2020: One Step Beyond is a new conference being launched by The Buyer, Jump Start and the Wine & Spirt Trade Association to examine changes in consumers and their shopping behaviour, driven by disruptive trends in technology and what impact they are having on the wine and wider drinks industry.
“The wine industry is innovating too slowly. Spirts and other beverages are leaving the wine business behind by recognising the need to shift their strategies and tactics.” That’s the challenge that Michael Wangbickler, president of Balzac Communications & Marketing that works with leading wine brands and producers on their communications strategies, hopes will be addressed at the Wine Future conference that is taking place in Coimbra, Portugal this week.
The worlds of bulk, branded, packaged and own label wines and spirits are becoming ever entwined as buyers and producers alike look at ever more efficient and sustainable ways to do business with each. Which is why in November the International Bulk Wine & Spirits Show is returning to London with a new sister event, the UK Trade Tasting focused on promoting branded wines and spirits. The Buyer talks to events organiser Sid Patel, chief executive of the Beverage Trade Network, about what he hopes the two combined events can offer the UK and European wine industries.
“The consumer wants wine as their preferred alcoholic beverage. They just don’t know it.” That’s why Rob McMillan of the Silicon Valley Bank remains positive and optimistic about the future of the global wine industry despite the many challenges it faces. Here he shares his thoughts as the latest leading wine figure taking part in the Wine Future conference in Coimbra in Portugal in November.
“We must not be afraid of the word ‘bulk’…for me, bulk means creativity. It is the foundations of the house on which you can choose to build one way or another.” That’s the open minded approach that the World Bulk Wine Exhibition (WBWE) wants to take when providing the global wine industry the platform to buy and sell wine and do business, says Cristina V Miranda the event’s marketing and communications director. Here she explains what to expect at this year’s event.
It is nearly 25 years since the first Wine Future looked to address the big issues facing the wine industry at its inaugural event in Rioja in 2009. In November the fourth Wine Future is set to take place in Coimbra in Portugal where many the issues discussed all those years ago are still as relevant today. To help set the scene for what to expect The Buyer over the coming weeks is interviewing many of the keynote speakers set to take part starting today with Dr Laura Catena, managing director at Catena Zapata, one of Argentina’s and the world’s most influential wine producers.
The unique properties of old vine wines, how vines manage to survive for over 150 years and what they can tell us about the future of viticulture in the face of climate change, were just some of the topics discussed at the Old Vine Conference 2023 held in Campania. Hosted by Feudi di San Gregorio, leaders in the Italian movement to protect, preserve and make wines from old vines, this second Old Vine Conference brought together leaders in the realm of ancient Italian vineyards to discuss and examine best practices for growing, protecting and promoting old vines and their wines. The Buyer’s Lisse Garnett was there to hear from Professor Attilio Scienza, vine master pruner Pierpaolo Sirch, Feudi di San Gregorio chairman Antonio Capaldo, Sarah Abbott MW and Basilisco winemaker Viviana Malafarina. Garnett also tastes and evaluates 12 old vine wines from across the globe to evaluate their unique properties.
Ahead of the Institute of Masters of Wine’s 10th International Symposium to be held in Wiesbaden, Germany this summer, Richard Siddle speaks to IMW executive director, Julian Gore-Booth, about the institute’s flagship event – which it calls the ‘Olympics of wine events’ held, appropriately enough once every four years, about what it hopes to achieve and what the key issues are that will be up for discussion. He also looks at the institute’s targets and ambitions and its role in the wider wine industry.
The wine industry’s focus on the global bulk wine market has never been more intense as retailers, importers, distributors and suppliers look to source the best quality and best value wines for their markets. But what are the behind the scenes trends that are driving and dictating the international bulk wine market? We talk to Otilia Romero de Condés, chief executive of the World Bulk Wine Exhibition about how she sees the bulk wine market and what to expect at WBWE 2023 in Amsterdam in November.
You have to go all the way back to 2008 for the first Wine Future event held in Rioja, Spain. A breakthrough event at the time that looked to bring the biggest names, companies and wine brands in the world together to address the key issues facing the sector. Some 15 years later and many of those challenges, if anything , have got worse and a whole lot more have piled up. Which is why Wine Future is returning in November to help the sector address its issues and make the most of untapped opportunities.
Next week sees ProWein return to its traditional timeslot in the drinks industry’s events calendar after 2022’s show was switched to May, and in 2020 and 2021 cancelled entirely due to Covid restrictions. Not surprisingly, ProWein’s executive director, Michael Degen, is hugely relieved at the return to some semblance of normality for the world’s biggest international wine and spirits trade show. He talks to Helen Arnold about the impact of the pandemic, what visitors can expect from the 2023 show and his vision for the future of the event.
