Gastronomy and Wine Portal

Almost no one remembers it today, but Olympia, London’s exhibition centre in Kensington, stands on the site of a vineyard that grew here back in the 19th century. And that fact is a good key to the central message of London Wine Fair 2026. Because a vineyard that was once here and then vanished is a story about how the world’s wine map is never final. It is forever being crossed out and drawn again. This year, it was the newcomers holding the pen.

The fair’s 45th edition (18–20 May) was the first in six years to draw more than ten thousand visitors through Olympia’s doors – 10,539, to be exact, up 8.2% on last year. There were 475 exhibitors against 445 a year ago, and the catalogue ran to nearly four thousand products from more than forty countries. Numbers mean nothing in themselves until you see who the growth actually went to. And it went to the debutants – the ones no one just a few years ago expected to step onto the main stage.

New owners – the old team

This year the fair ran for the first time under a new company, Vindustrious. It sounds like the turning of an era – yet the role of the debutant was played by veterans. At the end of October, London Wine Fair passed from the Hemming Group to Vindustrious, founded by Hannah Tovey herself, the fair’s long-standing director. Her entire team stayed aboard as the ship set sail. The sale was an entirely friendly one: Tovey calls it not a divorce but a new chapter. And, judging by the results, the new chapter opened with confidence – once the change of ownership was announced, exhibitor applications rose markedly.

The new ownership also seems to have given the fair a chance to say more clearly what it is about. This year it had two big themes running through it. The first was sustainability, which Drinks+ has written about separately: the Sustainability Hub by Impact Focus, the move away from single-use glass bottles in partnership with BE WTR, a seminar with the telling title “No Water, No Wine.” Sustainability was the second most searched topic among visitors, and of more than a hundred educational sessions, a record twelve were devoted to it. The other central theme was the new Host Nation programme, under which the fair will each year make a single country or region its hero. Britain opened the series itself. And this is where it gets interesting.

The English triumph

I came to the fair with a plan of my own – to visit the Ukrainian wine stand, to see for myself, at last, how the British and international wine community receives our wine: what draws their interest, what impresses them. But as it happened, what impressed me most was English wine. Not because it had appeared out of nowhere – I knew it, I had tasted some of it before – but because it had appeared on such a scale, and announced itself with such confidence. 

Until now, British producers had been a scattered presence at LWF – a few names, a few stands. This year the Host Nation programme delivered almost fivefold growth: over a hundred British producers against roughly twenty last year. The dedicated English Wine stand was fully booked before the doors opened and was doubled in size. Among the names were Chapel Down, Balfour, Bolney, Roebuck, Everflyht, Flint Vineyards, Sandridge Barton, Williams Family Wine, 1276 Wines. And the most telling line in the fair’s own figures was this: the five most enquired-about producers on the online platform were all English – Harrow & Hope, The Evolution Winery, Sandridge Barton, MDCV UK, and Everflyht.

Watching this English triumph, I kept carrying it home in my mind. One day I want to see this very scene – the spread of stands, the queue of buyers, the pride in a national wine brand – with Ukrainian wines too, even if only at home to begin with. England has shown, rather beautifully, that it can be done.

At the edges of the map: Serbia, Czechia, and Palestine

But while the host country held the centre with assurance, the most interesting things, as so often, were happening out at the edges. This year the organisers were especially proud of the sheer breadth of geography – nearly four thousand products from more than forty countries, from Argentina and the United States to Japan, South Korea, Serbia, and Peru. And it was at these outermost stands that it was easiest to catch the feeling that makes a fair worth going to at all: that the wine world is far larger and more varied than it looks from beside the supermarket shelf.

Eastern and South-Eastern Europe were more visible than ever this year: the stands of Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia. Czech and other Central European producers were a reminder that the heart of Europe perhaps remains the last truly unexplored wine region – with an authentic history, native varieties, and wines in every conceivable style. The Georgian pavilion, meanwhile, was buzzing with buyers – and fittingly so: a decade of patient, determined marketing is finally bearing fruit, and British interest in Georgia is climbing fast.

And one discovery I never managed to make in person – which, perhaps, says the most of all about the scale of the fair. In the Esoterica section, as I learned only afterwards, Nabeeth Wine & Spirits was showing Palestinian wine. I didn’t get the chance to taste it; but the very fact that Palestinian wine exists, and that it was presented in London, was one more reminder that the map of the wine world is far wider than most drinkers know.

When Essex beat Burgundy

The fair’s main tasting event carried the same message. This year’s Icon Tasting bore the title The Greatest Chardonnay Showdown: thirty Chardonnays from around the world, tasted blind, chosen by Sarah Abbott MW and Ronan Sayburn MS, with the results announced on the eve of International Chardonnay Day. It was the third such large-scale tasting in the LWF tradition – after the “Judgement of London” in 2024 and the “Battle of the Bubbles” in 2025.

Australia won: first place to Tolpuddle Vineyard from Tasmania, second to Vasse Felix from Margaret River. Across the top ten, the votes split evenly between Europe and the rest of the world. But the thing that mattered most happened on the third step of the podium. There stood an English wine – Danbury Ridge Octagon Block Chardonnay 2023, from Essex. It had outdone names that until recently seemed unreachable benchmarks: California’s Kistler, Burgundy’s Coche-Dury.

An English Chardonnay, from a county associated with anything but great wine, beating a superstar Burgundy in a blind tasting. It turns out that a seat at the table of the greats is not granted for life – it can be earned, if the wine in the glass is worthy of it. And it is with that thought that we should move on to the Wine Travel Awards stand.

Wine Travel Awards doesn’t “create” stars – it just turns on the light

It was under this banner, at stand D68, that an international community of remarkable drinks producers – the nominees of the international award – gathered once again, as has become the tradition. And not by chance: WTA, a global initiative in support of wine tourism, developed from the very beginning by the Drinks+ Communication Media Group, has always been about bringing people together and opening them to the world. In that sense the Wine Travel Awards work like a well-tuned decanter: they don’t change the essence of a wine, but they release its aroma and let what is held inside it come through. The award doesn’t “create” stars – it simply turns on the light where they are already ready to shine.

For the Wine Travel Awards this is the fifth, jubilee season, through which the project carries its nominees onto the international stage, drawing in global media such as Condé Nast Traveler and the American Forbes, and specialist fairs like London Wine Fair, ProWein, Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris. Ricardo Núñez, a permanent member of the jury, put the project’s essence best: WTA is less an award than a platform – a meeting point where talent, culture, science, gastronomy, and travel converge. Hence the six “pyramids,” the nominations by which participants are honoured: The Visiting Card of the Country, Enogastronomic Events, Ambassador, Education in Enotourism, Wine & Food Influencer, and Wine Guide. Behind that dry list lies a simple idea: wine is not only what sits in the glass, but a reason to travel, to see, to understand a place and the people who made it.

Today the WTA community spans forty-eight countries, and the map grows wider every year. This season it was joined by Chile, Singapore, and even winemaking Norway – a country no one would have cast as the heroine of a wine story a few years ago. The same thought that had followed me around the whole fair: wine has no final borders; this world is changing – and that is a wonderful thing. London Wine Fair itself, as it happens, was the winner of the Wine Travel Awards 2025–2026 public vote in the “Event of the Year” category. A separate strand of the award is the WTA ceremony, at which the winners of the jubilee season are announced and the Judges’ Choice and Drinks+ Editor’s Choice laureates are recognised. This year, owing to certain unforeseen circumstances, the announcement was held online. But here is a spoiler: the Ukrainian laureates – and there were a good many this year – will be celebrated in Kyiv this autumn.

