It continues its progression as a benchmark event for Spanish wine
Barcelona Wine Week closes a record edition and will expand its space in 2025
Barcelona Wine Week closes its fourth edition consolidated as the benchmark show for quality Spanish wine and positioned among the three most important European trade fairs in the sector. For three days, 952 wineries from 73 Spanish DOs showcased their best wines to major national and international buyers in an event whose success in terms of participation means that it is already planning a significant expansion for next year.
Barcelona Wine Week (BWW), the benchmark show for quality Spanish wine, closes its doors this Wednesday at Fira de Barcelona with record figures: 952 wineries from 73 Designations of Origin and close to 21,000 professional visitors 20% of whom international. In total, more than 12,000 business meetings were held during the event between exhibiting companies and the 1,000 large national buyers and 650 key international importers from strategic countries such as the United States, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and China, invited by BWW in collaboration with ICEX.
After the success of its fourth edition, which has grown by 15% in terms of both exhibitors and exhibition space, the focus is now on the 2025 edition, in which BWW will expand its surface area to meet the high demand from wineries and professional visitors, without leaving its emblematic location at Fira de Barcelona’s Montjuïc exhibition centre. BWW 2025 will be held from 3 to 5 February next year.
For the show’s president, Javier Pagés, “in just four editions, Barcelona Wine Week has become one of the three most important wine shows in Europe. This success forces us to resize ourselves, to grow to welcome more wineries and more buyers, but without losing the essence of exclusivity and quality of the event”.
Over three days, more than 300,000 glasses of wine were served for tasting from large companies such as Matarromera, Pago de los Capellanes, Protos, Marqués del Atrio, Hammeken Cellars, Lan, La Rioja Alta, Araex, Juvé & Camps, Vicente Gandía, Freixenet and Vallformosa, as well as from hundreds of small and medium-sized wineries grouped into Denominations of Origin and other quality labels. The DO Ribera del Duero, DOCa Rioja and DO Cava, but also others such as Priorat, Bierzo, Alicante, Mallorca, Jumilla, Cigales, Rías Baixas, Arlanza and Navarra, were the most present.
The show was also attended by more than 160 experts, Masters of Wine, sommeliers, critics and leading winemakers who analysed the major challenges and macro-trends in the sector. From adaptation to climate change and advances in sustainability to the trend to use unique containers to make wine, beyond wood. Renowned winemakers such as Dominik Huber and Sara Pérez (D.O.Ca Priorat), Masters of Wine such as Fernando Mora, Almudena Alberca and Tim Atkin and experts such as Peter Richards and Beth Willard took part.
United for sustainability
BWW is firmly committed to the sustainability of the event. In this sense, 70% of the show’s furniture and stands are reused and the carpeting is environmentally friendly. In addition, in collaboration with Ecovidrio, more than 17 tonnes of glass were collected at this edition. The show also recovers cork stoppers with the involvement of the Institut Català del Suro and has eliminated single-use plastics.
BWW counts on the collaboration of the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV); the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA); the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism; ICEX Spain Export and Investment and the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It also receives the support of Cajamar, the leading financial group in cooperative banking in Spain.
Barcelona, 7 February 2024
Photos BWW 2024, here
Susana Santamaria: ssantamaria@alimentaria.com
Natàlia Torrent: ntorrent.op@alimentaria.com