Consortium Piacenza Alimentare sponsored and organised the participation of two local wineries (La Stoppa and Torre Fornello) in the Italian WIne TAsting organised by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) in Mexico City (7th October) and Guadalajara (9th October). The event included some wine tastings and B2B meetings.
It was the biggest Italian mission ever for the wine sector in Mexico: 36 Italian wineries, Assoenologi (Italian Enologists' Association), Uvive (Unione of the Veneto Wines Consortia), Consortium "Chianti classico", Consortium for the protection of Asti and, obviously, Consortium Piacenza Alimentare.
Mexico is still an emerging market for Italian wines; export volume grew by almost 20% (7 million € in 2006 – over 8 million € in 2007). Moreover, the position of Mexico, right in the middle of the American continent, makes this country a strategic market for Italian wines.
Wine consumption is gradually increasing, especially among high-middle class consumers (about 24 million people) who tend to prefer quality wines.
The meetings with local operators were quite satisfactory (even if some important companies were missing) and our wine-makers had the opportunity to start promising commercial relations.
In general, Piacenza red wines were particularly successfull (Gutturnio); in Guadalajara, the local operators appreciated also our white wines, including Ortrugo. In general, the even was successful but it also highlighted how difficult it is to promote our wines and their quality.
The Mexican event is part of a wider promotional project promoted by Consortium Piacenza Alimentare in favour of PIacenza wines. The up-coming initiatives are:
– Vinitaly US Tour (Chicago, New York, Washington – 27/30 October 2008);
– Great Italian Wine Tasting in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City – 3/6 November 2008), involving over 100 Italian wineries from 13 regions.
– Vinitaly China (Shanghai and Macao – 20/22 November 2008).
