Spanish wine banks on Barcelona Wine Week to grow and diversify markets

The standstill in wine consumption and exports push Spanish wineries to look for new markets in order to grow. In this context, Barcelona Wine Week 2025, focused on opening up new business opportunities for the sector, has once again completely filled its exhibition space in record time and will bring together more than 1,100 wineries. The show, which expects to attract more than 24,000 visitors, 20% of them from abroad, will occupy two halls for the first time to meet the high demand for participation in an event that was born only 4 years ago.

Barcelona Wine Week Barcelona Wine Week presented today at ICEX’s head office in Madrid the successful figures for its next edition, which will be held from 3 to 5 February 2025 at Fira Barcelona’s Montjuic venue. Under the title ‘Challenges facing Spanish wine’, it held a talk in which experts, wineries and representatives of the sector also reflected on the current situation of this industry and analysed its main trends and opportunities for the future.

The president of the trade show and of the D.O. Cava, Javier Pagés, stated that the Spanish quality wine sector has once again clearly committed to BWW and will fill the venue, expanded to two pavilions, in search of business opportunities. More than 1,100 wineries from all over Spain, 16% more than in 2024, have confirmed their presence at a show that will grow in size by 31%, with nearly 10,000 m2 (an increase of 80% compared with the first edition in 2020). For Pagés, the key to its success is that “BWW has been able to select and attract large importers, distributors and buyers of wine from all over the world, creating a profitable show for all participants”.

More than 75 Designations of Origin and other quality seals from all over Spain and up to 16 autonomous communities will be at the show. Among those that will attend with the largest number of wineries are the D.O.Ca La Rioja, the D.O. Cava and the D.O.Q. Priorat, followed by the D.O.s Navarra, Penedès, Montsant, Ribera del Duero, Jumilla and Rueda.

Target: new markets

During the day, the stagnation of wine consumption, the growing protectionist international climate and changes in habits were identified as the main challenges of the Spanish wine sector. And, in this context, the need for Spanish wineries to seek new international markets was pointed out.

Thus, in her presentation, the Director of Food, Wines and Gastronomy of ICEX Spain, María Naranjo, identified some export opportunities for Spanish wineries for 2025, such as the good performance of markets with great potential such as South Korea, Japan, Poland, Ireland, Denmark and the Dominican Republic. She also defended a strategy that involves diversifying markets, emphasising their differentiating features and digitalising.

Director of the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV), José Luis Benítez, also pointed out as strategic markets, beyond the traditional European ones, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, and, if the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur is signed, Brazil.

According to the latest report by the Spanish Wine Market Observatory (OeMv), in the first eight months of 2024, Spain exported 1.1986 billion litres of wine (-3.1%), worth €2.938 billion (-0.1%). Despite the downward trend, it remains the world’s leading wine exporter in terms of volume and the third largest in value. Its main buyers are Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, Japan and Mexico. (Data source: OeMv)

To open up new business opportunities for exhibitors, BWW, in collaboration with ÍCEX, has strengthened its Hosted buyers programme, with which it selects and invites major wine importers and distributors from all over the world. With this programme, the show guarantees the attendance of more than 700 key international buyers from strategic countries, including not only traditional European destinations, but also the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Colombia and South Korea.

BWW will also be inviting a thousand domestic buyers which include large distributors, specialised merchants, and the HORECA channel, the main means of distribution for Spanish wine producers.

White and sparkling wines for 2025

Today the latest trends in the sector were also analysed, such as the moderation of consumption or the growth of fresher wines, especially whites, rosés and sparkling wines. When it comes to challenges, the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV) warns of the growing questioning of the advisability of moderate wine consumption and the perception that this may generate in new consumers.

To explore these new trends and challenges in greater depth, Barcelona Wine Week will offer a programme of tastings and presentations that will feature a hundred experts. One of them, revaluing wines from old vines, will play a special role in BWW 2025, with tastings led by renowned experts, such as the Master of Wine Tim Atkin, winemakers such as Raúl Pérez (El Bierzo); Ricard Rofes (Scala Dei, Priorat) and Fernando Mora (Bodegas Frontonio, Aragon) and wineries that make wines from pre-phylloxera vines from Lanzarote (Bodegas El Grifo), Pontevedra (Bodegas Gerardo Méndez) and Valladolid (Javier Sanz Viticultores).

Other must-see tastings will be led by Doug Frost, who holds the title of Master of Wine and Master Sommelier; which will commemorate the centenary of the Rioja D.O.Ca, with 8 wines from historic Rioja vineyards and ‘The magnificent 10 of Rías Baixas‘, in which ten of the best wines of the Galician D.O. can be tasted by the journalist and sommelier Ramon Francàs.

Madrid, 3 December 2024