And on the London stand, the award’s nominees gathered from every corner of the world – which made it a microcosm of the whole fair.

The first to greet visitors here was Robert Joseph himself – the legendary wine critic, author of more than thirty books, and a permanent WTA judge. He was pouring his own wine: the Georgian Kavshiri, made in collaboration with Vladimer Kublashvili. The white Kavshiri, 2023 vintage, has just earned 91 points from Decanter. In that single fact is the whole philosophy of WTA: in this community there are no losers, no division into spectators and judges. There are winemakers and there are ambassadors of wine – a community in which a world-class critic stands behind the counter himself to present his own star wine.

Given that the international Drinks+ media group has Ukrainian roots, it was only natural to find participants from Ukraine on the stand. The heart of the Ukrainian presence was a pool of drinks from Ukrainian Wine Company UK – an importer that has been bringing craft Ukrainian wines into Britain since 2023, and already works with restaurants, bars, and independent wine shops across the country. The team showed a whole line-up of our producers – Beykush, Biologist, Grande Vallée, Chateau Chizay, Kolonist, Villa Tinta – nominees of the Wine Travel Awards across various seasons. And let us congratulate this year’s winner of the “Brand – Visiting Card of the Country” category: Chateau Chizay! One would like, of course, to see more of our names in London – but even these were enough to hold the guests’ attention and turn the Wine Travel Awards stand into one of the liveliest corners of the hall.

The Ukrainian Wine Company UK portfolio held more than wine. A genuine hit was the Honey Badger brand – a family project from Yulia Kalenska and Artem Skubenko, who since 2015 have been reviving traditional Ukrainian liqueurs and infusions from old recipes, tending their own fruit orchards in the Zhytomyr region, and even making a Ukrainian gin. And here is the paradox: at a fair where superstar Chardonnays from four continents went head to head, a fair share of the experts’ and enthusiasts’ attention was captured by a cherry liqueur made to a recipe from a village in the Vinnytsia region. 

Attention was drawn, too, by Svitlo (“Light”) vodka from the Cherkasy region, presented under the slogan “Vodka from Ukraine. Made in darkness.” The wordplay lands precisely: a vodka named “Light” is, quite literally, produced in darkness – in a country where Russian shelling has made blackouts a part of everyday life. And beside the classic bottle stood ready-made cocktails – a collaboration between Svitlo and the London bar tayer.

The neighbouring block of the stand was held by the agency VH Selection, with a full international portfolio in which our brands stood shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world, as equals. The historic Champagne house C.Garnotel (founded in 1899) beside the renowned Ukrainian brandy AZNAURI, made in the Georgian tradition, and the Lviv craft distillery Maclev, which makes single malt whisky and gin in small batches. The German family estate Weingut Bergdolt-Reif & Nett, with its expressive Rieslings, beside Moldova’s NOVAK WINERY and the boutique Portuguese Secret Spot Wines from the Douro Valley.

All of them, gathered together on the Wine Travel Awards stand, embodied what I say again and again and see proved every time: the wine world is not about borders but about routes. Not about competition but about cooperation. Not about who shouts the loudest about themselves, but about who manages to hear the others. I am often told that the wine world is too big to be united. I answer that it is human at its core to make that possible. Because when a single stand holds, side by side, a Georgian Kavshiri made by a British expert, a Ukrainian cherry liqueur, a German Riesling, a Portuguese wine from the Douro Valley, and a Champagne with more than a hundred years of history – that is not just geography. It is proof that the community exists not on paper but in life.

And to be frank, this is exactly where the real role of the Wine Travel Awards lies: not only to honour, but to unite. To give those who create the taste of their countries the chance to be heard far beyond their own borders. To build bridges between cultures, styles, and traditions. And, in the end, to remind us all that wine is perhaps the most delicate way of explaining to the world who we are. So the next time someone tells me that globalisation erases differences, I’ll suggest they take a walk through the Wine Travel Awards stand. There it becomes plain: the world is more interesting when everyone has the chance to be themselves – and to be seen.

England and Ukraine: two contrasting stories of one road

All through London Wine Fair, I felt as though I were fitting together two seemingly unconnected stories – the English triumph and the Ukrainian presence at the Wine Travel Awards stand. At heart they are two scenes about the same thing: young wine nations fighting for visibility in a market where every niche seems long since taken. The weapon is the same for both – a story of one’s own, authenticity, the ability to explain why this wine, in particular, deserves attention. And this year each had its symbolic moment: England climbed to the third step of a world-class blind tasting, and Ukraine confirmed that its place at the fair has become a permanent one.

But it would be dishonest to pretend these are similar stories. They are almost opposites.

Behind England’s success stands a convergence of favourable things: a state promotion programme, marketing campaigns, and a changing climate that, paradoxically, works in the island’s favour more each year. And, beneath all that, half a century of a home market accustomed to drinking its own.

Ukraine comes onto that same stage with not one of these advantages. In place of a tailwind, a daily struggle: ruined warehouses, support programmes wound down, logistics that are a feat in themselves every single time. England steps before the public with a full orchestra behind it. Ukraine has no orchestra – only missile strikes and the blasts of enemy rockets. But it has native varieties no one else possesses. And it has an unbreakable spirit that no marketing budget can buy.

And perhaps the lesson of this year’s fair, for Ukrainian wine, lies right there. In a single decade, England proved that a seat at the table of the greats is won not by asking but by outstanding wine in the glass – and it simply sat down at that table with strong cards of its own. Ukraine’s road there will be longer and steeper. But London Wine Fair 2026 showed the essential thing: this table has no fixed seating plan. It is forever being redrawn – just like the wine map this story began with, on which, year after year, new names surface that were unthinkable only yesterday.

One day, among them, ours will shine brighter and brighter.

Viktoriia Palinkash, VH Selection

It was my first time attending the London Wine Fair, and I was pleasantly surprised by the scale of the exhibition – there were a great number of both visitors and exhibitors. At the same time, I noticed one particular feature: in London, people rarely approach stands they are not familiar with. Most attendees follow their pre-arranged schedules and are not particularly inclined toward spontaneous networking. By comparison, the atmosphere in Asia is much more relaxed, and it is easy to engage a random visitor in conversation who may turn out to be a buyer or distributor.

On a less positive note, a public transport strike began on the second day of the exhibition, and visitor numbers dropped significantly over the following two days. We were presenting Champagne Garnotel, Novak wines from Moldova, and Ukrainian spirits Aznauri and Maclev. The British responded rather coolly to the Champagne, while the Moldovan wines and our Ukrainian spirits generated genuine enthusiasm. Visitors from across the exhibition brought their friends to our stand to give them the opportunity to taste the Moldovan wines and Ukrainian spirits. We sincerely hope that the products presented by our company, VH Selection, will not only resonate with British wine professionals but also find their place on supermarket shelves and restaurant wine lists throughout the United Kingdom.

________________________

Svitlana Tsybak, Chair of the Craft Winemakers Association of Ukraine, CEO of Beykush Winery, and Wines of Ukraine Ambassador

We have been participating in the London Wine Fair for four years, and I can say with confidence that today this exhibition is primarily focused on the domestic UK market. I kept telling everyone that if someone is looking to access other markets here, this event is not really about that. In the past, the exhibition was more international, whereas now it is mainly geared toward the British market. The exhibition itself was good. In fact, there were slightly fewer visitors than we had expected; attendance was higher last year. However, the audience was of high quality: good buyers, representatives of strong retail chains and companies, so from that perspective everything went well. The exhibition lasted three days, and overall we are satisfied.

