InterVin: The Wine Pavilion at Alimentaria Barcelona

Wine Tasting at InterVin (Photo: Alimentaria)

At 72,000 square feet and 12x bigger than the olive oil space, the wine pavilion at Alimentaria in Barcelona accommodated 30,000 visitors, or about 23% of all attendees.   According to a global survey by Wine Intelligence 43 million people worldwide drink Spanish wine relatively often.  The same source indicates that 36 million drink Spanish wine at least once every three months, and 7 million do so at least once per week.  It was no surprise then, that “InterVin”, as this show-within-a-show is called, listed over 900 exhibitors!

Many big names were in attendance, such as Freixenet and Miguel Torres, but there were also ranks and ranks of small wineries, many of them virtually unknown to the general public.  According to the organizers, many of them attended this show for the first time as independent exhibitors.  Another characteristic of this hall were regional pavilions such as 2,000 square feet for Extremadura and a 6,500 SF showcase dedicated exclusively to wineries from La Rioja.

Grapes ready for harvest (Photo: Cava Board)

I love a good sparkling wine, and Cava – a sparkling wine produced in Catalonia following a traditional method – exported 131 million bottles last year mostly to Germany, the UK and the United States.  47% of this was brut.  This was a 5.6% decrease over the exceptional 9.6% growth realized between 2008-2009.  Cava has enjoyed mid-single digit export growth since 2001.  Source:  Cava Regulatory Board.

This year was the 5th edition of Vinorum, which is devoted to discovering, learning and enjoying Spanish wines.  There were talks and tastings and a tasting bar attracting sommeliers, buyers, critics and wine makers.

I had expected InterVin to be 100% Spanish, however Constellation Europe attended for the first time with a selection of its top selling brands, and France also had a significant presence at the show.

Italy had wines from Piemonte, Barbera DOC and Moscato Spumante; Lombardia, Bonarda DOC; Veneto, Pinot Grigio, Merlot and Cabernet; Toscana, Chianti DOCG; Abruzzo, Montepulciano DOC; Puglia,Trebbiano and Sangiovese; and Sicily, Nero d’Avola.  Other wines represented elsewhere at InterVin were from Portugal, Colombia, Panama and Peru.

Wine Tasting station at InterVin (Photo: Alimentaria)

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