On a Tuesday in February, a Mediterranean wine fair in Montpellier found itself trending on Twitter alongside the Grammys. I was there as one of four Vinisud Ambassadors, and between tasting sessions in the southern French sunshine, we watched #Vinisud2016 reach more than half a million accounts in just two days.
It was my first time at Vinisud, and as locations go, you could hardly do better than tasting wine on the sunny coast of France in February. My fellow ambassadors were Charlie Arturaola, producer of the film The Ways of Wine, Denise Medrano of The Wine Sleuth and Michelle Williams of Rocking Red Blog, all three of them seasoned social media professionals. Together we became a sounding board for producers, and according to Sylvain Dadé of the agency SOWINE, which hosted the Vinisud Digital Hub, the hashtag reached 533,000 accounts with 4.8 million impressions over the last two days of the show. In a single day, it broke records with nearly 1,500 tweets.
Catching some sun between appointments with a glass of Provence rosé
Charlie Arturaola, Denise Medrano and Michelle Williams at the Digital Hub
“J’adore Vinisud” sunglasses, with Charlie Arturaola
London calling
Each ambassador gave a presentation at the Digital Hub, and Charlie, Denise and Michelle all shared genuinely useful, practical advice on social media and digital marketing. Mine, “London Calling: How to Stand Out in a Crowded Market,” looked at the trends shaping central London’s wine trade and how the next generation of wine lovers discovers Mediterranean wines through social media.
Château Léoube from Provence kindly supported my presentation, and they tick nearly every box for reaching the London market. Their winemaker, Romain Ott, is a legend of Provence rosé, and a refreshingly humble, softly spoken man who could hardly be further from the bling of the Côte d’Azur. The wines are rather good too.
Romain Ott of Château Léoube, Provence
Thinking pink
Perhaps it was all that soothing pink, but I spent a good deal of time at the Provence rosé displays, where each wine was presented with useful technical details and the full spectrum of rosé colours was laid out side by side.
Provence all-stars at Vinisud 2016
The colours of Provence rosé in detail
Vinisud is a large but well-spaced event, with no sharpened elbows required, though three days is barely enough to see it all. The fair covers the whole Mediterranean, from Portugal to Lebanon, a region responsible for a very large share of the world’s wine.
A few highlights from around the halls:
Truckin’ with Pays d’Oc IGP
At the Wine Mosaic stand, which celebrates rare and almost-forgotten Mediterranean grapes, I found a 100% Obeidy from Château St Thomas, made from Lebanon’s indigenous white grape
The Sparkling Zone
An excellent guide to volcanic soils from the producers of Soave, alongside a packet of Citrate de Bétaïne, the French pharmacy remedy I swear by on rich-food wine trips.
Ambassador lunch beneath the flamingos, with Charlie Arturaola and Denise Medrano.
I was invited as a conference speaker, and all views are my own.
Leave a comment