This year was very important for ProWein fair because of its 25 successful years of trade fair history in the world of wine, once again becoming a reference for all countries. The agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner opened the 2019 edition with the following words: "When we launched ProWein 25 years ago, none of us could have imagined just how incredibly it would develop. It's taken a massive amount of hard work and strong support along the way from our partners to grow this exhibition step by step into the world's largest and most important trade fair for wine and spirits". "We've got many things planned for our future as well," says Hans Werner Reinhard, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf. A pair of heads of state, prime ministers António Luís Santos da Costa of Portugal and Andrej Plenkovic of Croatia, were even on hand at the exhibition grounds to join in the ProWein anniversary.
Each year the growth is exponential. Düsseldorf received a total of 61,500 industry visitors from the retail and restaurant/catering businesses. Visitors traveled from 142 countries (2018: 133 countries) and expressed strongest interested in wines from Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
As regards the wine and liquor suppliers, this year approximately 6900 people attended the fair.
It is relevant to highlight that the most important exhibitor countries in ProWein 2019 were Italy (1654), France (1576), followed by Germany (978), the overseas regions (600), Austria (335), Spain (661) and Portugal (387).
The dates of the next edition are already fixed: from 15th to 17th March and by 2021 the projects are even more pretentious with an expanded layout of the pavilions.
For what Lacrima Baccus consists, the meetings have been developed as expected with a very active participation by all our distributors who decided in advance the meeting. They delighted us with their presence. These moments together gave us the chance to meet them again, talk about the projects and objectives.
"The European common agricultural policy must be more oriented to support farmers with tax money, protect the environment, animals, water, biodiversity and climate. Organic farmers have been in Germany for many years. Nowadays is the moment when organic farming, not only economically, but also ecologically is successful. "
The BioFach fair is held in Nuremberg every year and is considered as the most important fair platform in the international business of organic products. It covers everything from raw materials and food to textiles, cosmetic and hygiene products.
As a parallel activity, at Biofach, conferences and talks are organized to analyze the future of both the organic food industry and its agriculture.
The participation to this event represents an exponential growth each year, given the greater awareness on the part of the population about the consumption of organic products.
Around 50,000 visitors and 2,962 exhibitors - 804 are German visitors - participate in this great event.
It is important to see how each year new trends are detected, that open our minds and bring us closer to new habits and at the same time to interesting knowledge. For example, last year emerged the growing popularity in the use of algae, superfoods and products with a high protein index, the tendency to create regional versions of global product trends, the continued commitment to the creation of substitute versions of pasta food, alternative beverages, the new presentation formats of traditional products and the increase of products from vegetable oils especially coconut and olive.
Some countries are much more open and sensitive to change, others less willing and more distrustful, in any case, thanks to the awareness campaigns that have been carried out in recent years, the first results begin to be tangible. Now is the moment when the consumer can really choose "bio" products! This year's slogan is "let's think less about the calories and more about the used chemicals products" and the T-shirts of the organizers shout it out.
The need for healthy and natural foods and the interest in organic products has divided consumers between "bio" and "traditionalists". However, many consumers are convinced that they are using organic products, while in fact they are buying natural, integrated, dietary or macrobiotic products. This stems from the fact that the perception of biological quality is often summarized and generalized and there is no clarity about the difference between the biological and the conventional.
Among the causes that stop the spread and growth of organic products in the market are the cost, the difficulty of finding the products regularly in the usual outlets and the insufficient preparation of the merchants with respect to the organic products they sell. There is still a long way to go to make all these products more and more affordable!
Regarding food, the nutritional quality is certainly the same, while from the environmental point of view the reduction of contamination (which can be derived from agricultural practices) is very high. The characteristics of organic foods are constituted by the clarity with respect to the origin of the raw materials, the relative certification of the product and freshness and respect for hygiene standards.If we want to know even more, when we speak of "bio" we refer to natural substances, which are present in nature and exclude the use of chemical substances synthesized by man as fertilizers and pesticides.
Our Lacrima Baccus winery has been using organic viticulture for many years, respecting the environment and our mother earth. 2017 for us was the beginning of a historic stage, the moment of obtaining the ecological certificates of the CCPAE from our cavas and wines such as Lacrima Baccus Reserva Rosado, Heretat de Lacrima Baccus, Mar y Cel, Rose and Clear, Âme en Noir and Icarus.
It is fair with these references that we present ourselves for the first time to this so well organized and impeccable event in the charming city of Nuremberg, with its old atmosphere and the powerful castle of Kaiserburg, something simply unforgettable. The beautiful old town is synonymous with medieval charm, rich in historic buildings, spectacular churches, one of the largest pedestrian areas in Germany and the traditional Hauptmarkt.
Unfortunately, the time to visit this intriguing and enigmatic city is very scarce; since the frenetic pace of the fair does not leave us time even to take in the fresh air of Bavaria and this is a very good sign!
Entering the fair you can perceive the penetrating perfume of the spices, the vivid and discrepant colors and the true natural essence of the food. Gastronomy is pleasure, happiness and the main factor to define human identity. Eating and drinking are acts of knowledge that do not end in the simple act of consuming, but produces echoes in the memory.
In the first moments of implacable emotion typical of the "novices" who do not know what to expect, we received during the first day a more focused audience meetings and in the following days the discreet interest was realized in good contacts in different countries.
There is no doubt that it is a very interesting fair that makes us discover new products and new techniques of organic production that range from honey to oil and tiger nuts, an essential event where there is much to discover and much more to learn!
