Greg Sherwood MW: Wine Paris 2025 – A refreshing take on the future of trade fairs

It may come as a bit of a surprise to hear that I am not a massive fan of wine trade fairs. From my experience, trade shows are invariably expensive for exhibitors and often deliver disappointing results, with a poor return on investment in terms of new leads and clients. Somewhat ironically, I say this as someone who began their business career in the trade show industry after university.

After completing my business degree, I was appointed the project manager in Washington DC, USA, for the innovative and ground-breaking “Made in USA Trade Fair 1993” that was held in Mid-Rand, Johannesburg, in November at the World Trade Centre… (yes, for those that can remember, the very same venue the Afrikaner Weerstands Beweging (AWB) tried to ram a mini-armoured personnel carrier through the front doors during the ongoing political meetings negotiating the peaceful handover of power from the old apartheid government to a new political order.)

The “Made in USA Trade Fair” brought hundreds of Fortune 500 American companies back to South Africa, by express invitation by the then ANC Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Thabo Mbeki, who would of course later eventually become one of South Africa’s democratically elected presidents. Obtaining this invitation from the ANC, pre-dropping of sanctions and pre-democratic elections, stood as a particularly significant milestone for the organisers.

At this point in time, the language of international economic sanctions and the wider disinvestment culture was quickly losing favour on all sides of the political spectrum as politicians from all parties started to fully appreciate the true size of the economic challenges that would lie ahead for a new democratic South Africa, whichever party won power and took office.

Certainly, the financial outlay for the American companies coming out to South Africa to exhibit for three days would have been substantial. Yet the potential opportunities for a company successfully re-entering a ‘new’ market would have been incredibly lucrative. Being the first to get boots on the ground, or in this case, polished brogues, was seen as incredibly important considering the potential size of the South African economy and its standing as a gateway into the rest of Africa.

My experience of wine tradeshows however is a little bit like entering wine competitions, both normally at significant cost, in that the real work only really begins after the show is over or after your wine has hopefully won an award or a medal. Too many wine producers fail to fully exploit the true potential of new contacts made at wine fairs in a similar way that many producers win their medal and then simply seem content to frame the award and pop it on the walls of their tasting rooms with no subsequent follow up marketing plan or media work.

Whereas in the past, trade fairs were seen as a pretty established alternative method to make inroads into new foreign markets to meet new potential agents, importers and clients, we have unfortunately over the past couple of years witnessed The London Wine Trade Fair, Prowein and Vinitaly turning into somewhat cumbersome money-making ventures offering wineries and exhibitors a diminishing return on their investment.

But it seems with the tough economic times starting to bite everywhere, the tide is starting to turn as more and more producers have decided to shun the Prowein-type monster shows that have almost started to consume themselves. So, having heard increasingly good intel on the value of the Wine Paris Vinexposium from many of my European counterparts, I decided to dip my toe in and attend with media accreditation.

In much the same way large monster shows like Prowein have started to lose support, the same evolution definitely occurred over the years with Vinexpo in Bordeaux, a show that grew ever bigger and ever more expensive, but alas, also less and less relevant, until it reached tipping point where the economics of attending simply did not add up for foreign wineries, especially those from far-flung South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The Wine Paris show, however, is the reimagined expression of a wine trade fair that in many ways returns to the basic principles of what made many of these international shows so popular when they started out all those years ago. Having just returned from Paris, I can confirm that this year’s event was indeed a very interesting and valuable experience for me, and from what I could gather from the many exhibitors I spoke to, the halls were awash not only with fine wine but also positivity and optimism.

The “International Hall 4” was also home to a number of top South African producers, all of whom seemed far more organised, focused and prepared in regard to arranged appointments and structured schedules than I have seen for many a year. By day two of the show, Mike Ratcliffe, owner of Vilafonté property in Paarl was already singing the shows praises, now securely positioned on the Vinimark stand, to where Vilafonté have recently moved local South African sales and distribution.

But others, including Johann Reyneke of Reyneke Wines in the Polkadraai Hills, seemed inundated with visitors and appointments, as were regional Robertson stalwarts De Wetshof Estate, where Johann de Wet was beaming with positivity. Likewise, Nicolas Bureau, the CEO of Glenelly Estate, and no stranger to international wine trade fairs, seemed very upbeat with the quality of visitors and the response to his estate’s wines.

Wineries attending these events at considerable expense, clearly seem to be doing so with more preparation, planning and intent. But more than that, for the first time in a long while, I experienced a positivity and optimism not only among the South African producers attending, but also on the Wines of California stand, the Napa Valley stand, the Wines of Lebanon stand, and the Wines of Switzerland stand, all of which were scheduled destinations for me.

The wider global wine trade has been a somewhat sombre environment of late, with all producers, importers and agents preoccupied with the cost of living crisis, falling consumption figures and the rise of “abstinence influencers” among other industry problems. I for one however, want to take my hat off to the Wine Paris organisers who have delivered a very well organised, well attended, and engaging trade fair. But of course, now the real work begins for producers, following up and making good on all the leads generated.

With both the London Wine Trade Fair coming up in May and then Cape Wine in September in Cape Town, I certainly plan to attend both events with hopefully an extra skip in my step and plenty of renewed positivity for the future of an evolving wine trade.

• Greg Sherwood was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and as the son of a career diplomat, spent his first 21 years traveling the globe with his parents. With a Business Management and Marketing degree from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Sherwood began his working career as a commodity trader. In 2000, he decided to make more of a long-held interest in wine taking a position at Handford Wines in South Kensington, London, working his way up to the position of Senior Wine Buyer over 22 years. Sherwood currently consults to a number of top fine wine merchants in London while always keeping one eye firmly on the South African wine industry. He qualified as the 303rd Master of Wine in 2007.