Looking at the global situation, including ProWein and other major trade fairs, it seems that this format is currently undergoing a certain transformation. I do not know how this category of events will develop in the future. Right now, Wine Paris is gaining momentum very rapidly. It is a relatively new exhibition, and perhaps that is part of its appeal. People say there were a great many visitors there, so we plan to attend next year and see for ourselves. As for the exhibitions we have become accustomed to – ProWein and the London Wine Fair – I can say that interest in them is gradually declining.

It seems to me that organizers should be looking for new and engaging formats, although that is, of course, only my personal opinion. For buyers, importers, and distributors, participation in traditional trade fairs is becoming less of a priority. When we invited our existing and potential partners to meetings, around 70% replied that they were not planning to attend the exhibition, even if they lived and worked in London. Nevertheless, there were important buyers and major distributors whom I know well and can confirm are truly significant market players. So, for some participants, it was a good opportunity to meet with them and potentially discuss cooperation.

As a company already established in the market, we are not looking for importers here; rather, we are looking directly for buyers and sales channels, so our objectives were somewhat different.

Thank you for the stand and for this opportunity. Everything turned out very well.

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Almost no one remembers it today, but Olympia, London’s exhibition centre in Kensington, stands on the site of a vineyard that grew here back in the 19th century. And that fact is a good key to the central message of London Wine Fair 2026. Because a vineyard that was once here and then vanished is […]

Porto Protocol has presented a major new report, Saving Every Drop in Wine: Global Insights & Solutions on Water Usage from the Porto Protocol Community, dedicated to one of the most critical issues facing the modern wine industry – water and its role in the context of climate change.

In his introductory remarks, Porto Protocol CEO and Mentor Adrian Bridge emphasizes the fundamental importance of water for viticulture:

“Water has always been a defining resource in winegrowing. Long before climate change became a global concern, wine regions were shaped by how they understood and adapted to water availability. Today, as climate pressures intensify across every wine region, water has become the most pressing issue facing our industry. It influences vineyard viability, wine quality, and the long-term resilience of wine regions worldwide.”

The 200+ page report brings together scientific research, practical winery experience, and real-world solutions for effective water management in winemaking – from vineyards to wineries.

A dedicated section, Water Solutions, features practical case studies from leading wine companies and estates implementing innovative approaches to water use. Among the contributors are Wine Travel Awards nominees presented under the patronage of Porto Protocol: The Vineyards at Dodon and Paicines Ranch; as well as González Byass, whose iconic Sherry producer Tío Pepe in Jerez de la Frontera – offering immersive wine tourism experiences, cultural events, and historic cellar tours – became a Wine Travel Awards winner in the Must Visit category; The Fladgate Partnership – founder of Porto Protocol and WOW.

The report is now publicly available and may serve as a practical tool for the global wine community in finding solutions for sustainable water management and adaptation to climate challenges.

• Saving Every Drop in Wine Report
• Water Solutions

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Porto Protocol has presented a major new report, Saving Every Drop in Wine: Global Insights & Solutions on Water Usage from the Porto Protocol Community, dedicated to one of the most critical issues facing the modern wine industry – water and its role in the context of climate change. In his introductory remarks, Porto Protocol […]

On May 18, the opening day of London Wine Fair 2026 at Olympia London, the exhibition’s third annual Icon Tasting will return with “The Greatest Chardonnay Showdown” as its central theme. Following “Judgement of London” in 2024 and “Battle of the Bubbles” in 2025, which attracted the attention of wine professionals and enthusiasts from around the world, this year’s central theme will be “The Greatest Chardonnay Showdown.” Drinks+ Communication Media Group is the international media partner of the event. London Wine Fair is a nominee of the Wine Travel Awards in the Event of the Year category.

As in previous years, the wine selection will be curated by Sarah Abbott, wine marketing consultant, co-founder of The Old Vine Conference, IWSC committee judge and Wine Travel Awards judge, and Ronan Sayburn, CEO of The Court of Master Sommeliers.

“The Greatest Chardonnay Showdown” will be conducted as a double-blind tasting, with some of the world’s leading Chardonnay wines assessed according to style, terroir, winemaking approach, oak maturation, cultural significance, and historical legacy. During a three-hour session held in a private tasting room at London Wine Fair 2026, judges will evaluate 30 Chardonnay wines under rigorous professional tasting conditions.

The jury will include around 20 of the United Kingdom’s most respected wine industry professionals – Masters of Wine, Master Sommeliers, fine wine buyers, and wine journalists specialising in Chardonnay. Confirmed judges already include Emily Brighton, Susie Barrie, Oz Clarke, Dawn Davies, Tina Gellie, Laura Jewell, Victoria Mason, Peter Richards, Jancis Robinson and Patrick Schmitt.

The judging system will be exceptionally rigorous and will determine: The Overall Greatest Chardonnay of the World; Top 10 Greatest Chardonnays of the World; Best Classic Region Chardonnay; Best Emerging Region Chardonnay; and Best Value Chardonnay (based on the highest points per £ RRP).

The results will be announced on the Centre Stage at London Wine Fair 2026 on May 20 at 11.45 am.

Commenting on the upcoming tasting, Sarah Abbott stated: “Our first challenge has been narrowing the selection: Chardonnay is the lingua franca of fine white wine, and even our long-list read like a kind of poem. I know that our judges will relish tasting and assessing these iconic wines.”

“Great Chardonnay doesn’t just reflect where it’s from – it reveals how it tastes when the winemakers judgement and precision balances the climate, soils and techniques to make the wines come together in a single glass,” added Ronan Sayburn.

Chair of London Wine Fair 2026 Hannah Tovey emphasised that Icon Tasting has already become one of the most highly anticipated events in the wine industry, drawing attention to the world’s finest wines and reinforcing London’s status as one of the leading global centres of fine wine.

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On May 18, the opening day of London Wine Fair 2026 at Olympia London, the exhibition’s third annual Icon Tasting will return with “The Greatest Chardonnay Showdown” as its central theme. Following “Judgement of London” in 2024 and “Battle of the Bubbles” in 2025, which attracted the attention of wine professionals and enthusiasts from around […]

Wine Travel Awards extends its congratulations to this year’s awards judge on his distinguished new appointment! Christian Zechmeister will lead one of Europe’s most prestigious wine education institutions.

After more than three decades at the helm of the Weinakademie Österreich (Austrian Wine Academy), Josef “Pepi” Schuller MW will step down at the end of 2026, passing leadership to Christian Zechmeister. Zechmeister currently serves as Managing Director of Wein Burgenland, the Regional Wine Committee of Burgenland, and as Authorized Signatory of Weintourismus Burgenland GmbH. In addition to his forthcoming leadership role, Christian Zechmeister this year joined the honorary judging panel of the Wine Travel Awards 2025–2026.

The Austrian Wine Academy operates as a 50% subsidiary of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (Austrian Wine). Since its establishment in 1991, Europe’s largest wine school has welcomed over half a million participants from across the globe – from enthusiastic beginners to Masters of Wine.

“Austrian Wine Academy stands as proof of Austria’s pioneering role in wine education. From the very beginning, Pepi Schuller has ensured a strong international presence, enabling students to gain a firm grounding in both Austrian and global wine styles. I would like to express my sincere thanks for his outstanding contribution. Schuller leaves an impressive legacy, and I am confident that Christian Zechmeister will continue this success. I look forward to working closely with him,” says Chris Yorke, CEO of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (Austrian Wine) and Chairman of the Wine Academy’s Board.

