Beautiful South Tasting scaled back

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 02 April, 2014

The Beautiful South Tasting, organised by the generic bodies representing South Africa, Chile and Argentina, is to scale back its 2014 event.

Last year the tasting had just over 300 tables but this year it plans to reduce that number to 250, and balance the split between the three countries better.

Beautiful south tasting Beautiful south tastingThis year’s Beautiful South Tasting, which takes place in London’s Olympia from September 10-11, will be limited to 250 tables.

Wines of Argentina's European director Andrew Maidment said: "We realised there were too many tables and it should be more equal."

He said there will still be more South African wineries exhibiting, by virtue of the fact that there are more, but that Chile and Argentina will be "pretty much exactly matched" in terms of representation.

Maidment added that there would be more space for "more interesting activity around seminars and presentations".

The organisers are also making changes to the layout, with exhibitors presented in 'country islands' of 10 tables which will be clearly signposted in each country's colours, alternating between Argentina, Chile and South Africa. "We feel this will make it much easier to navigate and see clearly which tables are from which country, without losing the collaborative feel that was certainly achieved in 2013. This approach will also allow us to create more country identity within the event," said Jo Wehring, UK market manager for Wines of South Africa.

Beautiful South Tasting

She added: "We've learnt from 2013 that 250 tables is about the right size, to avoid some of the quieter areas in the venue, so we are limiting table sales to that.

"The event will feel broadly the same size as in 2013, but we're taking some of the learning from last year to ensure it's as useful as possible for visitors and exhibitors. We believe that this will ensure the event is busy for the exhibitors and there will still be time for visitors to immerse themselves in all three countries, should they need to."

Anita Jackson, interim head of Wines of Chile in the UK, said: "We felt it was too big last year, it will be smaller this year and we plan to make it more pan-European, which is why we rebranded our ProWein seminars."

The trio have been working together at ProWein since 2010 to offer seminars, but until 2014 they used the title Flavours of the South.

The 2014 event takes place in London's Olympia on September 10 and 11.

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