Fair vote: db’s Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris review
With another exhibition complete, can Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris provide the political influence the wine and spirits sector needs to secure its future?
THE YEAR has only just started, but judging by the numbers at Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris in February, 2024 will already be considered a success by the team behind the fair. With queues around the block on the first morning, exhibitor and visitor numbers were up on 2023, a fact clear to see by the hustle and bustle of the show’s eight halls.
Vinexposium CEO Rodolphe Lameyse doubtless racked up an impressive step count after three days of introductions, hand-shaking and awards ceremonies; he also played host to the inaugural V d’Or awards at this year ’s exhibition. “As an organiser, you know if a show is a success or not very quickly,” he says, the first indicator of which is the sound. The 2024 Paris exhibition was no exception, with Lameyse confident from the get-go. “Where I’m willing the company to go and where we are today is exactly where I wanted this to be,” he says, breathing a sigh of relief.
Lameyse has always been focused on expansion, but this year his sights were set on another goal – political influence. Three French ministers and 27 ambassadors graced the Porte de Versailles this year, representing the US, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Austria, Spain, China, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia, among others.
Marc Fesneau, the French Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, and Thomas Cazenave, the Minister of State for Public Accounts, even made keynote speeches at the 2024 Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris opening ceremony.
Just weeks before the show opened, French farmers were taking to the streets to protest for government reforms. Lameyse sees Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris as occupying a “third party” role between the political and the agricultural.
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“We absolutely accept that we are politically committed to this industry,” he says. “Not committed in the sense that we defend the farmers whatever happens, but we defend the trade business internationally.” This is no easy task, but he asks: “Who else does it worldwide if not us?”
Whatever the outcome of the latest protests, Lameyse says, the business side of the wine and spirits trade is key to its survival in the long term. “It is business that will serve the industry, not only in France, but in Germany, in Italy, in Spain, anywhere. And this business sits with the demand from the consumer and the capability of the market to respond to that demand,” he continues.
Planning a trade show is always a roll of the dice. Halls and dates need to be booked two or three years in advance, and the details have already been laid out for both the 2025 and 2026 fairs.
“There needs to be a plan in advance in terms of how we grow as a company,” explains the CEO, who is not one to shy away from a challenge.
“I am bullish by nature. When I wake up in the morning, before my first coffee, I’m already that way.”
Lameyse’s perspective on the future of the exhibition is no exception to his nature, and the CEO is just as confident that the growth of Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris since the merger of the two in 2020 is set to continue.
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