A long-standing international outlook

Founded in 1991 as a subsidiary of Austrian Wine, the Austrian Wine Academy was created to deliver professional wine education for the hospitality sector, retail, consumers and winegrowers.

Josef Schuller, Austria’s first Master of Wine, has led the Academy since its inception. Under his direction, it evolved into the country’s national wine school, with a strong emphasis on Austrian wines and a programme of seminars held nationwide. Drawing on his own international experience, Schuller embedded a global perspective from the outset – both in the curriculum and through partnerships with leading institutions such as the Institute of Masters of Wine, the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), Geisenheim University in Germany and Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil.

“I am proud that the new Managing Director is a Wine Academy graduate who already understands the spirit of the institution,” Schuller notes. “I look forward to remaining on the Board of Directors and supporting Christian in his new role.”

Zechmeister chosen from a strong field

Following Schuller’s announcement that he would retire at the end of 2026, an international search was launched to identify his successor. Among a large pool of strong candidates, Burgenland native Christian Zechmeister emerged as the leading choice. His recent roles include Managing Director of Wein Burgenland, the Regional Wine Committee of Burgenland, and Authorized Signatory of Weintourismus Burgenland GmbH.

A transition period with Schuller will begin in August, with Zechmeister assuming full responsibility for the Academy in January 2027. A graduate and lecturer of the Wine Academy, he is already deeply familiar with its structure and ethos.

According to Zechmeister, “The Austrian Wine Academy has become one of the world’s most recognised wine institutions under the leadership of Josef Schuller. I am delighted by the professional challenge ahead, while fully aware of the responsibility it carries. The aim will be to maintain the successful Weinakademiker programme while developing new offerings that reflect current market needs. I am confident that, together with my future team and in cooperation with the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, we will achieve this. For me, it feels like returning to my roots – after all, the Austrian Wine Academy is where my career began.”

About the Weinakademie Österreich (Austrian Wine Academy)

The Austrian Wine Academy is a 50% subsidiary of Austrian Wine. Its seminar programme spans introductory courses through to advanced training for wine professionals. To date, more than 1,300 students from 58 countries have earned the internationally recognised Weinakademiker diploma – a qualification that forms the foundation for the Master of Wine (MW), the world’s most prestigious wine title. Twelve Wine Academy graduates have so far achieved the MW. Since 2004, the Academy has also hosted courses from the Institute of Masters of Wine, contributing to the training of well over 100 Masters of Wine.

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Wine Travel Awards extends its congratulations to this year’s awards judge on his distinguished new appointment! Christian Zechmeister will lead one of Europe’s most prestigious wine education institutions. After more than three decades at the helm of the Weinakademie Österreich (Austrian Wine Academy), Josef “Pepi” Schuller MW will step down at the end of 2026, passing […]

When the wine industry steps onto its own red carpet – from the language of design to the fashion of labels.

Wine Paris 2026 – one of the world’s largest exhibitions dedicated to wine and spirits – took place in the French capital from 9 to 11 February, as previously reported by D+. This year, Paris set new records of its own: more than 6,500 exhibitors from over 60 countries and around 63,500 trade visitors representing 169 nations. That is roughly 20% more than the previous year, placing the Paris fair firmly on the top step of the podium among global wine-industry events.

Yet Paris, as the world’s fashion capital, invites a broader reading of Wine Paris 2026 – not merely through statistics or production trends, nor solely as a venue for tastings and professional meetings. The city’s irresistible “red carpet” lies in its label aesthetics, graphic language and winery branding – all of which reflect the most current currents shaping the wine world. France has long cultivated a tradition of showcasing new approaches to wine design, and Vinexpo Bordeaux – whose legacy Wine Paris now carries – served for decades as the leading international stage for unveiling premium visual identities. It was there that many producers first introduced refreshed labels, new graphic concepts and reimagined brand identities.

Today, Wine Paris performs this role with remarkable finesse. After all, design shapes the very first impression of a wine – and there is no second chance to make it. A close look at the visual solutions presented at Wine Paris reveals how the contemporary language (and fashion) of wine is evolving, and which aesthetic approaches now dominate the industry’s runway.

This year, Wine Paris resembled a complex ecosystem in which wine interacted with architecture, graphic design and emerging cultural consumption trends. Stands functioned as complete visual narratives, while labels acted as messages within a broader design vocabulary. One of the most illustrative examples of this “wine fashion” approach came from Berlin Packaging, a global group uniting leading producers of packaging and premium glass. In Paris, the company presented its “Sculpting” concept – a design philosophy for bottle creation that blends aesthetics, texture and functionality to enhance a brand’s premium positioning. Notably, alongside classic wine categories, the no-alcohol sector asserted its own visual language and style with growing confidence.

My Stand – My Brand’s Fortress

One of the most striking trends at Wine Paris 2026 was the rise of conceptual, design-driven stands that expressed the architecture of a brand. Many producers moved away from the traditional “bar + bottle shelves” format in favour of spaces that conveyed the winemaker’s philosophy.

A strong example came from Gérard Bertrand, one of Languedoc’s most renowned producers. The stand embraced a natural aesthetic with light wood, greenery and soft lighting – a subtle nod to the estate’s biodynamic principles.

A similar approach was increasingly visible among regional consortia. Their stands were designed to merge tasting, education and informal conversation while simultaneously making a stylistic statement. The German Pavilion, for instance, offered a concise, structured space where 68 producers were united under a single visual identity. Rather than separate stands, it formed one cohesive narrative, with each participant integrated into a clear graphic system.

Many exhibitors opted for suspended logos for visibility, open-access tasting counters, and clearly defined functional zones (tasting, presentation, meeting areas). Some stands featured dynamic corners with short presentations, winemaking videos or mobile tasting stations, helping visitors engage with the wines even without lengthy conversations.

Tasting as Navigation

Another notable trend was the expansion of large free-tasting zones. Clearly labelled by region and supported by QR codes, these areas allowed visitors to explore wines at their own pace – whether Champagne or Languedoc. This format enabled efficient navigation through vast product ranges, discovery of new regions and more deliberate tasting, saving producers’ time while allowing deeper engagement with wines that captured attention.

The No-Alcohol Sector Takes the Final Pose Spot

One of the most talked-about areas of the fair was Be No – a space dedicated to no-alcohol and dealcoholised beverages. The no-alcohol wine category is stepping confidently into the industry’s “final pose spot”, driven not only by the product itself but by its visual identity. This is hardly surprising: the No&Low segment attracts some of the most progressive and daring producers, whose appetite for experimentation is reflected in bold bottle shapes, striking typography and innovative graphic solutions.

Hundreds of products were showcased – from no-alcohol wines to intricate botanical blends crafted for gastronomic pairings.

French Bloom, for example, presented its sparkling no-alcohol wines in “little black dress” bottles – matte black with minimalist gold typography, evoking the aesthetics of perfumery or luxury cosmetics.

Australian brand NON, known for its gastronomic no-alcohol beverages designed for restaurant pairings, embraced a deliberately restrained design: minimalist numbers instead of names and almost no decorative elements. The brand positions itself not as a wine substitute but as a standalone gastronomic category.

Meanwhile, the French brand Bonne Nouvelle introduced a series of no-alcohol flavoured wines with vibrant fruit-forward labels aimed at younger consumers and new drinking occasions such as Dry January or casual gatherings.

