Vinisud goes annual

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 28 November, 2016

The trade tasting which puts wines of the Mediterranean in the spotlight has become annual fixture on the international's trade's calendar.

As of January 2017, Vinisud will be held every year instead of every other year, as has previously been the case.

The event, which usually pulls in around 20,000 visitors, will take place in Monpelier in January, where new features will include a zone dedicated to young winegrowers aimed at energising the sector and giving future stakeholders a prominent platform, the first area devoted to Mediterranean wine tourism and access to an online business meeting tool designed to facilitate face-to-face meetings between buyers and exhibitors.

The exhibition held its pre-launch as an annual event in Paris on November 24, by presenting the results of two new studies which look at Mediterranean wines in the global marketplace.

The International Observatory of Mediterranean Wines in partnership with Wine Intelligence gave an overview of the production and markets of 17 countries inside and outside the EU and the dynamism of Mediterranean wines around the world.

According to the findings, Mediterranean countries produced 77mhl of wine in 2014, accounting for 28.4% of total world production.

Production from the South of France represents 52% of national French production at 19.2mhl (2014).

Although Germany is the largest market for Med wines, China has the highest growth (+46%).

The UK and US are the leading contributors to growth, contributing +9% and +8% respectively (lower growth than China but from a higher base).

The UK is the third largest market for Mediterranean still wines, which represent one bottle in three of all imported still wines.

In 2015, 4.6mhl of the 14mhl total still wine imported were from the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, the UK is the number one export market for sparkling Mediterranean wines, driven by Britain's unquenchable thirst for Prosecco.

In 2015, 1mhl of sparkling Med wine was imported in (up 75% compared to 2013) - and 0.8mhl was Prosecco.

The new additions to the 2017 Vinisud event will join existing features such a self-pour tasting area hosted by the Union des ?nologues de France, and a self-pour tasting area for sparkling wines.

"Our decision to make VINISUD an annual event reflects the importance of our wines and growth of markets internationally," Vinisud president, Fabrice Rieu, said.

"It's a new era. Furthermore, buyers need to taste the new vintage each year and VINISUD can offer a preview of the wines at the beginning of the year. This is particularly important given the increasing percentage of rosé wines from Mediterranean regions ? it's difficult to imagine any importer or distributor buying rosé without having tasted it."

In 2017, Vinisud runs from 29 to 31 January at the Parc des Expositions in Montpellier, France.

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