It is difficult to describe and reproduce with words the awe-inspiring city of Amsterdam.
There is always the tendency to compare it as the Venice of the north because of its numerous channels and its peculiar construction. We disagree with this "stereotyped image" and we define it as a city with a unique and incomparable identity. One of the most fascinating cities in the world, a small paradise loved and appreciated by tourists for its romantic and changing appearance, a place where the visitor loses himself among the many cultural activities, the ancient architecture, and at the same time modern, and its museums. Venice is static, classic, magnificent and conservative, Amsterdam; on the contrary, it is dynamic, multicultural, respectful of the environment, very youthful and chameleonic in what it offers.Our export team was in this city to participate in the World Leading Leading Wines event, on 30th of January, looking for importers and distributors who fall in love not only with our cavas, but also with our passion and work’s method, always faithful to our business values, the DNA that flows through our veins.
These importers are attracted to attend the event for the international range of quality wines, which are present to the event and most importantly, for their interest in the new wines, cavas, champagnes and proseccos available to expend their portfolios.
It is interesting to know that, at the request of the senior trade buyers who attended the World Leading Leading Wines events, only wineries of internationally recognized quality are invited. Therefore, only producers whose wines won recognition such as Decanter World Wine Awards, Concourse Mondial de Bruxelles, International Wine and Spirits Competition, London International Wine Challenge, Mundus Vini, Wine Advocate/Robert Parker, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, The major national wine competitions are invited.
At the beginning of the event, we realized that it was a bit hard to begin the comparison and the exchange of opinions with the distributors and overwhelmed with a feeling of impatience and with the desire to interact with some importers, we understood that it was still a little early to have such immediate pretensions. Since the event ended with a dinner, it was clear that the importers would not come early in the morning to try the interesting products. Only after a while, finally the light ... and the first interested importers!
De Lange, a company that covers the area of Amsterdam, Beauvin Wijnhandel, satisfied with our proposal of organic cavas, The Wine Guys, an importer with a curious name that is engaged in online sales and Bouvigne Wijnimport an importer who does not included cava in its portfolio and which is studying the possibility of incorporating one. We continue interacting with other interested distributors such as Brindiamo, which, as the name suggests, basically works with Italian wines, but is increasingly confident of incorporating a product of our denomination of origin, Wijnkoperij Cees Van Noord interested in a Premium range, and Damar Imangil, a small import, but very well segmented.
Although tired, we did not give up and during the dinner, we took advantage to serve our cavas, following a logical order according to the proposed menu. It was fair with this action and our perseverance that we knew the representatives of Schermer, a very good importer who felt in love with the characteristics and the balanced aromas of our products, Ton Overmars, who did not waste time and made a business appointment with us at Prowein 2019 and Erik van Dujin very receptive in collaborating with us.
Our export team, after evaluating the profile of distributors, is increasingly sure that organic products in markets of countries such as Holland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany Belgium, are unspeakable success and this range become essential.
Evidently, our business trips are a tool to sell and make our products more known, but we do not focus only on this important aim. Our team, during its travels, regenerates itself, recharges the batteries, and returns new and full of energy to the winery, with an important suitcase ... that of the acquired experience!Abroad, our team finds many more answers to its questions and be amazed with everything it see, from the most trivial to the most unusual and it get excited with all those people who stumble on its way.We love, apart from showing you photos, to communicate all what we live verbally, to make you feel part of our journey, so that you accompany us and do not leave us alone in our successes and also in our difficulties.
Here in our blog, we leave feelings and important experiences of our trips and we desire with fervor that you enjoy it!
From the offices of our winery, today, we begin to hear the tinkle of glass bottles. A distant sound that does not bother, on the contrary, awakens in us the curiosity to go down the stairs and see what is happening in the production line. We hear the news of a colleague who says: "The tirage has already begun!" Opening the door, we perceive first the smell of fresh jasmine and field flowers and we find our colleagues, who frantically and laboriously move from one part to the other of the production line in an indefatigable way, controlling that everything follows correctly. They will dedicate a lot of time, until March, to one of the most important phase of cava’s elaboration. It deals with a process, which consist of filling the bottles with base wine and the "tirage liqueur", composed of yeast and sugar. The same yeasts will be the unquestionable protagonists of the second fermentation within the same bottle.
Once this process is finished, the bottles will be lowered into the darkness of the cellar, placed in the "rimas" position (horizontally). Our colleagues know very well that a season of hard work begins for them. When we watch television or listen to news about industries, factories, workers, the message we receive is quite sad. It is thought that there are no workers anymore because on the screen there are only images of technological robots that move pieces. The images of the workers are never there. However, for us the worker is the point of support and departure of everything, the embodiment of the success of our products. At six o'clock in the morning, our team starts its workday. Rightly, at this time, our colleagues are still a little sleepy. Before 7 am, few words are exchanged and if a question is asked, the answer comes after a few minutes, because everyone is very focused on the work to be developed, aware that, on the other hand, there is a great responsibility: the success of our winery.
At eight o'clock, all are already awake, active and full of energy and with a resplendent smile, they welcome the other part of the workers team, who begins the shift.
This is the most beautiful moment of the whole day, the meeting of each member of our winery. They, already awake for hours, wish the best day to others, minimizing their fatigue. The tiredness is heard, but not as a complaint, but as proof of the great involvement and dedication that our collaborators adopt, every day, every hour, every second ...
The rest will accompany our product during a certain time so that little by little, without haste, it will mature its gestation months later. Great things need their time and our great products get the care, affection and time necessary to get their personality.
