|  Curtains went up Monday on FENAVIN, the National Wine Fair of Spain at Ciudad Real, the Capital of Castilla-La Mancha, the south central region of Spain known for its number of wine production as much as Don Quixote, the man from La Mncha.
The fourth edition was officially inaugurated with much fanfare by Mr. Jose Maria Barreda Fontes, President (the post is an elected one- much like our Chife Ministers) of Castilla- La Mancha. Mayor of the city, Francisco Gil Ortega was also present along with Jose Manuel Diaz Salazar, Minister of Industries for the Province.
Speaking at the occasion, Barreda referred to Fenavin becoming ´an international referent for the wine-growing sector, as it is an excellent initiative to promote and open new markets for our wines.´ Commenting that wine is also profoundly integrated with religion he added, ´if we truly want to avoid our youth from consuming alcohol, the most effective path is certainly not prohibition, but information and training.´
Talking about the Show and explaining the reasons for holding it in Ciudad Real , the President of Fenavin and the Provincial Government of Ciudad Real, Nemesio de Lara revealed that, ´our region cultivates 600,000 hectares of vineyards, five times more than Chile and 70,000 families from the region live off the vine and wine.´
´The specialty of this show is that only wine producers and not traders are allowed to take part in the show,´explained Deepak Lulla who has been living in Spain for 30 years and married to a girl from Ciudad, is now a citizen of this city and country, till recently the only ´Indian´ in the city.
I met Deepak at the conference on Globalisation of Wines in which Robert Joseph was the common speaker of interest to us. A regulare reader of ´delWine´ he recognised me and we shared a lot about the city, the region and his new found countrymen. ´Before the nineties the production of wine was very limited. But since they received subsidies from the EU in 1991-92 the production went up manifold and they have too much surplus now. Export or sales outside ther region is their way of survival and they hope to sell to the domestic buyers as well as foreign buyers in this show,´ he added. He also added that the wineries from this area were very keen to do business in India but were overwhelmed because of the distance and not much direct contact with it.
The Show has about 1000 exhibitors from practically all states and D.O.s of Spain. Out of a total 4000 wineries, this is a fairly large number present here. It has been extremely well organsied show, barring the inadequate toilet facilities. Spaniards apparently spit out completely while tasting and have no need to use toilets often. Terchnology has been used most effectively. Free use of WiFi is perhaps one of the many features around. One can find a computer practically everywhere to stay in touch with the office between tasting an Airen and a Vardejo.
The absence of many big daddies of wine production is well compensated by wineries offering some very good quality wines at relatively decent prices. Says Vikram Dhall of Dhall Food and Beverages, Delhi ,´despite many big names missing, I have already finalised with 3 wineries.,´
Interest in Spanish wines has been on the increase in India . Importers have woken up to the fact that they are missing out on a good opportunity by letting Torres be the only Spanish player through TT and G, or the Freixenet cava, being imported in thousands of bottles by Global.
Brindco, Sonarys, Mohan Bros, World Wine & Spirits, High Spirits, ITDC, Aspri and Diplomatic Impex are the other importers who are at the Show. In fact, Sanjay Menon of Sonarys was all set to come for the Show; after adding Enate form DO Somantano, he seems to have tasted the fruit of Spanish wines in more ways than one. Unfortunately, he realised at the last minute that his passport pages had expired and he sent his Deputy, Jaidev Chatterjea instead, who has been loving the tasting of wines at the Wine Gallery where 941 uncorked wines from 360 producers with excellent information on each wine can keep you swirling for days on end.
Talking of passport, D.K. Khanna of Diplomatic Impex became stateless for a couple of days. He had his briefcase containing liquid cash and the passport whacked in the 23 seconds he took to decide whether he wanted an espresso or caffe con leche. Thanks to the efforts of Noelia Piriz of inQuve ( who are working with Fenavin to organise the visit of this delegation from india ), the 26 year old ´mother´of the group who accompanied him to the Indian Embassy in Madrid and got the travel documents for him. ( A note of appreciation for teh Indian officials who were very co-operative and helpful, is due here) The only other advice besides ´Drink quality wine, moderately´ I would say,´Please guard your passport even closer than your wife, while travelling through bigh cities, like Madrid or Milan, Rome or New York, why, even Delhi and Mumbai .´
Fenavin has some excellent conferences and seminars organised and I will write about a few of them in the forthcoming issues of delWine.
Subhash Arora
Ciudad Real
May, 8, 2007-05-08
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