IWSC at Vinitaly 2018

The IWSC celebrated its most successful year yet at Vinitaly 2018, which was held at Veronafiere, Verona from 15-18 April. 

The competition presented 30 award-winning products on its stand and offered bottle collection to 2018 entrants, while also celebrating the IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year 2018 at the Vinitaly Gala Dinner on 14 April. Tom Cannavan, founder of wine-pages.com and Festival of Wine, went on to present a tasting of Chardonnay wines to an audience of trade guests the following day.

Throughout the fair, the IWSC stand was inundated with trade and consumer guests tasting the wide range of products showcased, which included a selection of English and Scottish gins and whiskies, as well as a range of international still and sparkling wines.

Visitors showed particular interest in Cotswold Dry Gin from The Cotswold Distilling Company (Gold Outstanding 2017), and One Gin from Global Ethics Liquor Co (Gold 2017), and many were surprised to discover the range of high quality English wines on show, such as Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs 2012 (Gold 2017).

IWSC General Manager Adam Lechmere said “the Italians don’t get much exposure to English wines as there isn’t very much of it in Italy, so it’s great to see the amount of sommeliers we have coming along, and the amount of interest people are showing in products like this.”

The IWSC also enjoyed overwhelming success from its bottle collection initiative, where producers were able to drop off their products at the IWSC stand in order to save money on shipping to London. The competition received a record number of wines and spirits from Italian producers entering the IWSC 2018.

Vinitaly welcomed some 4,380 exhibitors from 36 countries, and 128,000 visitors from 143 countries over the four days.

Santiago Marone Cinzano of Col d’Orcia, an IWSC Gold Outstanding 2017 medal winner, said “Vinitaly is a very important fair for Italian producers. It’s an opportunity to meet new agents, to find new import channels in new countries, and for the international public to come and taste the new products that we’ve released this year.”