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got off to a rocky start for some producers on June
15 when hundreds of cases of wine were held for nearly
six days by French custom officials at the Belgium border.
E. & J. Gallo and Foster's were among the companies
affected by the delay. But Wines of South Africa (WOSA)
was the hardest hit.
"Fifty percent of our producers had no wine,"
Dalene Steyn, WOSA's marketing manager for Europe, said
of the first few days of Vinexpo. "Some producers
managed to bring a few bottles directly with them from
South Africa."
Steyn explained that a pool of producers had hired
a truck to ship the wine from Antwerp to Bordeaux and
custom officials at the border questioned the validity
of the paperwork. It appears that one of the non South
African producers had send insufficient paperwork and
the whole consignment was detained for a couple of days.
Many were without wine until Wednesday.
An estimated 50,000 people from 140 countries crowded
the aisles of Vinexpo-about 3% more than the previous
edition. About 2,400 exhibitors participated from 45
countries, with delegations from countries as diverse
as Croatia and Barbados.
France had the largest contingency, hogging 61 percent
of the exhibitors' space. Spain surpassed Italy as the
No. 2 country at Vinexpo, for the first time ever. USA
was sixth in terms of presence. Producers from Australia
and New Zealand were virtually absent.
California wineries such as Trinchero (Sutter Home)
Family, Kenwood and Joseph Phelps (Insignia) shared
a stand in the main hall. Napa Valley cult wine producers
Bill Harlan of Harlan Estate and Charles Banks of Screaming
Eagle were seen too.
Some U.S. producers shared booths with distributors
and importers. Bruce Cakebread, of Cakebread Cellars
in Napa Valley, showcased his wines at the Kobrand pavilion.
Bruce Cakebread, whose wines are being imported in India
also through Kobrand, wondered why many other US producers
had not showed up. "But I guess when the market
is so good in the U.S.," he said, "many of
them don't want to travel'"
While sales in the USA are good right now, Cakebread
said U.S. producers need to look to the future and emerging
markets in Asia.
The organisers took a page out off the book from Prowein,
held in Düsseldorf earlier this year, where Meininger
publications had organised a seminar on the emerging
markets. Countries of focus there were also Russia,
China and India. General agreement at Vinexpo was that
Russia is where the efforts should be more intense.
China and India have given dismal results so far. But
most were hopeful that the duties will come down in
India soon, thus changing the balance in India's favour.
The Far East showed increased interest in Vinexpo,
registering more than 2,000 participants. The number
of visitors more than doubled. Growing interest was
also seen from Eastern Europe. Visitors from North America
continued to grow, reaching 1,500. South America was
well represented, notably with a delegation of 100 buyers
from Brazil. Even UAE doubled its presence with 50 compared
with 2005. A record 1300 journalists visited the Press
Centre too.
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