The Label Evolves

Alongside stand architecture, wine labels themselves are undergoing visible evolution. At Wine Paris 2026, designs increasingly reflected contemporary graphic principles: minimalism, bold typography, symbolic or artistic illustration. Labels are no longer mere conveyors of appellation or variety. They have become the first point of contact between wine and consumer – the cover of the story a brand wishes to tell. Whispering Angel rosé, for instance, became globally recognisable thanks to its ultra-minimalist label and transparent bottle, shaping the aesthetic of an entire category.

Another shift stems from the need for labels to perform not only on the shelf but also in the digital space. Complex crests or fine decorative details often disappear on smartphone screens, whereas strong graphics, clear typography and vivid colours remain instantly recognisable even at small scale. This is why many contemporary brands are moving toward more minimalistic, graphic-forward solutions – equally effective in-store and on Instagram.

Maison Cantarelle from Provence exemplifies this trend with bold, bright, graphic labels that function as miniature art pieces, reflecting the wines’ light, open character.

Clos des B, also from Provence, takes the opposite route: minimalism and restraint, simple forms, a two-colour palette and a front label listing the varietal composition.

Many modern labels draw on cultural or geographic symbols – architecture, landscapes or iconic imagery. Australian producers often use native fauna to create immediate associations with origin, functioning as visual mnemonics that help consumers quickly identify style. Strelley Farm Estate, for example, highlights its rosé pét-nat with exotic motifs.

Other brands turn to specific cultural aesthetics. Bento, designed by the Denomination agency, incorporates elements of Japanese visual culture: vertical typography reminiscent of traditional scripts, gently humorous character illustrations and red accents inspired by vermilion seals.

The Salon as the Industry’s Mirror

Wine Paris increasingly reflects the rapid transformation of the wine world. Today, a wine’s story begins long before it reaches the glass – it begins in the space where that story is presented. Wine Paris 2026 confirmed that design has become a central component of the industry’s language. It shapes first impressions, signals premium positioning and opens new pathways for audience engagement. It even targets specific consumer generations.

Ultimately, wine now speaks not only through taste but through form, colour, graphics and space – creating a new visual language in which design becomes an integral part of the experience.

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When the wine industry steps onto its own red carpet – from the language of design to the fashion of labels. Wine Paris 2026 – one of the world’s largest exhibitions dedicated to wine and spirits – took place in the French capital from 9 to 11 February, as previously reported by D+. This year, […]

Kateryna Yushchenko, DipWSET, a wine journalist and interviewer – and a nominee of the Wine Travel Awards 2025–2026 – conducted an exclusive interview with David Adelsheim in 2026. This article is based on that conversation, with all quotations taken directly from it. The Drinks+ editorial team was particularly interested in hearing Adelsheim’s reflections on the eve of the Global Wine Tourism Day, an initiative launched by our media group, which will take place on 17 June in Bourgogne and will include masterclasses dedicated to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

There are people in every industry who build empires, and there are people who build foundations. David Adelsheim belongs to the second, rarer category. Over more than five decades in the Willamette Valley, he has done something that very few winemakers anywhere in the world have managed: he helped create not just a winery, but an entire wine region’s identity – and he did it by insisting, stubbornly and quietly, that everyone around him could rise together.

I first met David Adelsheim in London – one of those connections that, in the wine world, feels less like chance and more like inevitability. Our conversation began there and continued at Wine Paris, where the interview that forms the backbone of this article took place.

When I sat down with Adelsheim, I told him that some people compare him to Robert Mondavi. He smiled at that, neither accepting nor rejecting the comparison. In truth, the parallel is both apt and misleading. Like Mondavi, Adelsheim is a visionary who saw what others could not. But where Mondavi built a brand that became synonymous with Napa, Adelsheim built something more diffuse and, arguably, more durable: a culture of collaboration that made the Willamette Valley a world-class name in wine.

His story is not one of grand gestures but of deliberate choices – some of them productive mistakes, as he calls them – that accumulated over decades into something extraordinary.

The Lesson of the Weeds The Willamette Valley of the early 1970s was, as Adelsheim himself puts it, the wild west. There was no established roadmap, no manual for growing Pinot Noir in this corner of the Pacific Northwest. The pioneers – and Adelsheim was among the very first – were improvising, reading the wrong books, and learning from the soil beneath their feet, often the hard way.

I asked him about his most significant productive mistake from those early years. He didn’t hesitate.

“A fairly big mistake we made at the beginning was we didn’t understand how important weeds were. When we planted the vines, we left the weeds in, and then the weeds grew much more than the vines grew, and we lost most of the vines.” – David Adelsheim.

It sounds simple – almost naive – but that initial failure with weed management became one of the defining lessons of Oregon viticulture. The young vines, starved of water and light by the unchecked weeds around them, simply couldn’t survive. The first instinct was to swing to the opposite extreme: clean cultivation, stripping everything away. Over the years, though, Adelsheim and his peers found a middle path, one that would eventually align with the modern language of sustainability.

“We’re trying more and more to leave the weeds there, but you can’t do it when the vines themselves have no source of water, and the water from the vine is being sucked away by all the weeds.” –  David Adelsheim.

I suggested that perhaps the vine should struggle. He corrected me immediately, with the quiet authority of someone who has thought about this for fifty years.

“The vine shouldn’t struggle. Particularly when it’s that young. It has to get established and it has to live. It’s got to prosper. And to a certain extent, we were reading books written by amateurs and not about viticulture.” – David Adelsheim.

That last line stayed with me. Reading books about amateurs and not about viticulture  – it’s a remarkably honest admission from a man who is now considered one of the foremost authorities on the subject. But it also reveals something essential about the Oregon wine story: these were not corporate entities executing a business plan. These were individuals with a romantic attachment to the land, learning in real time, making mistakes that would become the region’s wisdom.

The weed problem taught Adelsheim something that now sits at the heart of his philosophy: you want to preserve the soil’s ability to let the vines grow on their own, without irrigation, without artificial intervention. You want balance. Finding that balance, he admits freely, took decades of trial and error.

“You really want to preserve the ability of the vines to grow on their own. Trying to find that balance in the beginning, we didn’t know what we were doing.” – David Adelsheim.

The Radical Act of Collaboration If you ask anyone in the international wine trade what makes the Willamette Valley different, they will eventually arrive at the same word: collaboration. It is the region’s defining trait, and David Adelsheim is, more than anyone, the person who enshrined it.

In most wine regions, the default mode is competition. You guard your techniques, you promote your label, you differentiate at the expense of your neighbour. The Willamette Valley went the other way –  and it didn’t happen by accident.

I asked Adelsheim why, in those early years, he didn’t simply build his own brand in isolation. The Steamboat Pinot Conference, the shared technical knowledge, the collective promotion – where did the instinct for all of this come from?

“My guess is that the collaborative idea came, to a certain extent, from Chuck Coury, from Dick Erath. Those two in particular were, in very different ways, really promoting the idea that collaboration will get us much further than if we work separately.” –  David Adelsheim.

(Both Coury and Erath were UC Davis graduates who arrived in the Willamette Valley in the mid-1960s and are widely regarded, alongside David Lett, as the founding fathers of Oregon wine. Coury – the theoretician – built the intellectual case that the valley’s climate mirrored Burgundy and Alsace, and famously brought in his own Pinot Noir clone, allegedly smuggled from France. Erath – the practical pioneer – proved the concept was commercially viable, producing his first vintage from a garage in 1969 and later building one of Oregon’s first major brands in the Dundee Hills.)

