Vinisud attracts buyers from around the world to highlight its Mediterranean wine and spirits

By Richard Siddle

Published: 21 February, 2014

Over 1,600 exhibitors from across the Mediterranean's world of wine and spirits are set to descend on Montpellier in Southern France next week for this year's Vinisud trade show which hopes to attract buyers from all over the world.

They will get the chance to taste and discover wines from regions that account for just over 50% of the world's production of wine according to 2013 figures from the International Vine and Wine Organisation. The show will feature over 1,410 French producers and 224 from across the rest of the Mediterranean.

The event which takes place between February 24-26 has also this year attracted big names from the world of wine including the current World Sommelier of the Year, Paolo Basso and Gerard Basset MS OBE, World Sommelier of the Year in 2010 who together will present a tasting on "The great red wine appellations/regions of the Mediterranean" on February 25 at 2pm.

It will feature wines from the South of France, Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence, the Rhone Valley, the South-West and Corsica, from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Tunisia, Morocco, Greece, Croatia and Lebanon.

Buyers are expected to be attracted by the chance to taste unusual indigenous grape varieties from some of the most diverse wine regions in the world. They will also be able to see how much work has been done in some areas to re-introduce ancestral grape varieties grown from historic terroirs.

Organisers have worked particularly hard to attract a wide range of buyers from all over the world to the 2014 show from as far afield as Russia, Poland, China and South America.

Natalia Avdienko, import manager for Azbuka Vkusa, a premium supermarket chain in Moscow and St Petersburg said the region offered "excellent value for money."

Didier Boutet, president and founder of DB Wine Selection Inc that distributes wine in New England in the US, added: "Compared with other major trade fairs, Vinisud is on a smaller scale and offers me more opportunities to meet new producers and source excellent wines from every appellation represented."

While Fuxin Bao, vice directing manager of Shanghai Huma International Buyers, said: "The wines sampled at Vinisud meet the most exacting standards of our clients. Vinisud is an especially important trade fair for our company. I am on the lookout for sparkling and dessert wines, and of course reds."

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