WINE TRADE FAIRS

When wine became a global product

ew people would associate wine with an event as sober as a trade fair where you might expect industrial machinery or complicated operational software. But wine is a food product like all others and needs to be brought to the market.

Towns like Bordeaux or Beaune have been marketplaces for the produce of their regions for centuries. With better mobility infrastructure, big trade fairs emerged, showcasing the production of a wider area or even an entire country, such as Vinitaly in Verona.

After 1945 leading production countries like France, Italy and Spain sold an ever-higher share of their wines to other countries, namely in northern Europe and the Americas. Conversely, this meant potential buyers and importers had to travel extensively abroad to find their merchandise while producers from outside each region would be reluctant to join the events. Why would a red wine producer from Spain exhibit and look for clients in Bordeaux when, within a radius of 100 kilometres, millions of litres of red wine were produced?

When, in 1994, the first “Pro Vins” fair in the West German town of Düsseldorf opened its doors, featuring mainly French wines, little did the 1500 visitors know the event would forever change the wine trade. The idea behind it was to offer and sell wines where the clients, not the producers, live. The fair would soon change its name to Prowein. Buyers from across Europe - and even other continents - could replace time consuming and costly trips to each of their regions of supply with one key event. Exhibitors returned home happily, with multiple deals closed.

After the German event, International London Wine Fair (ILWF) flourished, and others – like Fenavin or Vievinum – followed Vinitaly in showcasing their entire country’s production. Some of them were outperformed by the competition. ILWF shrunk to a show for the domestic market with exhibitors predominantly from countries with a big share in the British scene. The former French flagship event in Bordeaux – Vinexpo – ended up with a reputation for yielding more gala dinners than business deals and gave up.

Also Düsseldorf would suffer from its own success, becoming ever more expensive with some of the additional costs, like accommodation, going through the roof. Small exhibitors started feeling the mounting pressure. Specialised events like Slow Wine in Bologna and Millésime Bio in Montpellier emerged, securing their share of the market by being focussed, lucid and smaller scale. Other events like Vievinum in Austria could boast of their beautiful setting: tasting in an imperial castle, the Wiener Hofburg, residence of the Austrian Federal President, instead of a 1970s exhibition hall.

Actually, France stroke back. Vinexpo and Wine Paris joined forces and put Paris on the map. Sporting big tastings, masterclasses, 180 Paris bars and restaurants chosen for their extraordinary quality and the institutional support of President Emmanuel Macron himself, the new international wine fair is nothing but a state affair; ministers and ambassadors visited this year’s edition.

Prowein tried to top the French fireworks with Kylie Minogue promoting her alcohol-free Rose Champagne in person. Paris struck back with teetotaller Christopher Lambert presenting his vodka and Michelin super star chef Guy Savoy as another patron.

For too long, France – the mother and guardian of the principle of origin and one of the world’s top producers - watched Prowein’s success and seamless organization rather helplessly. The nineth biggest producer country with a puny export rate, had managed to create the world’s leading wine fair.

In 2023, however, Paris consolidated its doubledigit growth attracting 36,000 visitors (+41% than in 2022). With 49,000 visitors, Prowein is still leading, even if 20% behind pre-covid figures. Paris caught up with an 85% increase in international visitors, most of them from neighbouring Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany, though. And three out of four exhibitors are still French. In Düsseldorf 86% of 6,000 exhibitors came from more than 60 countries. However the chips fall, after each fair both organisers claim their international leadership and eye each other suspiciously and gleefully.

This year strikes at Düsseldorf airport and public transport (which is free for Prowein visitors) left an unsightly mark. And surprised the strike-prone French neighbours.

The French, also currently experiencing deep social turmoil, might also be surprised to hear which group is among the most vocal critics of Prowein. Despite quite some throng around the booths of German wineries, the national winegrowers have complained in past years that they receive too little attention next to the dazzling international stands representing countries from Azerbaijan to Australia.

Sometimes the two countries don’t seem so different after all.

Matthias Stelzig