A trade fair can put a winery in front of the right importer, restaurant group or specialist retailer. It cannot, on its own, turn that conversation into a listing.
The difference is often decided in the days around the meeting: whether the buyer has received the right samples, whether the price is usable, whether availability is clear and whether somebody follows up while the tasting is still fresh in their mind.
Hillebrand Gori published guidance on 3 September about planning the journey to market around wine trade events, including how early samples should be sent. The point is operational, but it has a commercial consequence. A sample that arrives late is not simply a logistics delay; it can miss the buyer’s internal selection meeting altogether.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association’s Specialist Importers Trade Tasting is scheduled for 21 and 23 September in London and Manchester. Events like this show why preparation matters. Independent buyers are not visiting stands to collect a second catalogue. They are trying to decide what is worth taking forward into a shelf, a wine list or an importer’s next portfolio review.
The buyer’s calendar is more important than the fair calendar
Many wineries organise a fair around what they will pour. That is necessary, but it is not enough. The buyer is managing another timetable: seasonal list changes, commercial reviews, stock planning, promotions and staff availability.
A wine can be well received at a tasting and still disappear from view if the follow-up comes with no trade price, no confirmed availability or five references when the buyer asked for two. The operational question should therefore be: what must this buyer be able to decide within seven days of the meeting?
For some accounts, the answer is a sample shipment. For others, it is an EXW price, a landed-price estimate from the importer, a one-page sales sheet or confirmation of the next vintage. The format changes, but the principle does not. The winery needs to remove the uncertainty that stops the buyer from taking the next step.
Facts, inference and recommendation
Facts. Hillebrand Gori’s recent trade-event guidance highlights early sample planning as part of market access. The WSTA’s September tasting is designed for specialist importers and independent trade buyers.
Inference. At a crowded tasting, buyer attention is scarce. A winery that provides a complete and timely next step has a better chance of moving from conversation to evaluation.
Recommendation. Treat each fair appointment as a short commercial process with a defined objective, a documented next action and a named owner.
What this means for an exporting winery
The fair should be an acceleration point in a buyer journey that began before the stand and continues after it. A good conversation matters; an executable next decision matters more. A winery that knows the buyer’s channel, target price and timing can use the fair to validate fit instead of hoping that a general tasting will create momentum.
Three decisions before the next fair
- Set a sample deadline before booking appointments. Confirm shipping destination, recipient, customs requirements and tasting date. Do not rely on samples arriving “around the event”.
- Prepare a buyer-specific selection. Limit the tasting to references that fit the buyer’s stated channel, price range and customer. A broad range can be useful later; it is rarely useful at the first decision.
- Agree the next step while you are still at the stand. Record what the buyer asked for, who will send it and by when. Then send a short follow-up within two business days, with only the information needed to continue.
A fair is valuable because it compresses many conversations into a short time. That is also why weak follow-up is expensive: the buyer sees dozens of wines, and memory quickly becomes unreliable. The advantage is not having the busiest stand. It is making it easy for the right buyer to say yes to a defined next action. Request an AI export diagnosis.
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