Wine Sediments

I was in Verona last weekend to be part of the main Italian wine fair. I have attended several time in the, but this time I have notice quite a few more people. In fact, according to the organization of the event, there was a 15% growth in international operators - up to 38 thousand (33 thousand in 2006) out of 150 thousand total visitors ( 4% over the previous edition) from more than 100 countries. In addition, more than 2,600 journalists from 52 countries.

I had great pleasure in meeting a WineSediments colleague, Alfonso Cevola, (in the middle of Campania’s pavilion designed by Gae Aulenti, an Italian architect). I met Alfonso and I decided to interview him, asking something about how an American sees our Italian fair, how as an American he views Italian wines and so on. You can watch my interview by clicking here to vino24TV.

Here I report various comments by the biggest wineries at Vinitaly:

“Results are very positive. We thought that the simultaneous scheduling of Vinexpo might have affected Vinitaly - yet, on the other hand, the event performed even better than last year’s edition, with impressive attendance by professional operators - exactly the contacts we are looking for”, Gianni Zonin said.

“The quantity and quality of commercial contacts was optimal from North America, China, Japan and Russia, but even from niche countries such as the Maldives. Good attendance by many Scandinavians was rather surprising, since an international event geographically closer to Northern Europe was held recently”, referred Piero Mastroberardino, President of Federvini.

“Vinitaly confirmed its role as a not-to-be-missed event. Our stand was often packed. High-level clients came from Italy and a number of emerging countries such as Russia, India, Pakistan and the Middle East. Many other visitors came from Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and especially from Eastern Europe - Bulgaria, Romania, Poland - as well as Turkey and Cyprus - particularly over the first two days, but nevertheless with peak levels even on later days. We are delighted about this, because it is a sign that things are progressing well in commercial terms”, Tiziana Frescobaldi, of the cellars of the same name, said.

“… growth of services and programming, which make Vinitaly the only event in the world capable of blending in a positive way both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contacts involving well-informed consumers”. Giacomo Rallo of Donnafugata said.

Yes, because Vinitaly is very particular: it’s one of the biggest wine fair in the world for business-to-business contacts but, at the same time, it’s one of the biggest one for business-to-consumer contacts too. That’s due to the days when the fair is open to consumers the Saturday and Sunday.

So you can see business operators side by side with guys just looking for a glass of good wine! In truth, however, if this should be ok for someone, for someone else is only a bad news because sometimes occasional non-buyer visitors are only nosey people taking out valuable time for business.

[Ed Note: I think we grasp Fabio’s meaning in the last sentance - should the fair be for business or for consumers? Does one preclude the other?]