June 16: The historic Hofburg Palace in Vienna once again became the focal point on June 9-11 for 15,000 wine lovers from 50 countries including India, who love their Austrian wines and who congregated to taste wines from 550 Austrian winemakers and discuss viticulture with experts from the guest country Switzerland, for the 11th time since the biennial wine show VieVinum started promoting primarily Austrian wines internationally in 1998
Vienna’s Hofburg Palace becomes a pilgrimage destination for friends of Austrian wine every two years for 3 days and this year was no different. Perhaps the excitement was a bit more since it was a Jubilee year (20th anniversary), according to a Press Release.
The initial feedback from the international trade visitors, who came to VieVinum at the invitation of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB), bears testimony to the unusually high esteem in which this unique wine fair in the world was organised from June 9-11 and attended by a record number of visitors.
As always, the beautiful Hofburg Palace provided a splendid setting for this edition of VieVinum in which about 1,150 wine merchants, journalists, sommeliers and restaurateurs responded positively to the invitation by the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB). Interestingly, nearly half of them participated for the first time.
AWMB provided guests with full-service attention and an excellent support programme, seemingly to their total satisfaction even though summer temperatures were slightly bothersome this year.
Austria is known for its Gruener Veltliner (known fondly as Gru-Vee) white grapes. But it makes excellent Sauvignon Blanc as well- mostly in southern Austria. A day before the start of the event, approximately 350 friends of wine turned up, accepting the invitation for a guided tasting titled ‘Great Sauvignon Blancs and Wines of the Pinot Family’.
Saturday’s seminar on the opening day ‘Austrian Wine Update’, presented by AWMB managing director Willi Klinger, had a house full of guests as usual. So was the formidable Masters of Wine tasting ‘Best of Old World Pinot Noir Outside of Burgundy’, moderated by Anne Krehbiehl MW, Andreas Wickhoff MW, Stephan Reinhardt and Willi Klinger.
The AWMB press centre and restaurant created an extremely stylish and comfortable new environment for the international guests. This being a permanent feature would be welcome by them in future as well. The presence of this year’s guest country Switzerland provided a pleasant international touch to round out the proceedings.
As the organisers point out, they observed that significant numbers of the international audience coming to Vienna were already equipped with comprehensive knowledge about the wines of Austria, and were easily able to put the visit to good use.
Many exhibitors said they had never before seen such a high level of professionalism and interest in Austrian wine on the part of the visitors. It appears that Austrian wines have made great strides toward international recognition, both in terms of profile and appeal.
In addition to tasting delicious wines of Austria growers and the intensive, commendable marketing and administrative efforts of the AWMB, the Show provided an opportunity to taste Austrian gastronomy. It also provided visitors the unique images and cultural impressions from the heart of Vienna. Indeed, it is a unique wine fair for which I was invited but had to miss attending for personal reasons. There is always next time. In 2020 perhaps!
Subhash Arora
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