MUST Fermenting Ideas Conference a Think Tank of Wine Ideas

After Rui Falcao, one of the two organisers-Paulo Salvador is the other one, welcomed the delegates,  Ana Mendes Godinho, the Secretary of State for Tourism in Portugal addressed the full house of over 300 delegates. It was a déjà Vu; when I attended the Conference 2 years ago  I told a Portuguese colleague at Concours de Mundial Bruxelles that it was such an enjoyable visit to Lisbon though I had already been in Portugal a few times, mostly in Porto which was a dream city for me. She had said Portugal was the flavour of the day for global tourism. Everyone seemed to be converging on the country suddenly. Therefore when Godinho said that there had been a growth of 45% in the previous 3 years in terms of tourist arrival, it validated the comments of my colleague. What I did not know was that the country had bagged around 4000 awards in tourism!

Wine Tourism plays an important role in Portugal with about 10% of tourism coming from this sector alone. Not surprisingly, there are 150 wine tourism units in the country, she said. The growth did not happen automatically. Portugal Tourism has put in special efforts to focus on this area of their strength.  People were sent abroad to learn about tourism. ‘We went to South Africa with people we met here at the MUST Wine Summit. We identified our goals. Training people, targeting special markets as wine destination has been a continuous process,’ she said. For the number of Indian traveller groups we saw during the trip, Portugal is already high up in the list of destination priority.

Portugal is all set to organise a Wine Tourism Conference in 2020, she affirmed.  Stressing the importance of wine journalism she said they planned Press Trips and target 10,000 Articles published in the next 2 years. She also stressed the impact of MUST in achieving their goals of tourism and bringing people together.

Adam Lechmere, the well-known journalist was the first speaker to follow her inspiring address that could be so useful for the Indian travel industry. He highlighted the overload of tourists in many countries and cities. With a population of 55,000 and an inflow of 30 million tourists in Venice, there were 50 tourists for a local. Dubrovnik in Croatia, already getting to be a popular spot for Indian tourists, had a similar though less impressive statistics. Yellowstone Park had seen a growth of 40% in 10 years in number of tourist arrivals. Japan had the most impressive growth. He highlighted some of the problems due to the overload and talked about possible solutions.

Gaia Gaja who had just come for a few hours to Present on’ Insect Hotels’ shared the experimentation of the last 15 years at the 3 family wineries and the impact the biodiversity already had in making the soil more organic. She was bold enough to concede they were still in the process of experimentation.

Pedro Ballesteros MW talked about the importance of Terroir being really dependent on the current interest by foreigners and not locals. Terroirs were built and disappeared and re-appeared when the interest of foreign wine connoisseurs rekindled, giving several examples. One wondered if India was ready with a story that would attract the foreign wine lovers.  His talk was followed by that of Felicity Carter of Meininger and Eric Asimov of New York Times who have been both Speakers before. As has been the tradition, a Panel Discussion on Natural Wines, the hot topic of today, was the subject for the last session of the day.

Next day started bright and early with Lenz Moser who comes from an illustrious Austrian wine making family with his grandfather Lenz Moser a true patriarch promoter of Grüner Veltliner. He focused on his joint venture in Ninxia of Changyu Moser that I had visited last year. It’s a highly profitable business, he claimed as the high quality they produce, fetches higher prices too.  Lisa Perrotti- Brown is the face of Wine Advocate and works on the 100-point scale for rating wines for their subscribers. Tracking the history of wine ratings, she averred that though Ratings are an integral part of categorizing wines, they are not by any means sufficient or a substitute for interesting but meaningful Tasting Notes.

Rui Falcão, one of the two organisers of the Conference, is an ardent admirer of Colares appellation which is facing extinction. Barely 20 kms from the venue it is an old appellation, near Sintra making very interesting and age-worthy wines that are still affordable if bought directly from the cellars. His impassioned talk was followed by Simon Woolf from UK, who made a very forceful case for orange wines- white wines made with skins intact for fermentation. Daniel Mattyear and Rodrigo Schulz were the next speakers-who again were very effective in their areas of expertise.

The last day also started bright and early at 830 with Antonio Graca, Research Director of PROVID talking about genotypes and the biodiversity of grape varieties. This would be taken up next month at OIV Conference as a Resolution where it is likely to be passed. Then the topic would be available for India as a member country; research on Indian grape varieties can possibly be carried out in conjunction with OIV/PROVID, confirmed Antonio to delWine. One hopes the right authorities would take if forward to help India move forward in winemaking.

He was followed by Isabelle Legeron, the French Master of Wine who conducts RAW WINE tastings and special shows annually as a platform for natural wines. Miguel Torres Sr, on the other hand has climate control close to his heart and is often found making impassioned speeches about global warming and water management just as he did today, the June 28. He exhorted each one at the Conference and indeed people throughout the world to make efforts before the planet gets on the destructive path.   Paul Mabray kept his audience mesmerized by his talk with dozens of quick moving, interesting  slides like a pied piper.

Pedro Parra is a business associate of Alberto Antonini, the well-known Tuscan producer in Chianti where his Poggiotondo is an exception to making plonk generally. He is an expert in Terroir and gave a very useful talk on the subject, making it easier for the audience to understand the difference between various terroirs, helping them to choose a varietal to grow properly. Ntisiki Biyela is a South African black entrepreneur who learnt to be a winemaker who shared her travails from zero to owning a successful wine business.

The seminars were all very well managed with a proper digital support. The start and finish timings for each speaker were precise and within the schedule. The coffee-breaks and Lunch breaks were  also very disciplined and the food was very good quality and variety. An overall Excellent event!

The Conference was concluded by the Thank You remarks by Paolo Salvador and Rui Falcão. Juana Pinto Balsemao from Municipality of Cascais talked about what the town had in mind to expand its horizons. Luis Araujo, President of Turismo de Portugal had come directly from a beach cleaning drive to address the Audience.

One would have to look hard to find faults and any shortcomings in this conference into 3rd year already. The Sunset Tasting at the Estoril Castle was sorely missing this year, ostensibly due to a date clash. One sincerely hopes it will be back next year; if offers a great opportunity to taste Portuguese wines.

Topics are very interesting but with a few recent Studies bringing into limelight the negative aspects of wine consumption,  this aspect needs to be brought out in the open with a couple of wine loving medical doctors present both aspects of the studies. Panel discussions have high quality speakers as participants but the moderation needs to have more teeth to bring out the controversial aspects of the topic.  The Conference is a Think Tank of the industry and an informal discussions need to have a bit more depth, considering that the audience is professional and participative. One wonders if it would be feasible to co-ordinate a visit to the nearby wineries like in Colares, even if at extra costs  on actual basis. There would be many takers. It’s always a good idea to have the delegates visit some wine regions  on a cost basis.   

Nevertheless, MUST Fermenting Ideas is one of the best organised wine conferences- a disciplined, well- structured programme with excellent speakers not being the only traits.  The Conference is bundle full of ideas and is worth attending. One certainly expects more participation from India. China is another country to tap but in medium term as it would involve extra infrastructure for simultaneous translations from English to Chinese and solution of other language and cultural problems first.

Subhash Arora

Gallery of Speakers

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