We have entered the time of year when local wine enthusiasts find it difficult to devote a weekend to something else other than wine festivals and fairs because the calendar of local wine events is crammed ... Your website Vinopedia.rs is proud to say that every year we manage to attend all major wine events in the region and in Europe, although it occasionally means that we have literally no time to unpack, but already move into a new wine adventure. And the period from February to May is typically the busiest part of the year.

Traditionally, the season of wine fairs and festivals is started with BeoWine wine fair. This year, the festival was organized for the sixth time under the dome of Belgrade Fair ... So, the festival managed to get over initial difficulties and maintain continuity, therefore it is high time that the organizers of the fair thought about the future of such an event, which is certainly needed for the Serbian wine scene. Especially now  when we have witnessed a few wine festivals being closed down in such an inglorious manner.

Organizers of BeoWine Fair should make a conceptual decision what sort of wine event they want to organize. It sounds wonderful to emphasize the number of visitors that flows through the exhibition halls during those few days in order to reach desired travel package for Paralia (North Greece) before the summer season begins. But wine lovers who come to the wine fair exclusively because of wine complain that exactly those visitors create unnecessary crowd that prevents them from easy access to exhibitor stands of wineries. Is the fair's goal quantity or quality? It might be that quantity i.e. the number of visitors who pass through the exhibition halls is the organizer's trump card to keep high price of exhibition space ... I am convinced that Interfest summer wine festival in Novi Sad has much greater effects from the perspective of winemakers, and it is certainly less demanding financially, the only drawback is the fact that it is not held in the capital, but keeps a more regional character instead. It attracts numerous visitors who visit the event solely because of wine, who drink wine occasionally, even if it were only during a concert on the square in front of Novi Sad City Hall. On the other hand, perhaps unintentionally, BeoWine Fair's pricing policy has pushed local wineries to unite finally, to realize that together they can divide the costs of the Fair as well as improve visibility and identity of the region they come from.

A short anecdote recorded at the stand of a winery from North Serbia that speaks volumes: a middle-aged woman violently struggling to get closer to the stand through the crowd of other visitors. She tries to reach with her hand the bottle placed on the stand. The director of the winery tells her with a smile: "Ma'am, slowly, perhaps it would be better to take a glass first instead of immediately reaching for the bottle" ... The lady responds quite frankly: "Oh, I do not drink wine, but I just liked the label and I wanted to approach to look at it and get some free catalogue if you have it ".

One thing is certain - our wine scene needs a serious wine fair in the first half of the year. Organizers of BeoWine Fair obviously have no greater ambitions than to continue developing it as an accompanying fair to more reputable and financially more profitable tourism fair. But this is contrary to the ambitions of wineries that exhibit wines at BeoWine Fair because casual passers-by who stop for a moment at the winery stand do not feel eager to pay admission ticket, rather expensive parking place and additional 300 dinars for a glass.

The concept of the fair should be defined more clearly: if the goal is to introduce local wines to a wide group of visitors who are not familiar with local wine scene, then wouldn't it be better if the wineries joined exhibition area of the regional tourist organizations to form a joint tourist product that includes gastronomy, wine, cultural, historical and natural attractions of the region? Then there was the unusual BeoWine Challenge Cup ... Is the goal of this wine evaluation with the international jury to assess wines exhibited at the fair or to evaluate wines which are not available at the exhibition stands? Or it serves only as an attempt to raise credibility of BeoWine Fair in professional wine circles?!? Concerning exhibition stands, one can immediately notice that a large number of exhibitors repeated last year's design and visual layout of the stand. This year, we missed joint stands of wineries from Jagodina, Negotin and Župa were missing... But the new stars from Kosovo and Metohija (Hoča village), Lazarevac and Republika Srpska (Bosnia-Herzegovina) joined forces and exhibited their wines... Wineries of Šumadija demonstrated absolute dominance at this year's fair. Well-designed programs of presentation and tasting, integrated offer, visual identity ... and most importantly, excellent wines. Thus they managed to rival joint exhibition space of Croatian wineries that came to the fair with the stand shown originally at last year's ProWein in Düsseldorf (Germany). Owing to the fact that this year Croatia will not present its wine scene at ProWein, they have decided to bring the top exhibitors to BeoWine Fair 2015. And Belgrade wine audience has once again shown its appreciation and love for wines from Istria and Dalmatia.

The overall impression of the fair is improved by the fact that some of the wineries came out with the new released wines (and therefore demonstrated that there is the potential to turn BeoWine Fair into a star rather than accompanying event to Tourism Fair), such as Toplički Vinogradi winery which presented their two new labels: white and red blends Tribus Villa Cuvee (a blend of grapes from Serbia and Macedonia). Also, many wineries have presented their white wines from 2014. We were also happy to hear about the new winery in Fruška Gora: Deurić Winery.

In case you weren't able to visit BeoWine Fair, here are a few photos to bring you the atmosphere and feel of the event:

Toplički vinogradi

 

at the stand of Dibonis Winery

 

Fruška Gora wineries

wineries of Republika Srpska

 

Aleksić Winery stand

 

wines of Aleksić Winery

 

wines of Deurić Winery

 

Traminac 2011 - Podrum Trivanović

 

wines of Friuli (Italy)

 

presentation of wine route Šumadija

 

 

Quercus Rebula 2013 - Goriška brda (Slovenia)

 

Širaz 2012 - Rogan Winery

 

 

new visual identity - Hoča village (Kosovo and Metohija)

Vranac potrkanjski - Jović Winery

 

Jako vino (Bol, Brač)

 

wines of Zlatan otok winery (Hvar)

 

stand of Croatian wineries

 

Syrah 2010 - De Georgiis (Silba)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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