Duero Wine Fest 3rd Edition – Part 2

Juan García-Gallardo, Vice President of Junta de Castilla y León opened the Duero Wine Fest 3rd Edition this week in the beautiful Spanish Renaissance city of Salamanca.

He stated that wine is “one of the oils” of the economy of Castilla y León and the its importance.

“It is a fundamental part of the economy of Castilla y León, one of the oil and major sources of wealth, García-Gallardo states, highlighting that the turnover is almost one billion euros, provides 33,000 jobs, and contributes almost 4% of the Gross Domestic Product of Castilla y León.”

García-Gallardo also values the progress taken by the wineries from this region, highlighting that the Ribera del Duero denomination has overtaken Rioja. He further states: “We are going to continue supporting the 16 designations of origin so that they continue to grow in market share, so that they continue to have more facilities and so that they continue to conquer different markets.”

The Duero Wine Fest closed on Tuesday with over 400 attendees. Some key topics for the closing day included: the decline in wine consumption; the importance of the promotion of wine tourism, and the use of technology to reach consumers.

Wine tourism – Global Trends was the main topic of a presentation given by Gergely Szolnok, Professor of Market Research at Geisenheim University. He presented his studies which showed that 80 percent of tourists are not interested in visiting a winery, so wineries must “change their strategies and focus on that type of visitor, seeking to attract them.”

Some of the modifications he recommended include combining gastronomy with wine tourism, taking sustainability into account and adding more innovative aspects such as digital tours or facilitating access for caravan tourism, which is the new big thing!

He also highlighted the importance of the wineries themselves being well-managed, not only in their administrative, production, marketing or vineyard management, but also in terms of the clients and visitors they receive.

The importance of wine tourism was also discussed by Ignacio Gurría, who stated that wine tourism is “the spearhead of wine sales.” In his opinion, wine tourism can be an opportunity to improve consumption.

In his lecture, Impact of New Technologies on the Promotion and Marketing of Douro Wines, Ignacio Gurría, Executive Director of the working group of the Digitalisation and Wine Hub of the FEV (Digitalisation and Wine Markets),
shared his position on digitalization and wine markets and encouraged wineries to implement a digitalization strategy in their marketing program: “In technology you are never late, you arrive good or bad, that is the reality; it is not a question of time, but to do it well” he states.

For digitalization, he further urged wineries to have websites, to have their digital presence controlled, and he insisted on having good data: “Good data is valuable to the winery, which should be the objective.

The congress was promoted by the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development of the Government of Castilla y León through the Agrarian Technological Institute, which has the objective is to position the Duero as one of the most important wine rivers in the world.

The main objective of the International “Duero Wine” Congress is to value the hydrographic basin of the Duero River as a unique territory, sustaining quality wines with different personalities, disparate flavors, to which are added the wines of Bierzo, endowed with its characteristic Atlantic nature, and the singularities of Sierra de Salamanca and Cebreros.

The Duero Wine Fest 2024 presentations can be seen on the congress’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@duerowinefest2024/videos

Duero Wine Fest 3rd Edition – Part l

This morning Tim Atkin MW provided an overview of the “Present and Future of Duero Wines” at the opening ceremony of the “Third Edition Duero Wine Fest” which is held this year in Salamanca Congress Palace, Spain.

This year’s motto “Building a value proposition from the territory” brings together foremost national and international trade experts, along with local and national politicians.

For two days, the Salamanca Conference Center will be hosting presentations by academics, wine journalists, and include wine tastings led by sommeliers. These presentations, tastings and round tables all focus on the Duero as one of the most important wine rivers in the world.

Other wine personalities speaking include Sara Jane Evans of Decanter magazine – Spain, who will provide her view of the Duero, along with Gergely Szolnoki, a wine tourism expert, who will speak on current global trends.

The congress also includes a series of debates such as wine marketing, wine tourism and the impact of global warming on viticulture, highlighting the importance of the wine sector for the economy of Castilla y Lion.

Watch this space for updates…

Announcing Liz Palmer is Guest Speaker at the 7th UNWTO Global Conference on Wine Tourism

I’m so thrilled to have been invited as a guest speaker at the upcoming 7th UNWTO Global Conference on Wine Tourism!!

The topics for the 7th Edition include “Inclusive, Sustainable and Digital Wine Tourism: Building Stronger Territorial Cohesion”

This yearly conference has become a leading international forum on trends, tools and opportunities to advance global wine tourism. It also provides opportunities for experts and professionals, as well as consolidated and emerging destinations in this tourism segment to exchange knowledge and experiences.

Since 2016, the Conference has highlighted the importance of wine tourism to the socio-economic development of destinations and has served as a platform to exchange experiences, identify good practices and promote wine tourism as a tool for sustainable development.

The 7th UNWTO Global Conference on Wine Tourism will be held November 22 – 24 in Logroño, Spain. Participants include government officials from international and national tourism administrations and organizations, regional and local authorities, international and national destination marketing organizations, UNWTO affiliate members, private sector representatives, wine estates, infrastructure providers and international academia.

