New World joins forces to head off European threat

A group of New World wine-producing countries, including California, have teamed up to form the New World Alliance, a marketing strategy which will be unveiled at next year’s Prowein event in Germany.

New Zealand, California, Chile, South Africa and Argentina – but not UK market leader Australia – have joined forces to launch the Alliance, which hopes to fight off competition from its EU rivals.

There has been talk of a New World faction for some time. As reported on decanter.com in May 2008, Vinexpo boss Robert Beynat considered legal action over a questionnaire emailed to key wine trade members to gauge opinion on whether a New World-focused wine fair held at a similar time of year to Vinexpo would be a success.

Su Birch, CEO of Wines of South Africa said, ‘In these tough times we need to work smarter and not be hidebound by old ways of doing things. Working together at Prowein we can present a programme that we believe will attract all the key influencers at a fraction of the price we could run individual programmes.’

A spokesman for the Alliance added, ‘Although we remain competitors, we believe the potential exists to further advance the New World’s share of the global wine market by sharing best practice.

‘We have already benefited from each other enormously by exchanging viticultural and cellar research as well as innovations in packaging, marketing and logistics.’

Prowein, which takes place in Düsseldorf, will be held from 21–23 March 2010.

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Written by Stuart Peskett