Decanter World Wine Awards'Complicated' US wine market led to Vinexpo postponement
- Friday 20 July 2012
Billed as 'the one rendez-vous you can't miss', too many wineries thought otherwise. Rendez-Vous by Vinexpo was postponed indefinitely this week.
'Despite a lot of effort, we only succeeded in selling 52 tasting areas out of the 150 scheduled,' Beynat said.
The three-day show, the first of its kind by Vinexpo, was to be held in New York in November with up to 6,000 consumer visitors expected and a one-day ticket costing US$180.
Louis Latour, Barton & Guestier and Baron Philippe de Rothschild were among the exhibitors signed up.
Beynat is 'disappointed' but said the decision to cancel was a 'responsible' one.
'With this limited number of exhibitors we were afraid of attracting a limited number of visitors,' he told Decanter.com. 'I guess the economic crisis didn't help.’
Despite the setback, Vinexpo remains committed to hosting a consumer wine show, although this might not be in the US.
'Promoting wine in the US is quite complicated,' Beynat said. 'In the next months we will analyse exactly what we maybe need to improve or amend. We are always thinking about the US, but we are also open to several countries.'
Vinexpo has promised full refunds to exhibitors already signed up to Rendez-Vous.
This will mostly consist of refunded 'down payments', because exhibitors were only due to be billed for the full amount earlier this month.
'The investment we made to create the brand will be useful for the next time. So [the money] isn’t lost,' Beynat said.
Have your say!
Bartholomew Broadbent
July 26 16:15
When Vinexpo was doing their planning, they contacted importers like Broadbent Selections. My advice was to forget about the U.S. because there were already way too many consumer events all over the country. We need fewer, not more.
There is no advantage to wineries supporting a foreign entity like Vinexpo because they bring nothing to the table. We like to support events put on by the likes of wine publications because they reach the target audience and we want to encourage our wine press by supporting their events.
If Decanter hosted an event, there would be tremendous winery and importer support.
Tom, who posted on this topic, claims that NY has too few consumer events, which indicates to me that he has not looked very hard. If he wants to go to more events, he should do a little research. There are, in my opinion, way too many consumer tastings in the US, including New York. He seems only aware of, the Wine Spectator's Wine Experience. If he were looking for wine events in NY, he'd know that other publications have similar events, for instance, those of Wine&Spirits, Bon Appetit and Wine Enthusiast. Not to mention the amazing events put on by Food&Wine in various other parts of the country. Almost every State and charity has some sort of consumer wine event. There are also lovely wine festivals throughout the U.S. whether on top of mountains or in quaint cities, like Charleston.
There are also dozens of other consumer events going on all the time in NY, whether arranged by the likes of Bottle Notes or various government trade organizations, promoting wines from places like New Zealand, Portugal, Madeira, South Africa, Austria, Spain and all sorts of French ones. Consumer tastings in NY are endless, we pick and choose very carefully as to which ones to attend.
We simply don't need another event but we would support publications which support us. We won't bother with overpriced events which have no relevance. That is why Vinexpo got few wineries interested in exhibiting, what does it bring to the table? Nothing.
Nick Oakley
July 24 08:19
I'm with Dom. $180? When Prowein, probably the best wine show in the world, charges €56 for three days you wonder what the organisers were thinking. OK it's a consumer show and maybe you can twist out a few more dollars from a paying visitor, but still....
Dom
July 23 15:39
I think charging professionals from the wine trade $180 a day or any fee at all absolutely crazy. It is obvious they have no concept of reality and they think that all markets are like asia that you can easily rip off because of lack of experience and hunger to learn.
Tom
July 23 11:00
This is bad news, we do not get enough great consumer oriented tastings in NYC. The wine spectator tasting ins nice but not long enough to speak with proprietors and enjoy a lot of the wines. Zachys was great but they bailed last year for the first time in man years. VIN EXPO please come to NYC for a consumer show!!! You need to advertise better though wine spectator, etc.