I believe everyone in the wine tourism industry can certainly attest to Massimo Garavaglia, Italian Minister of Tourism, statement at last year’s conference, in Alba Italy: “Wine tourism is much more than just selling wine, which clearly is important.  When you sell a bottle of wine, you are selling the territory behind that bottle, the culture of that territory, the history of the men (and women) who designed these landscapes with the rows of vines.”

I have the extreme privilege of sharing insights on the topic of:

Unlocking the Benefits of Digitalization
Digital transformation can revolutionize and enhance wine tourism experiences, provide data and insights, optimize marketing strategies, and foster sustainable growth.

Conference Link: https://www.unwto.org/7-UNWTO-Global-Conference-Wine-Tourism

Hope to see you there!

Liz Palmer

 

Bodegas Familiares de Rioja leaves the Plenary Session of the Regulatory Council due to its strategic policy

The Rioja Family Winery Association withdraws from the management tables of the Denomination of Qualified Origin (DOCa) Rioja, the Plenary of the Regulatory Council, and the Interprofessional of Rioja Wine, due to its disagreement with the strategic policy, which goes against the business model of the small and medium-sized wineries.

The announcement was made public this week by its President, Eduardo Hernáiz, in an information conference, together with his Vice President and spokesperson on the Regulatory Council, Juan Carlos Sancha, and manager, Ana Jiménez, after the two assemblies of the association, which They have supported the decision, unanimously, they have indicated.

The group was established in 1991 by twenty winegrowers and small wineries in Rioja and currently has almost 70 members with 216 which are accredited in the management bodies of the Denomination of the Interprofessional and Regulatory Council tables.

This representation translates into over half of the total of the commercial branch in both management bodies. Still, its participation is limited to only 8% of this branch and 4% of the votes, as the system of representativeness of the Council.

The departure of this association from the management boards of the DOCa Rioja does not imply its abandonment of the Denomination, a region that is “the best in Spain for making wines of value and quality”, which, from its point of view, has currently lost, where volume is what prevails, the President stated.

The decision was formally communicated this week to the Rioja Wine Interprofessional Regulatory Council, the autonomous governments of La Rioja, the Basque Country and Navarra, as it is a Denomination shared by the three communities, and to the Ministry of Agriculture, as the guardian administration.

“We are Rioja, and we are going to continue being so because we have all our investments in this land and because we continue to believe in it and in its potential to make great wines,” assured the President of the Association.

However, “we do not have the capacity to redirect Rioja’s course towards a model of value, of quality”, which focuses on “sustainable viticulture and the production of quality artisanal wines”, he said.

“We are convinced – he added – that the current situation of Rioja, its wineries and winegrowers, would be very different if the policy followed in recent years had been more concerned with protecting the value of the grapes, the wines and the territory, than to produce more grapes and wine to bring Rioja to its current situation.”

Currently, the DOCa Rioja is going through “one of the biggest surplus crises in its history, sending wines to distillation,” said Hernáiz, who added that, “despite the fact that we have been producing clearly more grapes than we are capable of since 2017 to sell, large companies continued asking for new plantations until very recently.”

For his part, Sancha, one of the oldest members of the Plenary Council, has said that the historical model of the social distribution of the vineyard and wealth is being broken in favor of industrial companies, for which the bills continue to come out, among other aspects, because they sell wines from numerous sources, not only Rioja, as well as liqueurs and spirits.

“We find ourselves unable to change a business model that we do not share, since it is based on the production of wine for food shelves at prices with which small and medium-sized wineries cannot compete,” Sancha states.

The president of the Regulatory Council, Fernando Ezquerro, has conveyed to the association his interest in changing the representation system, but there is no concrete proposal and until there is a modification, which will have to be in the next elections in 2025, Bodegas Familiares will not participate in the decisions of these management bodies.

Source: https://agroinformacion.com/

 

Rioja Adds 15 New ‘Singular Vineyards’

A new order from the Ministry of Agriculture from the Government of Spain recently published in the BOE (APA/873/2023) adds 15 new wine-growing areas of the Rioja Qualified Designation of Origin with the qualitative distinction of “Viñedo Singular”.

The Rioja Qualified Denomination of Origin currently has 148 “Singular Vineyards” in a total area of ​​more than 246 hectares.

The “Singular Vineyard / Viñedo Singular” [Incorporated in 2017] rating is directly linked to the terroir. They were defined as wines from vineyards with a series of unique characteristics and quality guarantees: being over 35 years old; yields not exceeding 5,000 kg. per hectare for red varieties; 6,922 kg. per hectare for white varieties; and is limited to 65 liters per 100 kg. of grapes.

Fernando Ezquerro, President of the DOCa Rioja Regulatory Council states “The initiative demonstrates the Denomination’s commitment to provide differentiation resources to operators to value the specific origin of their product.”

Wine made from “Viñedos Singulares” also has to pass a second qualitative tasting, the first, freshly produced, and the second, just before it is marketed,  it must be considered excellent by a committee of tasters.

The back labels will also mention “Viñedo Singular” which will allow consumers to have the guarantee that the characteristics described are certified by the Regulatory Council.

Here is the list of the 15 new Singular Vineyards: https://shorturl.at/dewF3