Paris is well worth a “Messe”: competition from the French trade fair hovers over ProWein 2023

Düsseldorf has closed Prowein 2023, the International wine world reference Fair, which returned after canceling 2020 and 2021, and postponing to May in 2022, to its “natural” calendar position (in 2024 the dates will be from March 10th to 12th). However, something has been changing over the past few years, because a competitor has made its way onto the scene, and, in a very short time has catalyzed the attention and interest of the production panorama: Vinexpo Paris. It was born from the ashes of Vinexpo Bordeaux, and the Paris event immediately proposed an annual date, in February, before ProWein.
It is clear that the wine producers’ agenda is becoming extremely busy, and that supporting 3 events of such prestigious proportions, especially for Italian entrepreneurs, becomes challenging, from an economic and organizational point of view. It has been a hot topic for quite a long time, about which WineNews has often stimulated discussions. And, it has now come back center front at ProWein (which closed yesterday), where we met hundreds of producers, and the sentiment shared by most of them is that in the next few years a choice will have to be made, guided by a good dose of pragmatism. Today, an International wine fair is asked to focus on business, professionalism and obviously services, in the context of rationalizing expenses and time.
From this point of view, the German Fair is, at the moment, perhaps still one step ahead of the French one. On one hand, it has years of experience behind it, and on the other, Germany is considered a sort of neutral territory, in competition with France and its wines on markets around the world. It is not a coincidence that among the more than 6.000 producers at Düsseldorf, just 16% were German, and 84% from the rest of the world, and Italy and France were the most represented Countries, as they have historically always been as well as an exponential growth of New World winemakers.
Paris, however, has more than one ace up its sleeve. First of all, the very fact that it is Paris, in other words, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and it can absorb the impact of a large wine fair with almost no difficulties, since it can count on thousands of accommodation facilities, restaurants and clubs of all kinds. Furthermore, the French capital is connected to practically any airport on the peninsula, which is an aspect that should not be underestimated. Much depends on how much France wants to "share" its commercial network, but the example of Place de Bordeaux, which now distributes dozens of great Italian wines, is a strong indication and is encouraging.
The debate sees Vinitaly confirming its fundamental reference point for all Italian wine, whether we are talking about the domestic market or International markets. Business is at the center more and more (conferences and training, a little less as they are directed more and more to the other VeronaFiere event, wine2wine, a must for the wine industry community), while communication and promotion, which thanks to new technologies, will return to their “natural” places — that is, the companies and territories where family histories begin and where their wines have made, are making and will make Italian wine great and famous around the world. And, it is also where the importance of "territorial communication" and "local" events is finally being understood, which bring together all the excellence and beauty that Italian territories have to offer: wine but also food, culture, art and unparalleled landscapes.