This year a total stand area of 41,000 sq. m. accommodated 45 countries from around the world. France covered the largest area, followed by Spain, Italy and Portugal. The USA, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia and South Africa were also well represented with more than 190 companies. Club du Luc located on the lakeside along Hall 1 hosted 13 market leaders in individual air-conditioned pavilions opening on to patios and private gardens where visitors and exhibitors mingled to exchange shop talk and discuss business opportunities.

As an official release noted, “Vinexpo, the international wine and spirits exhibition offers its 2,400 exhibitors from 45 countries the unique opportunity to ride on this formidable wave and meet 45,000 buyers and distributors from 140 countries.”

Number crunching
Reports from Bordeaux following Vinexpo 2007 indicate that the outlook for wine is bright. With a turnover of $277 billion in 2005, the worldwide wine and spirits market continues to grow and is expected to reach around $300 billion by 2010. Wine alone represents $107 billion, which is double the turnover of “G.Y.M.E.” (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and eBay)!

A recent study carried out for Vinexpo forecasts that by 2010, wine sales will have increased at an annual rate of 2.1% and sales of spirits at an annual rate of 1.39%. In 2005, worldwide consumption of wine was 228 million hectoliters or the equivalent of over 30 billion bottles! Consumption is expected to increase by a further 4.8% in volume over the following five years (representing nearly 267 million additional bottles each year!).

Although this remarkable growth is not evenly distributed among the wine producing countries, it will continue to benefit from the opening of new consumer markets with new countries, new generations of consumers and new expectations.

Indian prospects
Three players dominate the Indian wine industry at present — Château Indage, Sula Wines and Grover Wines. However, the entry of United Spirits, Diageo and Cobra will alter market dynamics, while higher levels of income and growing urbanization are expected to give the demand for wines a further fillip.

Abhay Kewadkar, chief wine maker of United Spirits and director of Four Seasons Wines, said, “We expect to sell six million bottles in the next five years. We are also planning to capture 30 per cent of the wine market during the same period.” Four Seasons will launch six brands in the first year and increase this to 14 over the next five years. United Spirits’ wine manufacturing facility, which is coming up at Baramati near Pune, will produce 600,000 bottles in the first year using local grapes for the wine.

United Spirits is also planning to import wines from France, South Africa, Italy, Australia and New Zealand along with those of Bouvet Ladubay, which are already in the market.