Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/72473
Business to Business T WORLD WINE MEETINGS AMERICA APPEALS TO U.S. IMPORTERS story and photos by Ben Weinberg he fifth annual World Wine Meetings America (WWM), sponsored by the Adhesion Group (www.adhes.com) and Ubifrance (www.ubifrance.fr), was held at the Embassy Suites Hotel Downtown/Lakefront in Chicago from April 28–30. The WWM gathered 143 exhibitors of European wine, mostly French brands not yet available in the New World, and presented them to more than 100 importers and buyers from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. For everyone involved it was a chance to partake of wine at the nitty- gritty level where most of the business gets done. Conference manager Julien Censier of the Adhesion Group told me that without the WWM and similar public/private partnerships, many wines deserving of U.S. distribution would simply remain unknown. "Everything at this meeting is designed for those producers with no importation into the United States. Our only goal is to help find them the right importers and distributors." This edition of the WWM was partly funded by the French govern- ment but also by the European Union, which subsidized the produc- ers' cost of attendance. Exhibitors signed up for either a whole suite (€6,500 for the duration of the meetings) or agreed to share one with another producer (€3,950 per participant). Of this, the subsidy covered €1,500 per solo suite, €950 each if split. This made attendance possible for many wineries because the presenters also slept in the suites. More than a few of the exhibitors, with names such as Domaine de la Tour in Chablis, Maxime Blin in Champagne and Enate from Somontino, Spain, were individual winer- ies, mostly family farms. Enate's Commercial Director, Eric Paré, said that almost every winery in Europe wants to be in the U.S. market, "but you need to be ready to export. These meetings are designed for real busi- World Wine Meetings America conference manager Julien Censier of the Adhesion Group. "Everything at this meeting is designed for those producers with no importation into the United States. Our only goal is to help find them the right importers and distributors." 90 / the tasting panel / july 2012