This year we were selected to be one of the wineries that would be visited. On Monday morning Naama treated the VIPs to a very interesting presentation on the winery’s use of precision viticulture techniques together with a virtual tour of our new vineyards. This was followed by a tasting of some 11 wines that both showcased the winery and exemplified some of the points made in the presentation. I think the presentation went well the feedback from the guests seemed generally positive.

On Tuesday morning the show began in earnest with a day devoted to trade only customers; here we gave all our wines for tasting including the new Single Vineyard Cab from Meron. We also previewed the new Matatia package, though we didn’t have the wine open for tasting.  

Wednesday and Thursday were the biggest surprise for me. The show was opened to the general public and the admission fee of about 60 Shekels included tokens to taste up to 12 wines. I have to say, I am very uneasy with public events, I am not a great people person and in my experience, wine shows that are open to the public begin to degenerate about half-way through, so that at about 9pm it doesn’t really matter what you are offering as most of the visitors are too drunk to care and merely shove their glass under your nose demanding red or white.

However, this year it seemed very different. I am not sure whether it was the entry price or the fact that we insisted on taking the tokens for the tastings but people were civilized and curious and genuinely interested to understand what it was they were drinking. I must admit that I have never been to a wine fair in Israel where the attendees were so well behaved. I hope that it is a sign of things to come.

Finally the question I really need to ask is were we happy from the show, did it meet our expectations and will we be coming back? And the answer is that I am not really sure…

Were we happy with the show? Well, I think that on the public days we were happy, on the trade days despite the sterling effort of Michal Ne’eman and her colleagues at the Israel Export Institute we are far from calling the Israwinexpo an International Wine Fair and it is not where I would exhibit if I wanted to find overseas clients.

Further if we want to attract the local market then we have the Sommelier exhibition every November in Tel Aviv, which is a much more desirable and accessible trade event. Just as an aside; on Tuesday, I had to literally beg the orgainsers of the fair to let in guests of the winery with whom I work very closely. With all due respect, I don’t need that Polish Mother approach from people who are supposed to be serving my interests.

So far there are two fairly strong arguments for not attending. Now, if the Sommelier show had one day open to the public then it would be a no brainer. We simply do not need two huge wine shows in a year.