PROWEIN 2019: The fun of the fair

After 25 years, ProWein is bigger and better than ever – and the perfect place to discover what’s new and trending in the wine world. Paul Wootton reports.

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, nothing is certain in life except death, taxes and getting sore feet from visiting ProWein.

Germany’s wine fair, which turned 25 this year, is so large it can take anything from an hour to several days to walk through all 11 of the show’s large halls.

Within those halls, the show shines a spotlight into every corner of the wine world, with nearly 7,000 exhibitors from 60 nations attracting over 60,000 international trade visitors.

It’s a place where business gets done, which is why so many producers come to showcase their wines and why this year Wine Australia had a record number of producers (83) on its stand.

For the 900 journalists that attend ProWein, the show’s size is a double-edged sword. In three days, you can barely scratch the surface of the thousands of stories that await you there.

But if you’re aiming to take the temperature of the world’s wine sector, identify the latest trends or simply remind yourself of the enormous diversity of wine styles produced and consumed across the globe, there’s no better place.

Over the next few pages, we’ll present some of the highlights and key observations from the wine world’s most important fair.

WHY DRINK ENGLISH WINE IN AUSTRALIA?

While Italy and France make up nearly half the total number of exhibitors at ProWein, one of the joys of the show is the opportunity to sample wines from less well known winemaking nations. Armenia, Moldova and Georgia all had a presence at this year’s event, as did a small contingent of producers from Great Britain.

From a small base, English wine has soared in its own market over the last five years, establishing a reputation for excellent sparkling wines. Several Champagne houses have even bought land in southern England and are planting vineyards there, possibly as insurance against any future climate change but more likely to protect their market share in the UK, where premium English sparklers are selling well.

One new English sparkling wine producer is Black Chalk Wine, a first-time exhibitor at ProWein. Its first vintage, the 2015, was released last year and has attracted great reviews. Currently only available in the UK, Black Chalk is looking to scale and is exploring export markets including Australia.

But Australia already produces world-class sparklers so why would we drink English fizz over here?

Because English sparklers are different, says Black Chalk Director and Winemaker Jacob Leadley.

“The key points of difference are the way we’re working with the acidity and the precision of the fruit; and the real purity that we’re getting with the slightly longer, cooler growing season,” he explains.

“Particularly in the on-trade, sommeliers really love that purity that we’re offering. I’m not going to talk a lot about minerality but there really is this kind of backbone to the wines that’s quite impressive and that England does incredibly well.

“We know there are some great sparkling wines in Australia but we all want something a little bit different sometimes. Particularly on restaurant lists, it’s nice to have something that really stands out and works with different foods. I think English wine can really do that.”

ORGANIC EXPLOSION

A large section of this year’s ProWein was dedicated to organic, biodynamic and natural wines – and there were many more organic wines showcased outside of that area, suggesting organic is fastbecoming mainstream in the wine world.

New Zealand’s Babich Wines has seen interest in its own organic wines soar, driven by huge demand from the UK and the US. “Those two markets could easily swallow all the organic wine we make,” CEO David Babich says. “For years, interest hummed along at a level but now it’s multiplied tenfold.”

He emphasises this interest isn’t evident in every market. While Babich sells “a bit of organic domestically”, demand from New Zealand’s consumers for organic wine is nowhere near UK levels. Nonetheless, he feels organic wine is on the cusp of being mainstream.

“Five years ago, it was a bit difficult selling organic wine in retail,” he says. “I’d actually say to the retailer, ‘Look, you run an organics section. Don’t put my wine in that, put it in the New Zealand section. I don’t want it sold on an organic platform because a lot of organic doesn’t taste any good.’

“But once you’ve got companies who know how to make good wine actively involved in this; and the wine tastes like non-organic wine; and if the price isn’t too premium (consumers will pay a premium, but it just can’t be too much of a premium), then I think we’re into the main market here. And that confidence level of consumers in organic wine has jumped up.”

Within the vast Spanish wine area of ProWein, members of Spain’s association of organic wine producers had their own section. According to association president Esther Pinuaga, this reflected Spain’s status as “the biggest producer of organic agriculture – food and wine – in the world”.

But as to whether we’ve reached a tipping point with organic wine, Pinuaga concurs with Babich’s view that it depends on individual markets.

“There’s still a lot of room to grow,” she says. “There still has to be greater awareness. There still has to be more knowledge. There are a lot of markets in the world, like Asia, where they’re not so aware of what organic means. That’s an interesting opportunity for wineries like ours.

“Even in Europe there are countries like Poland, for instance, where wine consumption is still growing. But they don’t have that much interest yet in what organic means. So I think as wine culture and wine consumption evolves in a country, consumers there will get into organic more.”

In terms of Australian production, certified organic or biodynamic wines exported globally is a small but growing export segment, worth $16 million in 2018. Although it declined in volume by 6%, its value grew by 8% in 2018 and the segment has grown in the past five years at a compound annual growth rate of around 35% in both value and volume.

The main market for Aussie exported organic and biodynamic wines is Sweden, which accounted for 26% of all wine in this category. The UK was ranked second with 18%, followed by mainland China with 17%.

SNAPSHOT: AUSTRALIAN WINE

ProWein affords a good opportunity to assess Australia’s place on the international wine stage. As the 7th largest wine producer in the world, with 135,133 ha under vine, Australia enjoys a substantial and increasingly healthy export market.

In 2018, exports increased 10% to $2.82 billion, with total volume rising 5% and average value growing by 5% too. Aussie rosé is experiencing phenomenal growth, as the figures below illustrate.

Source: Wine Australia

Source: Wine Australia

Source: Wine Australia