’s studying for many MBA students. But at Sonoma State University, whose Napa Valley campus is nestled amid the vineyards north of San Francisco, the business of producing the fermented grape is a growing opportunity for executive training.

Sonoma is one of a handful of business schools around the world to offer specialist wine industry MBAs. Other programmes are run in France, Germany and Australia.

Such has been the demand for these courses at Sonoma that the business school is to run a new executive MBA programme from its main campus and expand its wine industry research operation. The plan is to build upon Sonoma’s existing Napa Valley-based wine MBA programme, creating places for an additional 100 students.

Sonoma is creating a wine institute building with classrooms that are designed for more flexible learning and video conferencing with experts around the world. It is looking to appoint a wine business chair and to fund more research into the changing shape of the global wine industry.