There have been many big deals and mergers in the world of wine and spirits over the last 20 years, but when it comes to trade shows the biggest and most important by far was the move in September 2020 by Compexposium, one of the biggest cross-sector trade show organisers in the world, to join forces with the overall Vinexpo brand to create a new business Vinexposium.
The news, at the time, went largely unnoticed, such was the dominance and importance of ProWein in bringing the world of wine and spirits together. Just over four years later and the Wine Paris event and brand is now deeply entrenched in the DNA of the global drinks industry with a huge number of new producers and buyers all set on heading to Paris in February in what will truly mark its position as certainly the fastest growing, if not the most influential trade show of them all.
Rodolphe Lameyse was understandably in bullish mood at this week's World Bulk Wine Exhibition ahead of a record breaking Wine Paris in February
Just look at the numbers. 2025 could see Wine Paris attract the most visitors for the first time with over 50,000 set to attend versus the 47,000 that went to ProWein in 2024 - a far cry from ProWein's pre-Covid days when it saw 61,000 visitors in 2019. Wine Paris’ figures continue to climb from 25,000 visitors in 2022, 36,000 in 2023 and over 40,000 in 2024.
Wine Paris is also expecting over 4,600 exhibitors to take part in February from 50 countries, a 19% jump in floor space, on top of the 30% extra floor space for the 2024 show. The key statistic in those numbers, though, is the 64% jump in floor space for international exhibitors with major areas for Australia and South Africa for the first time.
ProWein, though, can still claim to have the biggest number of exhibitors at 5,282 for its 2024 show, but this is a hefty decline on the 6,000 that went to the 2023 show and the 6,900 that went in 2019.
It really is quite the turnaround. But then, dig into the background of Comexposium, and it is perhaps not that surprising that Wine Paris has been such a success. This is an events organiser used to running the biggest and most important trade shows in the multiple business sectors it works in. It meant serious business when it decided to join forces with Vinexpo in 2020 - it’s just the rest of the drinks industry did not realise it. Including the powers that be at an increasingly under pressure Messe Dusseldorf.
Clear vision and mission
Wine Paris is set to attrract over 50,000 visitors to its show in February. Photo Phillipe Labegeurie
Critical and central to the Wine Paris story is Rodolphe Lameyse, who similar to Comexposium has cut his teeth, and proven his worth, working on major cross industry trade shows all over the world for decades before turning his attention to wine and spirits.
It has been his vision, his focus, his ambition and his dedication that has been the driving force behind not just taking Vinexpo off its death bed, but giving it a complete new lease of life. It is now unrecognisable from what even he describes as an “arrogant” business that had reached its bombastic worse in the mid 2010s.
He was in typically bullish mood when we met up at this week’s World Bulk Wine Exhibition, that is now 100% part of the growing Vinexposium business with seven trade fairs now taking place across the US (Miami and Virginia), India, Singapore and Hong Kong.
He says he is “positively surprised” by how far Wine Paris has come in such a short period of time. “But this is the result of lot of hard work that started six years ago.”
He says he specifically remembers my suggestion at a press event in January 2020 that he faced a similar challenge to Jurgen Klopp when he arrived at Liverpool Football Club who said he had to turn “doubters into believers”.
Back then everyone “doubted Vinexpo” and in particular its ability as a brand to be the “lead trade fair for producers in France” never mind the rest of the world.
“Vinexpo now means something again,” he adds. “Yes, we are called Wine Paris, but it is Vinexpo’s DNA.”
The turnaround has also meant a change in mindset and culture within the Vinexpo business itself where he hopes there is far more of a team and collective spirt. The full team, for example, were on site in Amsterdam over the weekend helping to set up the WBWE show.
He says there is no set recipe on how to run a successful trade show, because even if you have all the right ingredients it can still end up a “disaster if you don’t know how to cook them”. “The team now knows the recipe and what to do with it,” he says. “You have to trust in your team.”
Rodolphe Lameyse says the success of Wine Paris has been the result of six years hard work turning around the Vinexpo brand. Photo Phillipe Labegeurie
The key now is knowing how to improve and keep building on that recipe, to “keep learning, to keep improving our services and to keep that competitive spirit”.
