‘This most traditional of industries must transform!’ Wine Vision MD

By Ben BOUCKLEY

- Last updated on GMT

Fine French Wines (Photo: Joopey/Flickr)
Fine French Wines (Photo: Joopey/Flickr)

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Wine Vision organizer Andrew Reed insists a heritage-rich wine world must transform to tap the ‘radically different demands’ of millennials, ahead of the 2014 event where the president of Moët Hennessy will speak.

Last November the first ever Wine Vision attracted leading lights from the industry including Cristian Lopez, corporate director at Concha y Toro, Mike Ratcliffe, MD of Warwick Wine Estates and Tesco UK group wine director Dan Jago, to name but a few.

2014 will see the event return to London with a program designed to challenge conventional thinking​ and inspire an agenda for positive change across the wine industry.

High profile speakers will address growth in world markets as relationships between wine brands and consumers shift and competition from spirit and beer brands intensifies.

“While emerging markets are rising, old world wine markets, which account for the lion’s share of world consumption, are flat or falling,”​ says Andrew Reed, MD of the drinks division at William Reed Business Media.

‘Radically different demands of millennials’

“We’ll consider how this most traditional of industries must transform in order to capture the spirit of the age and the radically different demands of today’s millennial consumers,” ​Reed adds.

Wine Vision will juxtapose the traditional with the modern across two venues. The event will start on the evening of November 17 at The Shard in London, with insights into multi-sensory perception led by academics Charles Spence and Barry Smith.

“In a demonstration like no other, we’ll show how environment and multi-sensory stimulus can influence the drinker’s perception of wine, and impact wine marketing in the experience-hungry world,”​ Reed says.

Spence explores the interface between modernist cuisine and commercial food and drink design, and has worked on product concepts for everyone from Diageo to Mumm, PepsiCo and Pierre Jouet.

On November 18 the curtain will comes up on the first day proper of Wine Vision, at London’s prestigious Hurlingham Club in Fulham, where delegates will be housed in an exclusive conference suite.

On the speaker’s rostrum: Stars of the wine world

Speakers include Mike Veset, author of several books and editor of The Wine Economist,​ Jean-Guillaume Prats, president and CEO of Moët Hennessy Estates and Wines, who will speak on the future of premium wine.

Tyler Balliett, founder of Second Glass and creator of the Wine Riot events will consider the vital need to capture the increasingly influential millennial market, while Mike Ratcliffe, MD of South Africa’s Warwick Wine Estate will lead a panel debate on securing a profitable and diverse future for the industry.

Kevin Shaw of Stranger & Stranger will also outline new developments in packaging and marketing that will help wine compete with the super brands of the spirits world.

“Wine Vision continues to embrace a three-fold strategic objective – to bring the international wine industry together for mutual benefit, promote and share best practice and innovative developments, and foster peer-to-peer debate among business strategists and decision markers,”​ Reed said.

“Wine Vision looks at the wine industry through the focused lens of commercial interest to identify opportunities for profitable growth,”​ he added.

Click here to learn more about Wine Vision 2014​ and to register interest

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