Fred Nijhuis (Nijhuis Consultancy & Services, the Netherlands)

Wine Professional celebrated its 8th anniversary from January 11th till 13th.

Wine Professional takes place every year in Amsterdam, organised by The Wine & Food Association, an initiative of Jan van Lissum, as a reaction on the request of the Dutch trade and users for top-quality culinary products in Holland. The originality of the fair lies in the restricted access to culinary professionals from high-range Horeca. It is therefore a significant look-out post for anyone wishing to test and/or enter, the Dutch market of fine wines.WP is organised every year by in Amsterdam by The Wine & Food Association, an initiative of Jan van Lissum, as a reaction on the request of the Dutch trade and users for top-quality culinary products in Holland. There was a concrete demand for a specialised fair, where producers, importers, retailers and representatives of the best restaurants (owners, chefs and sommeliers) could meet and taste the best products available, without being disturbed by non-related participants or visitors.

WP is meant to be a compact, international and interactive fair. A fair with approximately 100 stands, 150 national and international participants. Its exclusive entrance-policy, makes it impossible for consumers and people from, for instance, the fastfood-industry to enter the fair. Where other fairs sometimes look like a holiday theme-park or open for ‘a day out with the family’, WP is a fair focused on top-professionals. This combination of the best exponents meeting the best visitors is the point of difference of WP and has made mot of its success. 

During WP some 30 of the top 50 restaurants in Holland (most of them at least 14/20 points in the GaultMillau restaurant guide and/or 1 star Michelin) presented dishes in combination with carefully selected top wines. Renowned Dutch chefs like Mario Ridder (De Zwethheul), Onno Kokmeyer (Ciel Bleu), Gerrit Greveling (Chalet Royal), Paul van de Bunt (De Leuf) and Erik van Loo (Parkheuvel) were joined by French colleagues Michel Portos (Le Saint James Bouilac, Bordeaux) and Firmin Arrambide.

Many producers from the most important wine producing countries attended these programs as well. Among them Sascha Lichine, Jean-Michel Deiss, Christophe Blanc and Champagne Lanson from France, Camille Seghesio (California), Alvio Cavallotto (Piedmont, Italy), Livio Felluga (Friuli, Italy), Jan Pettersen (Boegas Rey Fernando de Castillo, Jerez, Spain) and Hans Astrom (Peter Lehmann, Australia). Special guest was Andreas Larsson, best sommelier of the world in 2007, who presented several programs in one of the two gastronomy theaters where guest could actually taste and discuss wine and food. In the other theaters winewriter Fred Nijhuis of The Wine & Food Association and sommeliers Edwin Raben (multiple winner of the Dutch edition of the Trophée Ruinart).

Tastings with wines of Chateau de Beaucastel, Gerard Bertrand, Vouvray (in co-operation with the Flemish Primitives), Moët et Chandon (a Dom Perignon trilogy), Billaud-Simon, Domaine Saint Préfert, Ladoucette and many other French producers showed the importance of France in the international wine world.

This year was special regarding the attention for sustainability, organic-, biological- and bio-dynamic products, with French representatives like Matassa, Pech-Redon, Clos Marie, Olivier Pithon, Alain Burguet and many others.

There is a real call from the public for those products. If the economic crisis has an impact on the consumers' behaviour, it's not so much that it leads them to buy cheap, it rather encourage them to look for the best bargain, and that means neither buy the least expensive product, nor agree to pay big money blindly, just to be sure : it translates in consumers being ready to pay a little bit more than the average price, in order to be delivered a much higher quality, that he acknowledges.

During WP also additional attention for wine&food pairing, with presentations of national and international wine&food paring competitions like the Grand Prix Mondivin (food with wines based on cabernet franc) and the Copa Jerez (food with Vinos de Jerez/Sherry). Also the winners of the national housewine competition were announced at WP (with French success for Château de Montpézat, Domaine de Antugac, Schoffit, Domaines Devillard and Mas Crémat) as well as the winners of the Diamant Awards for people who distinguished themselves in de wine & food branch.

2009 was difficult, there is no question about this, some did better than others but no-one did great ! Now, we witnessed during the fair, people are buying. Apparently they have no stocks left and it's good news for the Dutch consumer. Producers came with new vintages, 2008 and 2009 and not again or still 2007, that in general isn't the best vintage for keeping anyway.

Those are very good signs. As is the awareness raised by organic/natural/biodynamic lifestyle, in general, and wine particular. Even supermakets, such as the Albert Hein chain has changed critic on the origin of some of their products into a marketingtool to promote their leadership regarding natural products.
People are willing to pay more, in order to feel they made a wise decision, both for the environment and for themselves. It's more than just a matter of being trendy, it is a genuine change in consumer behaviour that is here to stay.

The general opinion is that France is still leading the market of fine wines ; it is reinforced with people noticing that most of the organic wine offer comes from France : France is also a leader there. Italy is upcoming, but organic is still an exception, like it also is for most Spanish, Australian and South-African and South-American wines available on the Dutch market. But there is a growing competition.
Also, biological or biodynamical wines make it easier for the consumer to pick a bottle : they can buy a quality wine without bothering about the AOC, DOC or DOCG. Most Dutch people do not have a clue what they mean... and European legislation regarding AOC etc. is about to change anyway.

So, when going for a quality wine, most consumers also find it a lot easier to go first for its organic/biodynamical quality, then wonder which country the wine comes from and/or which grape variety(ies) they're made of. People interested in organic products tend to decide more (up to 65%) on the presence of an organic label than it's origin or grapevariety.