Communicating about wine is so much more than putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and telling a story. It’s a narrative woven through words, pricing, positioning and placement. It’s about being in the right place at the right time and in front of the right people and then and only then, will you succeed. Over two days of talks, seminars and discussions, wine2wine 2022 put this complex puzzle under the microscope, calling on leaders from all corners of the wine industry to share their expertise. Caroline Tanner reports back for The Buyer.
If there was some sort of infra red device that allowed you to see how every bottle of wine down a supermarket aisle, or on a restaurant chain’s wine list was made and bottled then it’s a fair bet to say a big proportion would have been shipped in bulk and packaged in the UK. The International Bulk Wine & Spirits Show hopes to help producers, importers, buyers, retailers and on-trade groups alike get on top of their bulk wine – and spirits – needs when it returns to London in November 2023. Here’s what to expect.
“Communication requires more attention by professionals interested in selling, promoting, teaching and even making wine, as it clearly affects every aspect of the sector.” Those are the thoughts of Steve Kim, founder and the creative thinker behind the breakthrough wine2wine event that is back in November for its first post-Covid in-person event. It’s also why she and her team have decided to put “wine communications” at the heart of what will be the ninth wine2wine event with a series of talks, seminars and debates designed to share what wineries, producers, businesses, writers, influencers and communicators are doing to tell their stories about wine in their own creative way.
“Now is the time to value old vines, in every sense. And the sessions have been developed to show why. To value old vines is not to hanker sentimentally for ye olde days of the hoe…we want to highlight how old vine fruit inspires and engages winemakers.” That’s the rallying call from Sarah Abbott MW, co-organiser and founder of the Old Vine Conference that holds its first in person event next month as part of its worldwide ambition to bring producers, winemakers and commentators together to discuss and analyse how collectively the wine industry can work with, protect and use old vines to make the wines of the future.
The countdown for arguably the most ambitious event to help the wine industry tackle climate change is into its final days with the event due to start on May 23. Green Wine Future by Wineally 2022 is set to take place across the world throughout next week, starting on Monday and running through to May 26, with a series of webinars, online debates, filmed reports and a whole lot more being hosted in different cities and countries across the four days. The Buyer is a media partner for the event and here we pick out some of the highlights of what to expect.
The complexity of the United States wine market, built on the back of its three tier system, means it is hard to put on trade events that are relevant to all markets and operators across its 50 states. The World Bulk Wine Exhibition hopes to change that with its new dedicated United States trade exhibition that it hopes can become the country’s main event thanks to its focus on bulk, bottled and private label wines – products that are relevant whatever state you are in. Here Otilia Romero de Condés, head of WBWE, explains what to expect at WBWE USA.
With just over two weeks to go the countdown is on for the first major international wine fair to be held in Europe for wine and spirits for two years. As Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris wait to open their doors to fully vaccinated producers and buyers from all over the world we take a close look at some of the seminars and mini conferences taking place and, in particular, the impressive Wine Talks series featuring leading lights from across the wine industry.
Every day we make 100s of decisions that determine what we buy and spend our money on, yet rarely are we consciously aware of the decision we have just made. Welcome to the world of behavioural science and the study that helps decipher and strip back exactly what it is that has determined our spending behaviour. Intrigued by how it works? Want to find out more? Well, sign up for The Buyer’s and Sophie Jump’s first One Step Beyond free webinar of 2022, in partnership with the WSTA, and hear first hand from Richard Shotton, a behaviour science expert, in a keynote talk on the subject and how if applied correctly it could transform how drinks companies, brands, retailers and restaurants market themselves and communicate with their target customers. He will be joined by leading consumer business analyst, Nik Modi, managing director of RBC Capital Markets, who will analyse the key macro consumer trends that are also going to influence those buying decisions in the years to come.
The Bloody Big Drinks Summit is a new online business forum, that runs between October 25 to October 29, created by Australia’s leading publishing company, Food & Beverage Media that is designed to give drinks industry professionals all over the world the chance to hear from top industry experts on how to help grow your business. It includes over 50 talks, presentations and industry debates covering beers, wines, spirits, retailing, production, marketing and digital innovation. Delegates can either watch the sessions live, or watch them on catch up in their own time. Here’s what you can expect from this breakthrough event.
The first face-to-face international wine fair organised in Europe and the United States in 2021 will take pace between November 22 and 23 in Amsterdam as the World Bulk Wine Exhibition returns for what will be an even more important show as it will be the first time that producers and key wine buyers will have had to get together, taste wines and get down to the business of buying and selling wine. Here is what to expect at this year’s event.
