Wineries Unlimited Trade Show and Conference takes place in Richmond, Virginia next week. With a few commenting at last year’s event that there was too much of an emphasis on California, I was interested to see where this year’s speakers hailed from. Of the 19 speakers, 8 are from California. Two of the 8 from California were from France and Scotland but now have offices in California. Where are the other speakers from? Two speakers are from France, three if we count one I counted as being from California. One speaker is from Canada. One from the state of Washington. Four speakers are from the Virginia/Washington D.C. area. One speaker is from Italy but has the business office in Michigan. There is one speaker from Arkansas and one speaker from New York.
Although the largest group of speakers are from California, some represent businesses that are wine or vineyard related. If you are going to start a wine-related business in the United States where would you locate? Half of the wineries in the country are in California while 60% of the nation’s wineries are located on the West Coast. On the other hand growing grapes on the East Coast is different than growing grapes on the West Coast. However crafting wine shouldn’t be that different.
I observed a frustration among a few conference goers that attended the International Wine Tourism Conference in Italy during January. Some just didn’t want to hear about Napa even if Napa wineries were doing something right when it comes to wine tourism. There may be some of this going on here on the east coast. Some people want to hear about winegrowing and winemaking in their own back yard. That being said, this year’s Wineries Unlimited Trade Show and Conference has a diverse group of speakers. Hopefully all attendees will take home ideas and knowledge from the sessions.
Cheers,
Terry
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