The show will provide a good opportunity to meet professionals from the food, drink and hospitality industry from India and overseas under the same roof. Direct decision makers from restaurants, F&B hotels, chefs, purchase managers housekeeping, caterers, wine clubs, party and event organisers, social clubs, food and beverage consultants, consolidators, distributors, wholesalers, cash and carry outlets, airlines, duty free outlets, cafe owners & government institutions will find the show extremely important.
With the excise duties on wines in Mumbai having been recently downwards sparking an impending mini boom, the show has gained even more significance, with visitors from all metro cities expected to visit.
Wines from France, Italy, Austria Germany, Spain and Portugal will be present in full form to represent the Old World whereas South Africa appears to be the lone entrant giving it the shape of an Old World heavy wine show. Of course, India will be very much a part though Indian Grape Processing Board seems to have decided to sit out this one, after burning their hands at the IFDE show in Delhi recently where they could not display most Indian wines due to some procedural glitches. A senior spokesman of the Board confirmed the development and expressed hope that if all goes well, they will take part in a major way next year and showcase the Indian industry under a big umbrella.
Seminars and Conferences
Seminars, Panel Discussions and Guided Tastings are no exception at such shows and will be a regular feature on 28 and 29 January. Many of these activities are on a free registration bases for the trade. ‘We are expecting about 120 trade people benefit from these complimentary programmes’ says Mel Shah, the show Programme Director from Paris, who is busy sorting out the last minute glitches and helping the participants to make a smooth entry within the system set up. ‘We have also received many requests and confirmations from the consumers who want to Taste the wine experience in an integrated way.’
Special Package for Non Trade Consumers
A two day package available to non trade consumers at Rs 10,000 including taxes or one day at Rs 6500 will enable them to not only attend the educational wine tastings but also attend several interested programs the most important being a two- part certification course by David Wrigley MW. Director at WSET. Spread over 2 days he will guide you to different nuances of wine tasting, including blind tasting and learning to evaluate wines. Getting a certificate might be useful but becoming a quasi expert in such short term is like getting a crash course from no less than WSET, London.
This and several other programmes are included in the package. The complete details can be viewed at http://taste-expo.com/taste-highlight.php. For Registration click here.
The entry to the show is complimentary.
India Wine Challenge
The third edition of the well established India Wine Challenge chaired by the decorated British author, writer and judge takes place at the venue. Run earlier in conjunction with the erstwhile IFE India for the earlier editions which earned it the reputation of the professionally organised and run competition of international class, it has now joined hands with Taste-Expo.
Besides judging and declaring the results, it also promises to promote the award winning wines at various platforms including the declaration of results at the wine show itself. DelWine will publish the results as soon as they are released, just like in both the previous editions. The combination of hand picked judges give the foreign wines which are not yet represented in India an opportunity window for entering the market while at the same time evaluating the existing range available in India, pitted against the other entries would make the winners have an edge over their competitors.
A well established feature of the Challenge has been the creation of a separate category for the Indian wines which are judged against each other and do not have to compete against the foreign wines.
The list of judges selected as shown on the website is Alok Chandra, Sonal Holland and Subhash Arora (India), Angela Mount, David Wrigley MW and Robert Joseph (UK), Cecilia Oldne (Sweden), Joel Payne (Germany), Maureen Kerleau (France), John Quarisa (Australia) and Yegas Naidoo (South Africa).
Details http://www.taste-expo.com/iwc-judges.php
Interestingly, the competition was to be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel but due to the excise and some other procedural intricacies so well-entrenched in our system, it has been shifted at the exhibition venue at the Bombay Exhibition Center in East Goregaon.
After a luke-warm response to the IFDE in Delhi in December, 2009 the industry pundits will be watching the performance of the show in order to judge the general mood of the industry after passing the recession for a year.
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