Events

VieVinum: update from Vienna
«Vinnaya Karta» №6(97) August 2008

VieVinum fair, a main show of Austrian wines, once again welcomed visitors. It is held every two years, and the latest edition appeared similar to the previous ones.

The same majestic Hofburg palace in the heart of the city, the same locations for wine regions within different halls, the same uniform tables which put all exhibitors in equal position. Yet, there were some changes, and they were quite evident to those who participated in the fair before.

The Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB), that regularly organizers tours for press and importers around the wine regions before the fair, this year changed the programme. Instead of trips to vineyards guests took part in a daily programme of seminars. International positioning of Austrian wines and genealogy of Austrian grapes, the country’s role in European wine education and health-relevant properties of wine were discussed. Thus, on the one hand, organizers started to shift focus from general introduction to the country’s wines towards more specific scientific and market topics (the AWMB managing director Willi Klinger assures that the board will continue to run special regional tours). On the other hand, VieVinum will receive maximum support from the AWMB in the years when the fair is run. Klinger knows well the importance of the fair as a business-to-business platform. This year more importers and fewer journalists were officially invited, and this policy will continue in future.

The Austrian exports, in the meantime, are swiftly growing. Last year total value of exported wines surpassed a critically significant figure of 100 mln. euros for the first time in history. Klinger believes it wasn’t accidental. He links this success to a long term development plan that the Austrian industry followed by in the past 10-15 years. Another positive trend emerged as well. While export sales of bulk wine are slowing down, those of bottled wine are on a stable rising curve. Fifty six million hectoliters, or over one fifth of total Austrian wine production were exported in 2007. As Klinger stated, transforming more volumes from bulk to bottle is one of the key priorities for the industry on export markets. Positioning of Austrian wine as a high quality product will remain unchanged (average price for a litre of wine is 2,31 euros — this is rather a high figure), and here the industry will look for a balanced combination of traditions and the spirit of younger generation. Further development of traditional European and new American and Asian markets is planned, as well as bigger promotional and advertising budgets for the non-EU countries. It means that promotion of Austrian wines will be more visible in Russia, too.

Not only the Austrian officials, but also producers see VieVinum as an important business event. Gerhard Kracher of the cult sweet wine producer Kracher calls VieVinum the best fair in Austria. Andy Kollwentz from a leading Burgenland winery Kollwentz says that it is absolutely necessary to participate in it. “We chose to work only at two fairs — Prowein and VieVinum. People come to Vienna to look at general situation with Austrian winemaking. For us the fair provides an opportunity to establish both domestic and international contacts. We are in touch with all groups of visitors — importers, wholesalers, journalists and private clients”, notes Kollwentz.

VieVinum lasts for three days. The fair is continuously busy even though the first two hours of its opening are reserved for visitors invited by the AWMB. The halls of Hofburg palace are magnificent, but not all of them are equipped for large numbers of people. In hot days like it was last time, the lack of conditioning is acutely felt. The exception is the ballroom where producers from Burgenland present their wines in cool comfort. This inconvenience, though, is compensated by the fact that almost all Austrian estates are present at the fair — from famous and established to young and developing. The fair gave a great opportunity to taste wines and to talk to representatives of such top class wineries as Hirtzberger and Prager in Wachau, Brundlmayer and Loimer in Kamptal, Malat in Kremstal, Ott in Wagram, Wieninger in Vienna, Kracher and Feiler-Artinger in Burgenland, Tement and Sattlerhof in Styria and many others. Some new projects were presented, like Gut Oggau from the north-western Burgenland with a conceptually new design of labels. The character of each wine is symbolically presented as a human face, thus instead of a conventional wine range the estate has a ‘family’ of three generations.

As usual, an additional programme of seminars and tastings was run. It included both general presentations of Austrian wines and special tastings from various producers and wine regions of Austria and Europe. An informal group of four leading winemakers from Vienna WienWein presented field blend wines, known as Wiener Gemischter Satz, from Viennese vineyards. Recently such wines were sold mainly in heurigens, but now they’ve become a hot item for Viennese restaurants. Those who are going to Vienna and wishing to be trendy wine drinkers, must certainly learn the expression Wiener Gemischter Satz. There was also first of its kind seminar on Blaufrankisch wines. Seventeen top producers who specialize in this great Austrian grape gathered at the tasting.

The latest fair was yet another confirmation that Austrian winemakers are doing quite well at the moment. Focus on quality and authenticity of wines, support of dynamic and innovative wineries, promotion of wines in context of great culinary and cultural traditions help this small country to be optimistic about the future. It won’t be long before the country shows its new achievements — next VieVinum will be held in 2010.