Adelsheim didn’t just absorb this idea – he became its most consistent and vocal champion for the next half century. And when he talks about it now, there’s no uncertainty in his voice. He knows it worked.

“I still think that collaboration is, in fact, the thing that defines the Willamette Valley as different from other places. And why, sixty years on, Willamette Valley is well-known around the world and other places that started at the same time, even earlier, are less well-known – because the winemakers, the winegrowers, did things on their own, but not collaboratively.” – David Adelsheim.

Then he offered what might be the most elegant definition of collaboration I’ve ever heard in any industry:

“What is collaboration? It means thinking of other businesses as a means of increasing visibility, not increasing competition.” – David Adelsheim.

It’s a deceptively simple idea, but executing it requires an ego rare in winemaking — or, more precisely, a certain kind of ego, one secure enough to see a neighbour’s success as your own. Adelsheim has this quality in abundance. When I mentioned that everywhere I go in the wine world – London, Paris, the trade fairs – people point to him as the person who knows everything about Oregon, he simply noted, with characteristic understatement, that Adelsheim Vineyard may not always be the first winery someone seeks out, but they are always among the handful that perform.

“We always come out well. We may not be the winery that somebody seeks out, but we’re certainly among the handful of wineries that always, always perform.” – David Adelsheim.

There’s a book he wants to write – about the specifics of what collaboration means and how the Willamette Valley adopted it as a founding principle. He isn’t sure he’ll get to it. I hope he does. The wine world needs that book.

Clones: The Burgundy Connection One of David Adelsheim’s most consequential contributions to American winemaking is also one of the most technical: the introduction of the Dijon clones. It is a subject that can sound dry to outsiders but, in the world of Pinot Noir, it is the equivalent of a revolution.

In the 1970s, Oregon had access to a very limited number of vine clones, mostly sourced from California. The options were narrow. Adelsheim, who had spent time studying in Burgundy, noticed something critical: the Chardonnay clones there were ripening two to three weeks earlier than the clone they were using in Oregon. For a cool-climate region where every week of growing season matters, this was transformative information.

“I saw the Chardonnay clones in Burgundy and realized they were picking them two or three weeks earlier than the clone that we had from California. I thought, we have to have that clone of Chardonnay. And at the same time, of course, the Pinot clones.” – David Adelsheim

By importing the Dijon clones – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – Adelsheim didn’t just expand the genetic toolkit available to Oregon winemakers. He gave the region a palette. Where before there were two clones of Pinot Noir, suddenly there were seven or eight, each with subtly different characteristics, each responding differently to Oregon’s specific soils and microclimates.

But here is what matters most: the goal was never imitation. I pressed Adelsheim on this point  –whether the temptation existed to simply replicate the Burgundian style using Burgundian plant material. His answer was characteristically thoughtful. It’s hard to fully remember what they were thinking, he said, but the intent was always to use the clones to discover what Oregon itself could produce, not to copy someone else’s answer.

Today, the Willamette Valley is one of the most specialized wine regions in the New World. As Adelsheim points out, it is a place where roughly 70% of production is a single variety –  Pinot Noir. “That doesn’t exist in the New World,” he says. “We’re the only place that really is that specialized.” This concentration is not a limitation. It is a declaration of identity.

Three Soils, One Mountain If collaboration is the philosophical heart of Adelsheim’s approach, then soil is its physical one. And it is here, talking about the Chehalem Mountains, that you see the fire in him burn brightest.

Adelsheim Vineyard’s holdings are concentrated entirely in the Chehalem Mountains AVA, and this is not an accident. It is a deliberate choice, because the Chehalem Mountains offer something almost uniquely extraordinary: three entirely different soil types within a single appellation.

“The three soil types – the loess, basalt, and the marine sediment – are entirely different from each other, and yet they’re all in this one AVA, this one appellation. We really focus on showing people that the soil is critical and it makes a critical difference to the wine.” – David Adelsheim.

Loess – the fine, wind-blown sediment deposited during the ice ages. Basalt – the ancient volcanic rock. Marine sediment – the remnants of a sea floor from millions of years ago. Each produces a fundamentally different expression of Pinot Noir, and Adelsheim has structured his entire winemaking program around revealing these differences. He has single-vineyard wines from each soil type, designed not as trophies but as demonstrations.

“I’m not sure that any other winery is as focused on site expression as we are. It’s not that they aren’t focused on site generally, but to be so specific, to have single vineyards that represent one soil and to differentiate three of them – there’s no other AVA with three different soils.” – David Adelsheim.

This is not marketing language. When Adelsheim says he can show you three single vineyards from three different soils and let you taste the difference in your glass, he means it literally. It is the culmination of everything he has learned – from the weeds that killed his first vines to the Burgundian clones he brought home to the collaborative spirit he championed. All of it converges in these three bottles from three soils on one mountain.

“The reality is, the thing that really distinguishes us more and more is the location of our vineyards.” – David Adelsheim.

The Architect’s Legacy David Adelsheim is not a man who speaks in grand statements about legacy. He is more comfortable talking about loess and basalt, about vine spacing and clone selection, about the specific technical details that separate a good wine from a great one. But legacy is what he has built, whether he is comfortable with the word or not.

He helped create a wine region that the world now takes seriously. He did it not by dominating but by collaborating, not by imitating but by listening to what the land was telling him. He made mistakes – with weeds, with cultivation, with the inevitable miscalculations of anyone working without a map – and he turned every one of those mistakes into knowledge that he then shared freely with his neighbors.

There is a book he wants to write about collaboration. There are single-vineyard Pinot Noirs that continue to demonstrate the astonishing diversity of the Chehalem Mountains. There is a winery that, as he says, always performs. But perhaps the truest measure of David Adelsheim’s legacy is this: when you ask anyone in the wine world about Oregon, his name is the first one spoken. Not as a brand. As a person. As the quiet architect who built the house that everyone else now lives in.

And he’s still building. I’m grateful for that first meeting in London, and to the halls of Wine Paris for giving us the space to have this conversation. Some interviews are about collecting quotes. This one felt more like witnessing a man take quiet stock of a life’s work – and deciding, without any fanfare, that there is still more to be done.

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Kateryna Yushchenko, DipWSET, a wine journalist and interviewer – and a nominee of the Wine Travel Awards 2025–2026 – conducted an exclusive interview with David Adelsheim in 2026. This article is based on that conversation, with all quotations taken directly from it. The Drinks+ editorial team was particularly interested in hearing Adelsheim’s reflections on the eve of […]

For quite a while, ProWein was considered the world’s largest international trade fair for wine and spirits. This year, however, things look a little different. Long before the fair opened, organizers had already announced a smaller number of exhibitors and visitors, along with a reduced exhibition space.This was explained as an effective optimization and even a necessity to reduce the distance between exhibitors’ booths. The focus was also placed on quality rather than quantity.

So how did it go? Here are the numbers from the organizers: ProWein 2026 hosted 3,400 exhibitors from 63 countries. The fair was attended by 31,000 trade professionals from 105 countries. Special attention was given to buyers from key import markets, such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, and the USA. This approach was strengthened by the updated and well-received Hosted Buyer program.

Did ProWein manage to maintain its status as the most outstanding event in the global wine and spirits industry? D+ correspondent Victoria Makarova spoke with exhibitors and visitors at the fair to find out.

