As a world leader in the wine industry, he served for many years as the official United States delegate to the Wine Technology Group of Experts of the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV). He was also active in the OIV Subcommission on Methods of Analysis and the Group of Experts that draws up the OIV Code of Enological Practices.
In recognition of his contributions to this organization, he was presented the OIV Award of Merit in 1999, one of the very few Americans to be so honored.
As Chairman of the Wine Institute Technical Committee for two decades, he had been instrumental in successfully guiding the work of that group in numerous areas critical to the grape and wine industries. He had also headed numerous Wine Institute subcommittees dealing with such regulatory bodies as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, both Federal and State EPA, the California Air Resources Board and a number of water quality and waste management agencies. He had received the highly coveted Merit Award of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture.
He had served the Society first as its Technical Projects Director, then as President, and later as the Editor of the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. He acted as Enology Editor of that publication, and as editor of the chapter on wine analysis in the Official Methods of Analysis of AOAC International for nearly thirty years and was elected a Fellow of that organization. He has served as the Liaison Officer between AOAC and the American Society for Enology and Viticulture for over 30 years.