Imagine a wine trade show without wine.

That’s a possibility at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium at the Sacramento Convention Center next week.

It may not be as bad as it sounds, and there still will be wine there, but some roadblocks have been set up set up that may change the way wine is served at many of the booths of 500 or so exhibitors in what has been called the largest wine trade show in the United States. They represent suppliers to the wine and vineyard industries.

Many exhibitors pour wine at their booths. Some have wine that shows the characteristics of their barrels, some are exhibiting new equipment, some are showing experimental procedures, and all who pour wine have a reason to do so, not just to be hospitable.

A notice was sent to all exhibitors telling them of a “new direction from the state ABC (Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) that no alcoholic beverage can be brought into the trade show or any other location at the Sacramento Convention Center,” which also includes the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel, where some symposium activities are held.

In order to serve wine in a booth or anywhere else at the symposium, the vendors must sell their wine to the holder of the ABC license — in the case of the convention center, it’s the catering service — and the catering service must pour the wine at the booth.

The notice to exhibitors said that the law pertains to bottles and containers of wine for booth displays, wine in barrels or similar containers, alcoholic beverages brought in to serve for guests in the booth, and alcoholic beverages to be used to operate any equipment or for demonstrations.

The law is similar to the one that required holders of Type 17 (wholesaler) and Type 20 (retailer) licenses to sell their wine to a holder of a proper license and have that person pour wine at charitable events, until it was changed last year.

“We always thought we were in compliance with the law,” a symposium spokesman said. “This is a new interpretation of the law. The biggest reason it seems difficult is that it’s a change.”