“Change or die”

ProWein 2026 didn’t exactly live up to that dramatic motto, which is good news. The changes felt tentative rather than revolutionary, like the first steps in a process that might evolve into something bigger in the future. Most of the visible updates this year were external: a sleek rebranding that seems to be aimed at a younger audience; an expanded concierge service for VIP visitors; efforts to improve business networking through the revamped “Fair Match” app; and a push to make navigation around the fair more intuitive and user-friendly. Prices for stands and other exhibitor services remained high, and according to many participants, this will be a major factor when deciding whether to return next year.

Educational innovations

One standout was the expanded educational program. The new ProWein Agora, organized by the A2Wine & Things Agency, offered short, dynamic presentations, panel discussions and keynote talks from industry visionaries. Topics ranged from pressing market issues to hot-button debates: how do you sell wine in established, mature markets? Does fine wine demand new sales strategies, and how does it play out for prestigious regions like Bordeaux? What does the future hold for wine tourism, and how does it impact sales? How are AI and social media shaping consumer preferences? And what lessons can winemakers learn from success stories in other beverage categories?

The one downside: the sessions were mostly attended by journalists, bloggers, and marketers — people already deeply embedded in the industry. The winemakers themselves, who must make the critical decisions to navigate this challenging period, were tied up at their stands and couldn’t join the discussions or gain inspiration from the insights shared.

“Logistical madness”

The traditional local transport strike in Düsseldorf, which this year hit on the last day of ProWein, surprised no one, though it did manage to annoy a few. Germans, accustomed to such trials, didn’t let it stop them. Andreas Brensing, Chief Wine Consultant at the Wein Kompetenz Center of the REWE Group Buying network, called the situation “logistical madness.” The shuttle service helped a bit, but it didn’t exactly silence the grumbling from the foreign participants. “I, by the way, rented a bike and cruised along the Rhine,” he wrote in his LinkedIn post. “If there’s another strike next year, the bike path from Cologne to Düsseldorf is quite pleasant. I even have a second bike if anyone wants to join me…”

The best or the calmest?

It seems that the attendees and visitors from Germany were particularly and patriotically satisfied by the Messe this year. Their social media posts are unanimously positive. Many described ProWein 2026 as more “cozy” and “relaxed.”

“Despite the challenging market situation, the mood was unexpectedly good. Not too crowded, but not empty either,” comments Brensing. “A lot of people doesn’t necessarily mean good business, as one producer wisely told me on Tuesday. My take: ProWein is no longer the world’s largest wine fair, and perhaps that’s a good opportunity. It can now reinvent itself. Innovation often comes under pressure in tough times.”

Dr. Matthias Neske, wine expert and analyst from Bamberg, Bavaria, sees it similarly: ProWein 2026 reflected the overall diversity of the wine industry. There were fewer “casual” visitors, but more major buyers, and strong deals were struck. “In some halls or at certain booths, without the usual foot traffic or the ‘magnet effect,’ things looked a bit sad, but that’s always been the case,” says Neske. “The fair’s more compact format, thanks to fewer exhibitors, definitely worked in its favor. In terms of offerings, ProWein still remains thoroughly international.”

“It was a good fair for us,” says Krister Bengtsson, founder of the Star Wine List, a well-established international platform for discovering great wine bars and wine restaurants. “We knew from the start it would be quieter than in previous years, but the slower pace actually made it easier to have meaningful partnership talks. I was glad to take part in the Agora discussion panels. We’ll see what next year brings, but with Wine Paris also getting very popular and busy I believe there’s space in the market for both fairs.”

Winemakers’ takeaways

Quantity doesn’t always mean quality, as winemakers and distillers at the Wines of Ukraine stand were once again reminded at ProWein 2026.

Svitlana Tsybak, CEO of Beykush Winery and Chair of the Association of Craft Winemakers of Ukraine, was pleased with the outcome: “It was a good ProWein for us. We had a steady flow of visitors, mostly from the Nordic markets, as well as the UK and Poland. We also held many meetings with buyers from the Netherlands – that was particularly encouraging.”

Nataliia Burlachenko, CEO of Big Wines and 46 Parallel Wine Group, notes that this year’s exhibition felt calmer than previous editions: “Most of our conversations were with existing contacts. Among the new ones were importers who already work with other Ukrainian producers and are looking to expand their portfolios. We felt growing interest from our neighboring countries – Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania. I hope this kind of communication will help strengthen ties between us.”

Natalia believes it is crucial for Ukrainian producers to take part in major industry events like ProWein: “Our presence at this year’s joint Wines of Ukraine stand opens the door to international dialogue and collaboration, giving producers a space to articulate their position, present their vision, and highlight the identity of Ukrainian wine, from local to international varieties.”

Alina Tintulova, co-owner of Villa Tinta, shares her impressions: “Compared with previous years, the fair felt almost half the size. Still, this time we saw more owners of specialty wine shops and enotecas from Germany – they’re actively looking for something new, authentic, and high-quality from Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Georgia. We also appreciated the chance to speak calmly and constructively with our importers from Sweden and Norway and to introduce them to colleagues at the stand: consolidated shipments are far more efficient for both importers and producers. Overall, the three days were dynamic.”

For the Odesa-based brands of still and sparkling wines French Boulevard and Odesa, ProWein 2026 was their debut appearance – and a valuable one. “The stand drew a wide range of visitors, from importers and distributors to HoReCa representatives. We made several genuinely promising contacts for future cooperation. The overall organization felt strong, and international interest was clear. Our impressions are very positive – it’s an excellent platform for growth and new opportunities,” says the company’s marketing manager, Elyzaveta Gryntsova.

Some participants from other countries also describe this year’s experience as positive. “ProWein today is no longer about trying to taste everything,” reflects Roman Rotarov, President of the Moldovan Sommelier Association. “It’s about understanding whom you want to move forward with. What matters most is that the quality of dialogue has improved. Less noise and fewer crowds, more substance. Fewer random tastings, more meaningful meetings.”

The buyers’ perspective

For Yevgenia Nikolaichuk, wine projects manager at Silpo, Ukraine’s most progressive and significant retail chain, this year’s ProWein was one of the most pleasant yet: no queues, easy access to stands, and the ability to speak with producers without even having to book a meeting. But there was a downside. “Unlike in previous years, the number of producers was significantly smaller, which reduced the event’s effectiveness for us,” she says.

Olga Zoria, co-founder of Bandura Selection wine agency, also appreciated the increased breathing room this year. “For buyers, everything was convenient. But some major players noted that if you’re looking for something new, you’re unlikely to find it, since most of the exhibitors were already well-known producers with the budgets to participate. Even so, many buyers appreciated the chance to talk calmly with everyone they were interested in, and many visitors said they’re ready to return.”

For participating winemakers, however, the picture looks a bit different. “Spanish and Italian producers aren’t very eager to come back – which isn’t surprising, since they have their own major international fairs,” Olga explains. “Friends of mine in the non-alcoholic segment said it was good, but the prices were far too high. And everyone, really, is talking about the prices.” In her opinion, ProWein remains highly professional and sharply focused on what actually matters in the industry. “But if winemakers stop coming because of the high costs, buyers won’t come either. This is something the organizers need to rethink.”

Like many other visitors, Olga believes Düsseldorf has become a debatable location for an event of such international scale, especially given the rise of major wine fairs in tourist capitals like Paris and Barcelona.

In short, both ProWein and the industry as a whole are headed for further change. The challenges remain serious, and we sincerely wish the organizers the clarity to absorb this year’s lessons, the courage to make tough decisions, and the success needed to shape a renewed format for the world’s leading wine and spirits event.

