Vinitaly hails Chengdu Wine Fair ‘a mecca for wine professionals’

Vinitaly Chengdu 2017, held in conjunction with the Chengdu Wine Fair, has ended on a high note, prompting its managing director to hail the wine fair a “true mecca of trade business for wine professionals”.

Italy’s consul general in Chongqing, Sergio Maffettone; Veronafiere CEO Giovanni Mantovani; Stevie Kim, managing director of Vinitaly International; and Zhang Jinglin, Italian wine expert, attended the opening ceremony of Vinitaly International’s pavilion in Shangri-la Hotel.

The fourth edition of Vinitaly Chengdu offered a series of B2B walk-around tastings, masterclasses and the Vinitaly International Academy wine seminars held on 19-22 March at the Shangri-la Hotel.

More than 30,000 visitors visited the Vinitaly pavilion which showcased more than 400 Italian wine labels from 44 exhibitors.

“I was struck by the great attendance of the buyers throughout the four days”, says Alessandro Mugnano, head of Interprocom, an import company based in Shenzhen. “This is the fourth year that my company participates in the Chengdu fair, but it is the first year in which we had an immediate and highly positive feedback. This feedback shows, at last, an increasing trend towards premium wines, which distances itself from the usual entry-level wines. Italian wines are a small but continuously growing phenomenon in this immense and complex market. By strengthening teamwork and increasing promotional activities, this growth can become exponential”.

The positive reaction was also shared among the exhibitors that travelled from Italy. Annalisa De Dominicis, export manager for Velenosi, commented, “most of the visitors were distributors coming from all over Chinese provinces, as well as some small importers and wine lovers. The level of interest in Italian wine is growing and captures, in particular, people who are already working in the wine sector but who haven’t previously worked with Italian wine specifically.”

Other highlights at the fair were the ONAV China masterclasses and Vinitaly International Academy executive wine seminars. Marco Pizzoli, general manager of Gruppo Italiano Vini in China, stated, “We have registered and increased both the numbers but especially the quality of visitors this year. The educational activity with thematic wine tastings has proved to be very useful, and we must continue to strengthen it, as our future relies on good education”.  

Stevie Kim, managing director of Vinitaly International, commented, “I am very satisfied with our Italian representation at Vinitaly Chengdu this year. After struggling and fine-tuning for four years, I think we have finally come to a good balance of solid representation of Italian wine both directly from Italy and as well as wine importers specialised in Italian wines”.

“There are so many fairs in China, mostly clustered around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou area. But if you look at them, as I go to most of them on a regular basis, I oftentimes meet the same 500 faces from the surrounding area. Chengdu is the only wine fair where I meet people from the entire country. That is the proof that it is the true Mecca of trade business for wine professionals.”

Vinitaly Chengdu 2017 also marked the new partnership between Vinitaly International and 1919, a leading e-commerce company in China.

“We chose Vinitaly International as our partner as they are the leaders of Italian wine in China. I can tell Vinitaly is always looking for innovative and useful tools to foster B2B connections. They were the first to set up the Italian wine pavilion during the ‘International Wine and Spirits Show’ in Chengdu. This partnership with 1919 celebrates Vinitaly’s long-lasting commitment to Chengdu and we are looking forward to what future collaborations will bring,” comments Andrew Tan, general manager of 1919’s purchasing subsidiary – Shanghai 1919 Global procurement CO., LTD.

1919 is the largest online-to-offline open platform for wine and spirits and the third biggest liquor open platform after Tmall and JD, attracting more than 1,500 domestic and international brands.

A gala dinner was held on 20 March at InterContinental Hotel to celebrate the new partnership.

“Nowadays, everyone is talking about the market place but 1919 are the true pioneers of offline to online. I visited their flagship store in Chengdu, and it is absolutely amazing. To think that they already have more than 1000 shops in 500 cities, it is mind-boggling. We really hope that we can do something substantial in terms of Italian wine education with their support,” Stevie Kim said.