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 After Champagne last year where delegates like me had attended a 2-day conference, followed by visits to several champagne houses like Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Taittinger, Drappier, Dom Caudron, Champagne Collet and Champagne Charlier, in the Marne and Aube champagne regions, this year appears to be equally bubbly with tastings and visits to premium Cava houses and a Master Tasting of Gramona, Llopart, Codorníu, Freixenet, Castellroig and Vallformosa led by Sarah Jane Evans MW, the Chairman of the Institute of Master of Wine.
Wine Conferences
Sarah Jane Evans MW will conduct the much-awaited Official Cava Tasting with Cavas from Gramona, Llopart, Codorníu, Freixenet, Castellroig and Vallformosa being poured. Cava may be produced in several parts of Spain as D.O. Cava but over 97.5% is produced in the small town of Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, close to Barcelona. She will take the participants through a journey of several parts of Catalonia where DO Cava is produced- Alella, Conca de Berberá, Empordà and the Penedès, taking the participants through the history of Cava while doing so.
In an interesting workshop Anthony Swift will take you to a guided tasting of Cavas and bringing Discourse Analysis into the winery visit, will guide how to get your customers to talk about the wines and the winery for 90% of the time and winery person for 10% instead of the other way around that is the normal industry practice.
There will be Presentations of Branding and Marketing, Research, Networking and will include use of digital media and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques and Grape Escape Destinations in Bulgaria, Greece, Castilla y Leon and India. Subhash Arora will nudge the delegates from thinking Taj Mahal and Kamasutra when they think of India and will ‘take them through various wineries, wine regions and the logical wine routes’ which have not been officially recognised yet but all the same provide a great opportunity for the wine lovers to explore.
The only problem will be that during each slot there will be three seminars running concurrently, making the choice a bit difficult-in any case, it will keep you busy for the whole 2 days with just a couple of coffee breaks a day and lunch that will be provided for the registrants.
Social and Gastronomy visits
 If Torres is the big daddy of Spanish (and Chilean) wines, Freixenet is the Cava cousin of similar standing. Both are well represented in India- Torres through Prestige Wines as the JV while Freixenet after spending years with Global Tax Free is now wedded to Aspri Spirits. A visit to Torres is a must for anyone passing through Barcelona-especially for the lazy people who can sit in a train and relax- the train taking them through the various wine making areas including one of the most-clicked barrel cellars in the world. Visits through the winery and vineyards will be followed by a gala dinner at each winery.
There are plenty of networking events giving conference delegates a chance to make connections during a packed social programme of winery visits, tastings and gala dinners. As usual, there is also an exhibition area where delegates can discover grape destinations such as Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain with the possibility of tasting some of their wines. The event will also see a one- day Workshop for agents and wine tourism experience providers to hold b2b meetings.
Post- Conference there are visits scheduled for April 7 and 8 to visit either Conca de Barbera or Cava and Penedès regions.
Kick-off on April 4
The formal 2-day Conference starts on April 5 but IWINETC kicks off a day earlier, giving participants a chance to visit one of the four of the best Cava producers of 2016 as stated in the recently published book 50 Great Cavas 2016 by Wine Pleasures. This will be followed by a Welcome Reception featuring addresses from Mr Xavier Espassa Añoveros, General Manager of the ‘Catalan Tourist Board’, and Mr Miquel Forns i Fusté of the ‘Barcelona Province Council Tourist Board’. The dinner will also provide an opportunity to enjoy the experience of local tapas matched with Cavas and Codorníu wines.
Changing Venue Countries
 The Concept of these Conferences evolved in 2009 with the first one taking place in 2011. Every year a new country and region is chosen for the Conference. This makes the event unique and extremely interesting for the registrants who get to visit a new region and the wineries and at times taste entirely different grape varieties, making it very educational.
Previous venues in the recent years have been Champagne-France (2015), Tbilisi-Georgia (2014), Zagreb-Croatia (2013) Perugia- Italy (2012) and Porto-Portugal (2011).
Anthony Swift refuses to divulge next year’s venue but adds that the organisation will soon announce a prize for guessing the next year’s host. The venue will be announced at the closing remarks at 5 pm on the second day. He confirms that two countries have bid for 2018 including Greece, which seems to be participating heavily in the current edition next month.
Interesting, the 8th edition of the International Wine Tourism Conference, Exhibition and Workshop coincides with Catalonia named as the European Region of gastronomy 2016.
About 300 wine and culinary tourism professionals from 40 countries including India are expected to attend #IWINETC 2016.
For registration, visit https://www.iwinetc.com/2016spain/conference-registration. For further information, please visit www.iwinetc.com or write to info@winepleasures.com.
For a few of the previous related Articles, please also visit:
IWINETC 2015: Champagne Wine Tourism Conference in Champagne
IWINETC 2015: Le Champagne in La Champagne-Ooh Le La!
IWINETC 2015: Grower Champagnes- Les Champagnes de Vignerons
Subhash Arora |