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For quite a while, ProWein was considered the world’s largest international trade fair for wine and spirits. This year, however, things look a little different. Long before the fair opened, organizers had already announced a smaller number of exhibitors and visitors, along with a reduced exhibition space.This was explained as an effective optimization and even […]

DISCOVER UKRAINE 2026 – Wine + Spirit Grand Tasting will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August 2026, becoming the first trade professional exhibition featuring Ukrainian wines and alcoholic beverages ever held in the country. Drinks+ is the exclusive media partner of the event.

The event is organized by GODAI SDN. BHD., represented by its Founder & CEO Solomiia Begun, in collaboration with The Wine Academy (Kuala Lumpur) and the Ukrainian Vine & Wine Association (UVWA, Kyiv).

This two-day Trade Professional event is designed to highlight the discovery of Ukrainian products, which provide diversity, quality, and export potential of Ukrainian wines and spirits to the Southeast Asian market.

The Expo will bring together leading Ukrainian producers and welcome a carefully curated audience of trade professionals, including:
• importers and distributors,
• HoReCa representatives,
• restaurateurs and hoteliers,
• sommeliers and beverage managers, from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia, with expected participation from Vietnam and Cambodia.

The event will be held with the official support of the Embassy of Ukraine in Malaysia, highlighting its role in promoting Ukrainian wine and spirits as part of the country’s economic and cultural diplomacy in the region.

Registration

• Please find attached the official registration form: https://forms.gle/gc9hQyHaq88yrWo56
• All applications will be carefully reviewed, and successful applicants will be notified by email.

Contact

For further information, please contact:
wineacademyinfo@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +3 8067 918 24 74 Solomiia

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DISCOVER UKRAINE 2026 – Wine + Spirit Grand Tasting will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August 2026, becoming the first trade professional exhibition featuring Ukrainian wines and alcoholic beverages ever held in the country. Drinks+ is the exclusive media partner of the event. The event is organized by GODAI SDN. BHD., represented by […]

From 16 to 18 May 2026, the historic Hofburg Vienna in the heart of the Austrian capital will once again host VieVinum, Austria’s largest and most prestigious international wine festival. Held every two years, the event has long been one of the country’s key platforms for presenting Austrian winemaking to the world and an important meeting point for producers, buyers, sommeliers, importers, and specialised media.

VieVinum 2026 will bring together hundreds of exhibitors in Vienna, including wineries, trading companies, and industry professionals, all set to showcase the finest examples of contemporary Austrian wine. The festival traditionally combines high-level tastings, professional networking, and discussions of current market trends.

Founded in 1998, VieVinum has become the central showcase for Austrian wine for an international audience and a powerful instrument for supporting the country’s wine exports. It is also especially worth noting that VieVinum is a nominee for the Wine Travel Awards in the Enogastronomic Events / Magnet of the Region category.

The organisers are also placing strong emphasis on an extensive supporting programme: in addition to the main exhibition, guests can look forward to specialised tastings, professional seminars, and the prestigious Star Wine List of the Year ceremony.

The School of Wine programme adds to the vibrancy of VieVinum, bringing together young and unconventional voices with the great legends of winemaking history. Wines from alternative cultivation and production methods are explored alongside traditional benchmarks.

The Zone Zero offers a refreshing break, showcasing the market’s most exciting alcohol-free beverages and reflecting contemporary consumer trends.

The scale and influence of the festival were clearly demonstrated by the results of its previous edition: VieVinum 2024 set a new record by welcoming 16,000 visitors from 58 countries. This success once again confirmed the event’s status as one of the strongest international platforms for promoting Austrian wine and reinforcing its standing on the global stage.

On May 16, 2026, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) final will take place at Vienna’s Stadthalle. This timing overlap with VieVinum’s opening day has the potential to inspire new audiences to discover Austrian wine.

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From 16 to 18 May 2026, the historic Hofburg Vienna in the heart of the Austrian capital will once again host VieVinum, Austria’s largest and most prestigious international wine festival. Held every two years, the event has long been one of the country’s key platforms for presenting Austrian winemaking to the world and an important […]

The wine world has suffered an irreparable loss. We have lost not only a gifted consultant and winemaker, but a true visionary – a figure whose influence on contemporary wine is difficult to overstate. On 20 March, in Bordeaux, Michel Rolland died at the age of 78, leaving behind one of the brightest and most influential legacies on the global wine stage.

His name became synonymous with oenological mastery. For decades, he helped shape the style of many of the most acclaimed wines of his era, consulting for hundreds of estates across continents and contributing to the creation of cult labels – both client projects (Le Pin, Kirwan, Angélus, Ausone, Smith Haut‑Laffite, Latour Martillac in France; Miolo Family in Brazil; Ornellaia in Italy) and his own wines from Bordeaux, Argentina and South Africa, united under the Rolland Collection umbrella. Yet perhaps his greatest gift was the ability to reveal greatness where few expected it: in modest terroirs, overlooked vineyards, and regions still searching for their voice (Saints Hills in Croatia; Telish Wine Cellar and Jair Agopian in Bulgaria).

His approach – late harvesting, generous fruit, suppleness and depth – was not always universally embraced. At times his judgements seemed uncompromising (for instance, we struggled with his scepticism toward the Greek variety Agiorgitiko, which has since demonstrated – even to Michel Rolland himself – that it had been underestimated). But he remained consistent and persuasive. He believed deeply in the power of ripeness, in the clarity of character, in the idea that wine must be not only technically accomplished but emotionally resonant.

One of his long‑time colleagues recalls: “I first met Michel in June 1985. Since then, we spent decades tasting and debating wine. I did not always share his affection for a generous, high‑alcohol style, but I always admired his clarity of thought, his energy, and that famous Cheshire‑cat smile. I was looking forward to seeing him again in April, when I would return to Bordeaux to taste the 2025 vintage. His perspective on a new Bordeaux harvest was always worth hearing.”

A son of Bordeaux who opened the world beyond Bordeaux

Born in Libourne and raised at the family estate, Château Le Bon Pasteur, Rolland would become one of the world’s most renowned “flying winemakers”. His work demonstrated that great wine is not the exclusive domain of Bordeaux. Argentina, in particular, owes him a profound debt for helping unlock the potential of Malbec and elevating the country’s winemaking reputation to new heights. Spain, too, benefited from his vision.

In 2010, he launched the Rolland & Galarreta project with Javier Galarreta, aiming to introduce French – and international – audiences to the finest expressions of Spanish wine, from Rioja and Priorat to Rueda and Jerez. The white Rueda R&G, remembered by many, was a compelling reminder that Rolland’s talent extended beyond red wines. The collections from Priorat, Rioja and Jerez became worthy ambassadors of “wine Spain” on the world stage.

Michel Rolland (24.11.1947 – 20.03.2026) 

His name will remain forever inscribed in the history of wine.

Condolences from Drinks+

The Drinks+ editorial team extends its deepest sympathies to Dany Rolland, his daughters, the entire Bodega Rolland team who worked alongside him, and all who had the honour of knowing Michel Rolland.

The wine world is quieter today. Yet the legacy he leaves behind – profound, enduring, inexhaustible – will continue to inspire winemakers and wine lovers for generations to come.

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The wine world has suffered an irreparable loss. We have lost not only a gifted consultant and winemaker, but a true visionary – a figure whose influence on contemporary wine is difficult to overstate. On 20 March, in Bordeaux, Michel Rolland died at the age of 78, leaving behind one of the brightest and most […]