Three key talking points from ProWein 2025

With ProWein 2025 wrapping up in Dusseldorf yesterday, Louis Thomas picks a selection of some of the hot topics from this year's show. Speaking before the presentation of this year's Winemakers' Winemaker prize, Messe Düsseldorf executive director Michael Degen gave a rallying cry to the assembled crowd of Masters of Wine and members of the trade to stand against a current of difficulties for the sector: "We are in changing times, I don't have to prolong the explanation, everyone immediately knows what I'm talking about – market issues, political dislocation, etc. What the world needs now is trust in each other and in the business relations we have had for a long time."

Tariffs

The issue on the lips of most journalists and on the minds of many producers at the show was Donald Trump's escalation of threats of a tariff war against the European Union, with the US President's latest sabre rattle potentially meaning a 200% levy on EU-produced alcoholic beverages entering the US. When asked about what this could mean for Rioja producers, Bodegas Riojanas director general Eduardo Sáinz Marotías said: "Nobody knows! Maybe if you ask this question next week, I will give you a different answer. Nobody knows – 200% tariffs would be nonsense and would put everybody out of the market, but nobody knows the final decision, and which percentage the tariffs will be. The problem for any business is uncertainty – we are growing in the US, we had a fantastic 2024 exporting there, and a strong start to 2025." "Everybody is really concerned by the unpredictability," said Marotías, "even the wine business in the US." Although Trump has spun a narrative that the measure would benefit US drinks producers, Thomas Vogele, vice-president of export sales for California drinks giant Trinchero Family Estates noted that it is unlikely that there would be any winners from such a tariff war. Of the 18 million cases Trinchero Family Estates produces, 17.5 million go to the domestic market, meaning that a not insignificant half million are destined for international markets, with the company having a "significant" presence in continental Europe, bolstered by new hires in Austria and Germany. Although Canada has also been a "historically good market" for Trinchero Family Estates, Vogele noted that sales in the US' northern neighbour were "in a kind of pause". He also argued that the case of Canada pulling US drinks from the shelves was an indication of the different way in which wine and spirits are treated compared to other products: "They're not going into a grocery store and taking Heinz ketchup and Procter & Gamble toothpaste off the shelves!"

Local varieties

ProWein is a chance for producers to set themselves apart from their peers on other stands through the presentation of wines which have something a bit different about them, be it in the terroir, the winemaking, or the grapes used. Celebrated Cava producer Juvé y Camps is creating two new white wines based on Catalan varieties. One of them is Postals d'Espiells, and is 55% Xarel·lo and 45% White Grenache. "Xarel·lo sometimes smells like apricot, but you get Mediterranean herbs, like fennel, if you ferment it with skins," shared technical director José 'Pepe' Hidalgo Camacho. "It has an ABV of 11.5%, it's aromatic, full-bodied – there's freshness, there's saltiness in the mouth. It's a terroir wine, from a vineyard planted on calcareous soil, so you also feel chalky notes in the mouth." Due to launch in early summer, around 40,000 bottles of the 2024 vintage of Postals d'Espiells were produced, each retailing around the €14 mark. The other new white wine Juvé y Camps was keen to present from the range was its Viver d'Espiells, of which only 5,000 or so bottles have been made, with an approximate retail price of €25. "Xarel·lo is the indigenous variety of Penedès – this is another, Malvasia de Sitges, which is related to Malvasia from the Canary Islands and Madeira, but it's more aromatic," said Camacho. "There are only 90 hectare in all the world of the variety, we have 2.2. Tropical fruit, herbs – it's not overwhelming." Part of the reason for the small production of this grape is because, as Camacho pointed out, it's "very sensitive to mildew, it's a very sensitive variety to anything!" Also celebrating overlooked varieties was Moutard, which has made a name for itself as the champion of Arbane in Champagne. "It's like Petit Verdot in Bordeaux," commented François Moutard. "Arbane used to be used to improve the blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, it would give very fine bubbles." Moutard's oldest existing plot of this later-ripening white variety was planted in 1952, which also makes it the oldest in the world. That combined with a plot of Arbane vines in the 90s means that Moutard has around 1.5 hectares of the grape in the Côte des Bar. Featured as a component in Moutard's Cuvée des 6 Cépages, as well as in the single varietal Arbane Vieilles Vignes, the grape is, in the words of Emma Campbell at Lanchester Wines (which handles Moutard in the UK), a case of the producer "staying within the rules of Champagne production, but being a bit different". First launched in 1992, Moutard has just disgorged the 2015 vintage of the Arbane Vieilles Vignes, of which just 1,353 bottles were produced, a handful of which were presented at ProWein.

AI

The frenzy of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years was reflected in a pair of talks chaired by the drinks business editor-in-chief Patrick Schmitt MW. The second of the talks, titled How to maximize AI (Even when your company doesn't budget for it), featured a panel consisting of Preferabli's Pam Dillon (co-founder and CEO) and Andrew Sussman (co-founder and CTO) alongside Enolytics' Ron Scott. "I think, as with any major trade event, you do need to work really to retain relevance, and one way is through educational seminars, not just on trending topics, but tools for business – AI isn't just the topic du jour of our trade," said Schmitt. "The wine trade is a fragmented business, rich with small scale operations, it is crying out for the support of outside expertise." The talk covered uses of AI in different sides of the industry – ranging from the wine finding tool recently developed by Preferabli for UK supermarket chain Marks & Spencer, to Enolytics aim to help producers analyse and target consumers with greater ease and efficiency. The question of whether AI might replace the recommendations of wine professionals came up, but Dillon envisages a symbiosis between human expertise and this technology: "You can write the most beautiful algorithms in the world, but those algorithms are not beautiful without beautiful data." A fuller writeup of the talk will be in the April issue of the drinks business.

ProWein 2025 in numbers

• 4,200 exhibitors from 65 nations.
• 42,000 'key professionals' from 128 countries visited.
• 500 exhibitors from 53 countries in the two halls for ProSpirits.

The next ProWein Düsseldorf will be held from 15 to 17 March 2026.