Largest showing of Australian wine at ProWein as global exports soar

Australian wine took centre stage at ProWein 2018, the world’s biggest annual wine trade fair, with 75 wineries, 14 events and more than 500 wines showcased on the Wine Australia stand.

ProWein, held annually in Düsseldorf in Germany, saw a record number of guests this year: more than 60,000 trade visitors from 133 countries attended over the course of the three-day fair.

With 20 per cent more space than last year, this was Wine Australia’s largest ever stand at ProWein. In addition to producer booths, the stand featured an educational and events area, a new tasting zone ‘The Wine Bar’ and expansive meeting space.

From 26 wineries in 2008 to 75 wineries in 2018, the Wine Australia stand at ProWein has grown significantly over the last decade. Australia’s increasing presence at the fair is in line with the country’s growing global exports, which increased by 15 per cent to AUD $2.56 billion in the 12 months ending December 2017.

The Wine Australia programme at ProWein focused on the diversity of Australian wine, from renowned regions like McLaren Vale and Yarra Valley to less familiar regions such as New England and Great Southern. Still, sparkling, sweet and fortified wines were on show, plus 42 different grape varieties.

Guests participated in regional tastings, master classes, networking happy hours with drinks and canapés, an evening ‘Sneaky Tasting’, and tastings in collaboration with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET). UK wine writer and educator Sarah Ahmed presented a McLaren Vale Grenache tasting, highlighting that “Australian Grenache is on a roll”, and she reported “their perfume, balanced freshness and site-driven complexity was much remarked upon by a capacity audience.”

Meeting space on the stand was very busy and producers had a steady stream of appointments with key buyers and influencers from across Europe, Asia and North America.  Wine Australia’s on-stand barista also had his nose to the (coffee) grindstone, serving over 1400 Australian style quality coffees to guests during the fair.

Guests said:

“The Wine Australia stand was extremely busy, well organised, and there was a large array of producers eager to connect in the global marketplace thus leading to fruitful and productive business meetings.”

- Sarah Nagel, Park Street Imports (USA)

“Wine Australia’s events at ProWein, especially the Sneaky Tasting, enabled high-calibre professionals from all over the world to taste young and mature versions of Australia’s great classic wines as well as some of the hottest new styles. The wines demonstrated that Australian wine will never suffer from the ‘fat and happy’-syndrome as there is always something there to amaze you.”

- Madeleine Stenwreth MW, wine consultant (Sweden)

Exhibitors said:

“This has definitely been the best ProWein fair that I’ve attended. I met with buyers from North America, The Netherlands, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, India and South Korea, which has resulted in opportunities in new markets as well as from existing customers. Prowein is truly an international wine fair and it has been exciting to see the interest in Australian wines growing steadily in the last five years I have been attending.”

- Sam Temme, Wirra Wirra

“Prowein 2018 was a very productive event for Plan B! Wines, with several existing and new distribution partners arranging positive meetings with us.”

- Terry Chellappah, Plan B! Wines

“Prowein 2018 enabled us not only to meet with many of our international distributors and customers, but to really consolidate our relationships with some of our newer partners. We were particularly pleased with a number of new leads we were able to make – the many side conversations and introductions made possible by attending are absolutely invaluable.”

- Fiona Findlay, Voyager Estate

Stuart Barclay, Wine Australia General Manager Marketing, said:

“ProWein is crucial for us to showcase the quality and diversity of Australian wine to a global trade audience. The feedback from our exhibiting partners has been really positive and many received strong business leads and benefitted from meeting new and existing customers during the fair.”

It has been exciting to see the growing enthusiasm for Australian wine at our largest ever stand at ProWein. We’ll be keeping up this momentum and look forward to Vinexpo Hong Kong where Australia will be Country of Honour.”

For photos of Wine Australia at ProWein 2018, please see: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i1tup3oiexcb2se/AADURE84U2aZJv-kse6ZO33Va?dl=0

For a short video, please see: https://youtu.be/tSSkHW8V3lQ