Week in pictures: ProWein 2024

This week saw the drinks business team descend on Düsseldorf for one of the world’s largest wine trade shows, ProWein 2024, with a number of events taking place.

Despite rail strikes and issues with some airline carriers, ProWein this year proved again to be a big draw.

Fair director Peter Schmitz said that “top-notch people travel to Düsseldorf from all over the world”, and the fair, which also happened to be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, had 47,000 registered trade visitors from 135 countries and 5,400 exhibitors from 65 countries across the three days (10-12 March).

“No other trade fair offers as wide a range as ProWein. All international wine-growing regions are represented in Düsseldorf.”

Institute of Masters of Wine

On Tuesday, db editor-in-chief Patrick Schmitt MW, ProWein’s Michael Degen and chair of the IMW Cathy van Zyl MW took to the stage in Hall 1 to present Michael Brajkovich MW with the Winemakers’ Winemaker award.

The New Zealand native is recognised by many as the pioneer of the Chardonnay movement in the country and a champion for wild yeasts in winemaking and continues to experiment and develop his technique as a winemaker. His wines continue to impress, perhaps most notably the Hunting Hill Chardonnay.

Read more about the award here.

Henkell Freixenet 

Sparkling wine giant Henkell Freixenet went all out with the launch of a new no-alcohol product Mionetto Aperitivo in an explosion of orange.

The low- and no-alcohol free market had a big impact at the show, as can be seen in our trends piece.

Henkell told the drinks business that the twin-pronged product is initially aimed at the on-trade.

Alcohol-free products are “not an alternative any longer”, said Vanessa Lehmann, head of communications.

Read more about the launch here. 

Chianti Classico

This year Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico celebrated its 100 year anniversary with an after-show party including food, wine and a full jazz band.

In 1924, 33 wine makers decided to create an association to promote and protect the wines of Chianti Classico and its production area which was actually already mentioned by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’ Medici in 1716 as one of the world first ever appellations.

After 100 years, the number of wine makers is around 350 spread out over 70,000 hectares of immaculate countryside between Florence and Siena, the sort of countryside that would have been familiar to Leonardo da Vinci.

Ehrmanns Wine

Rock band Iron Maiden teamed up with importer and distributor Ehrmanns Wine to create a wine inspired by one of the heavy metal’s bands most recent songs.

Taking inspiration from the band’s 2021 song Darkest Hour, Iron Maiden Darkest Red is a Douro DOC still red (also from the 2021 vintage) sourced from historic producer Van Zeller Wine Collection.

Launching the product at ProWein, Ehrmanns Wine head of sales Paul Daniell told the drinks business that the band expressed interest in the company’s other Portugese wines and also that it was a happy coincidence that frontman Bruce Dickinson spoke at the Wine Future conference in Coimbra, Portugal last year as this Portuguese table wine was in development.

Read more about the launch here.

ProSpirits

The ProSpirits element of ProWein was given Hall 5 this year with a trend show in Hall 7 that focused on craft spirits, beer and cider.

The show covered a total area of 6,500 square meters from over 40 countries, with global players in the spirits market represented.

Spain

There was a number of innovations, product launches and promotions across the Spanish wine hall.

db caught up with a number of producers who had a variety of stories to tell.

Fine wine group Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (CVNE) told db it was making a concerted effort to secure its long-term future in the face of climate change, both in terms of where it invests and how it operates.

Bodegas Riojanas told db about its new rosé and how it was marketing its products to the tricky Generation Z and Millennial demographics.

With the ever-growing popularity of Albariño too, there looks set to be a number of Spanish success stories to come in the immediate future.