World Bulk Wine Exhibition’s digital marketplace goes live

WBWE Connect – the new digital marketplace platform that has been launched by the team behind the World Bulk Wine Exhibition – has opened for registration.

Running from 23 November until 4 December the platform has been set up to  enable producers to showcase their portfolios to a broad audience of international professionals despite the exhibition not going aghead this year due to Covid-19 restrictions. The organisers say this year will see one the largest portfolios of bulk wines, which buyers can browse using a personalised search system that will enable them to zone in on the right products for their portfolio and link with producers from across the world via the WBWE Connect digital meeting hub.

Wineries taking part can log their preferences to ensure they can find the best international buyers for their wines, accelerating the search processes for purchasing and sales, and the WBWE team is carrying out the field work with a ‘matching service’ that identifies and contacts the best buyers adapted to each kind of wine. It is guaranteeing at least three and five meetings with buyers, as well as promoting wineries to its database of buyers.

So far, wineries from Australia, Spain, Hungary, South Africa, Argentina, the United States, Japan Portugal and Uruguay have already signed up to the platform, with names such Qualia Wines, Austwine Exports and Kingston Estate Wines (Australia), Sanz Calvo and Bodegas Escudero (Spain), MTE International (France), UniWines Vineyard (South Africa), Fecovita coop. (Argentina),  Varga Zsolt (Hungary), Ste. Michelle Wine StateS (USA), Kanematsu (Japan), and Wenfor (Uruguay) already uploading their portfolio of wines and preferences.

The new platform, which is offering a hefty discount for recent exhibitors at the fair, demonstrates the ability of the sector to adapt to challenges, the organisers said, and is likely to prove more to be more than just a one-off in response to Covid-19, with the format “here to stay.”

Buyers pay a flat fee for unlimited access to the WBWE connect database, but early bird discounts are available.

Please see the November issue of The Drinks Business for the bulk wine feature.