Major alternative
What Wine Paris has done remarkably well is essentially provide a viable alternative to ProWein. Initially as the meeting place for the French wine industry and its buyers, thanks to the work done by Wine Paris’ predecessors the tactically important ViniSud and VinoVision.
Year by year it has slowly grown the international presence by a few percentage points a year, with a major uplift in both non-French exhibitors and visitors. The 2025 show will see three of its halls dedicated to international producers coming from 50 producer countries.
“New believers” include a host of new international pavilions covering: California Wine Institute; New York Wines; Oregon Wine; Uruguay Wines; Washington Wine; Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia; Washington Wine; Wines of Argentina; Wines of Chile; Wines of Hungary; Wines of Macedonia; Wines of Great Britain (WineGB); and Wines of South Africa which will have 20 producers on its generic stand and a further 14 South African producers taking part.
Wine Australia, which having scoped out the show since its start, has now convinced 26 producers to attend and has increased its space four fold for 2025.
The international presence at Wine Paris will be far the biggest yet at its February show
The six biggest countries represented at Wine Paris outside France are Italy, Spain, Portugal, United States, Germany and Austria. All of which are increasing their size of the show with Italy up 74%, Spain up 61%, Portugal 61%, Germany 79%, Austria 52% as well as Greece up 4.5 times, Lithuania 33%, Poland 33% and Romania 75%.
Lameyse is also confident of attracting a big South American delegation of Chilean and Argentine producers from 2026 onwards.
He says there is always a “transfer cost” when people decide to move from one fair to another and he is very aware that they can just as easily go back the other way if Wine Paris does not deliver for them what they need.
“We will not take it for granted that they are with us for good. We are now at the top but we have to keep moving and changing and improving things.”
In good spirit
One of the show’s main focus is to increase and build on its growing spirits side of the event which will see another 39% increase in size in February to 218 exhibitors of which 33% are overseas. Seven new countries will be exhibiting for the first time including Australia, Austria, Chile, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Slovenia – along with four new international pavilions – Moldova, Peru, Italy and Belgium.
The spirits show will increase by 40% at Wine Paris. Photo Phillipe Labegeurie
Lameyse believes there is scope to eventually hold a separate standalone spirits show, but it is not there yet. That’s why it is working hard with its “stakeholders” to keep making the case for Paris and to ensure it brings the most influential brands - and their sizeable marketing budgets - and buyers to the event.
The success of spirits at Wine Paris has provided the catalyst to build a stronger spirits presence at more of its international shows, particularly in Asia where the demand and in interest in cocktails is so much higher.
Wine Paris will also see a 47% increase in the number of no and low alcohol producers exhibiting.
Industry player
Rodolphe Lameyse says it is up to Vinexposium and Wine Paris to help the global drinks indusry find solutions to the many issues it faces
Lameyse is also at pains to stress that Vinexposium and Wine Paris lives and breathes the industry and if “it is doing well then we are doing well, but if it is suffering then we suffer too”.
It it is to attract the world’s most important and influential buyers to the show it needs to prove its worth as a key industry player. It's why he spends so much of the year travelling the world to meet and talk to key retail, wholesale, importer and restaurant buyers to find out what they are looking for from a show.
“It is up to us to offer some leads and some solutions to the issues we are all facing,” he says, be it through the conference, speaker and tasting programme, or the make up of exhibitors and suppliers from up and down the supply chain.
It is one thing, he says, to provide a platform for organisations to share the latest production and consumption figures, but it also needs to play its role in analysing them and asking the “so what?” question to help producers and buyers understand how to interpret them for their own businesses.
It’s why he particularly admires the mindset of major players in the UK and US drinks sectors, in particular, who are always looking for solutions and opportunities however difficult the trading environment might be.
He admits the huge growth in Wine Paris does bring extra logistical challenges, but however large it gets he is committed to keeping the show within central Paris. It has to be, he stresses, in and around the restaurants and bars that are such a crucial part of the Wine Paris experience and that it will not be taking the show to larger exhibition areas on the outskirts of the city.
“That has been the vision since day one and we remain true to that vision today.”
A vision that now sees Wine Paris on the cusp of becoming the biggest and most visited international trade fair in the world.
* Wine Paris takes place from February 10 to 12 at Porte de Versailles in Paris. Click here for more details.
