For me, having attended previous years at this show, 2022 was devoid of atmosphere full of gaps where stands and people should have been and really quite sad. Where was everybody?
Huge amounts of people did not attend. In years past you would see people glass in hand with their badges showing the pub they owned, the restaurant they worked in, the deli they had just left for a quick visit, the wine company their employer had treated them with a day off and expenses paid they belonged to ... etc .. Some of these people still attended but many did not.
Why? Because for the first time ever, to my knowledge, the trade had to pay to attend its own event.
Now here’s the rub. I did not speak to one producer, not one, who was aware when they booked a stand and before they came and many came from very far away that the trade visitors would have to pay for admission.
I am sure that many had done their own due diligence and ascertained that over 13,000 attended the last Trade Fair in 2019. (were they advised it would be similar? I don’t know). I wrote my very first Blog, 3 years ago and it was based on my visit to the 2019 London Trade Fair , it’s still available to view (click here to visit article)
I wrote there was so much going on that you could not get round it all in a day. Not this one, after about four hours, I was scratching my head where to go next. All of the exhibitors I spoke to bar one had not been before.
Many were disgruntled. I went on the Wednesday, I was told the Tuesday was also similar. It’s obvious if you charge for admission your footfall will drop. Some exhibitors I spoke to were Okay about it saying they only needed one good contact and so on and I hope they got it but the vast majority commented on how disappointing it was.
So who benefited?
Well I did not speak to one producer, not one who had been offered a concession against their stand cost because the visitors were being charged entry. The best I heard was 10 free tickets and some nothing at all.
I remember reading somewhere months ago when I learned that we were having to pay for entry that a larger, well known exhibitor was complaining that so many deals were done privately on the trading floor and that he was having to pay for his stand to exhibit. To my mind what a limp excuse to charge admission when the whole dynamic of the exhibition was affected.
Let’s do some basic maths. I don’t know how many people attended, can’t find any figures for it. Published figures for 2019 are 13,260. So let’s say attendance for 2022 as an example was 50% lower that makes around 6500 visitors.
Now ‘early bird’ charge was £35 and after was £45 so let’s work on £40 per entry – 6500 x £40 is £260,000 ! I will publish the exact attendance figures with relevant income from it based on £40 an entry when I can find them.
Brian a savvy producer from Australia, I spoke to summed it up perfectly. He had exhibited at ProWein in Germany weeks earlier, they were charging 60 Euros for admission and that was quiet in comparison to previous years.
He said ‘mate they just did it to make more money’. I will leave it to you, the reader to decide who you feel benefited!
So to the show
For a large part I concentrated on visiting the emerging nations, stands. I visited a stand promoting Polish wine, yes Polish wine.. all nice and acceptable. I tasted an interesting sparkling wine from Lithuania. One of the stars
of the show, for me was a spirit known as the Spirit Of Georgia – Chacha - produced from a red grape varietal, 42% vol. absolutely lovely. Chacha is one of the oldest distilled products in the world. Produced by Gurjanni Winery, and lovely people as well. I tasted some very unusual fruit wines from an agency from the republic of Uzbekistan – Alcotobacco. Also visited stands promoting Armenian and Hungarian wines.
Ukrainian wines were promoted, there were no producers there. Obviously they were getting a lot of press interest and the wines were being poured by volunteers.
Tasted some nice Sake from the Japan Centre group, some good Chardonnay from Barullo Wines, Mendoza , Argentina and some excellent South African Wines from the Kanu Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.
Closer to home some interesting hand crafted gins from Lafferty and Sons Kirkcaldy, some nice tasting Scottish beers from Traquair House Brewery. Some Cognac from Deau Cognac, which really stood out.
I would advise any trade customers to look out Luca Wines if they are looking to compliment their Italian section. They were unique and outstanding, just like their brochure said. Don’t think they have a website (there are others with that name). Their email address is lucawine@gmail.com
I got to meet the pioneering paper bottle guys (see Paper Weights Blog) When In Rome & The English Vine Company. This is a really different development and was attracting interest. Main things to say are they both produce very good quality wines , with more to follow and their wines will keep for around 6 weeks after opening ... good stuff. I also tasted some delicious Rum from Whisky & Rum specialists Heroes and Heretics.
Something else which stood out for me was a supplier of high quality alcohol free wines - OddBIRD Wines , founded in 2013. They are the largest producer of wines and beer liberated from Alcohol in Scandinavia. Both still and sparkling.
One of their sparking wines, I understand has been lauded the best non alcohol sparkling wine available in the UK. Definitely worth checking out.
There is now a wine channel available online. 67pallmall (I did my first ever tasting to electronic / telecom email users many, many years ago in Pall Mall) 67 PALLMALL.TV is the first 4 K Wine TV Channel. Home to an impressive
range of vinous series including ‘Live From the Vines’, ‘The Perfect Match’ and ‘The Daily Pour’.
Finally as I end this blog I have in front of me my posted invitation stating ‘join us at the most intelligent (and best loved) wine event in the world’. I am trying to rack my brains to think of what was intelligent about my visit to
The London Wine Fair last Wednesday. The only thing I can think of is the new speedy self administered entrance ticket system. Having registered and been accepted for payment the day before. I arrived keyed in my name, ticket duly printed. Quickly through security, I was in there in a flash as there was hardly anybody in front of me. I entered ..... and that’s when the disappointment kicked in.
