ProWein and Vinitaly Report 2011

IWSC news

Mon 9 May 2011

Marketing manager David Kelly and Competitions Manager Bev Steer attended ProWein and Vinitaly and here are a few thoughts to as to how well the IWSC was received.
 

ProWein:

 
Our Austrian agent Arthur Naegele, who knows the Spirits hall inside out, was inundated with inquiries as to how the industry could make inroads into the lucrative German and Austrian markets. Our German wine agent, Martina Klingbeil also used the opportunity to network around the German Wine organisations’ to find out how the awards have benefited their members. The feedback was really good and shows just how winning such a prestigious award can help wineries and spirit companies increase sales and awareness of their brands.
 
We also had a lot of interest in our grappa pack for restaurants, which contained a selection of grappa that restaurants could offer to consumers to give them a true tasting experience. And the industry truly embraced our initiative to ship their wine entries back to the UK. The feedback included how much this would help them save costs and enable them to enter our competition.
 
Overall, ProWein was a great success for us and a great opportunity to network.
 

Vinitaly:

 
Bev and I were pleased to attend the Gala dinner in Verona where our 2011 IWSC Communicators of the Year were announced. Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown went on stage to lots of applause and it was nice to see a spirits couple scoop such a prestigious award, the first time in our 42 years of history.
 
The dynamic duo held a tasting of Vermouth Cocktails at our Tasting Ex…Press session that overran due to considerable interest. For those who missed it, there is another chance to see the couple in action at the London International Wine Fair 2011 (LiWF).
 
As you may know, we have a new sponsor for our Italian Wine Producer of the Year and Sicily’s The Istituto Regionale della Vite e del Vino were well received and really had the chance to network at the conference.
 
Vinitaly is such a great conference but so big, Bev and I worked the floor with our Italian Agent Michele Shah and we also had the opportunity to meet the Italian press and confirm coverage of Italian medal winners post results announcements.
Related news