Time to raise your glass

Wines made from grapes harvested the previous autumn in Europe and North America are ready for tasting in spring, and the major exhibitions in Europe are all scheduled pre-summer: there's ProWein Dusseldorf (March 24-26), the famous en primeur tasting of Bordeaux Crus (April 8-12), Vinitaly Verona (April 1-10), the London International Wine Fair (May 20-22), and lastly Vinexpo in Bordeaux (June 16-20).

These wine fairs are huge, with hundreds of participating wineries and thousands of visitors. While primarily "B2B (business-to-business)" forums where importers, distributors, retailers, and the hospitality trade get to meet the producers, sample their wines and place orders for the coming year, these fairs also provide a brilliant opportunity for ordinary consumers to taste wines from all over the world.

ProWein Dusseldorf (March 24-26)
Dusseldorf is Germany's financial and international business centre and renown for its fashion and trade fairs: the Messe Dusseldorf company organises nearly 20 per cent of all premiere trade shows in the world! Prowein 2012 had 3,900 exhibitors and over 40,000 trade visitors - of course the products showcased included all alcoholic beverages (including spirits and beer) as well as machinery and related services and accessories. Check out www.prowein.com.

En Primeur Bordeaux (April 8-12)
The system of tasting wines "scooped out" from barrels for tasting and sale months or years before the wines are actually ready for release to consumers has existed in Bordeaux for centuries. The system can only be applied to wines with a provenance and which require years of aging: Bordeaux, Burgundies, Barolo, some Chiantis, Ports, and Riojas. The system is most developed in Bordeaux, where the tastings are open only to industry professionals (and select media) "by invitation only" and is probably the single most prestigious wine event in the world! Check out www.vitisphere.combreve-60979-Oenotourisme-Primeurs-de-Bordeaux-demandez-le-programme-2013-.html for details.

Vinitaly Verona (April 1-10)
This is quite simply the world's biggest wine fair: in 2012, some 160,000 visitors from 110 countries sampled 20,000 wines from 4,200 exhibitors in a space spread out over 24 acres! In addition to wines there are stalls for Italian foodstuffs, balsamic vinegar, olive oils, and winemaking machinery. Verona is stunning in spring, as is all of Italy, and this is a "must visit" for any wine lover. Check out www.vinitaly.com/EN

London International Wine Fair (May 20-22)
While not as big as some of the others ("only" 13,400 visitors in 2012), LIFW has more international representation - with the added advantage that ".. everybody speaks English"! (What else would people speak in England?) The UK is the world's second-largest wine importer (behind Germany, and just ahead of the US) and so gets wide participation. See 2013.londonwinefair.com/content

Vinexpo, Bordeaux (June 16-20)
Held every alternate year in Bordeaux and Hong Kong, this trade-only wine fair focuses (naturally) on French wines - but some 40 per cent of exhibitors are from outside France. Taking the fair to Hong Kong was a brilliant move that expanded its footprint hugely: wine imports into China have been growing at 30 per cent annually and totalled 241 million litres in 2011, of which over 50 per cent came from France alone. Of course, the Bordeaux edition comes with dinners hosted by the leading estates - something that cannot be replicated anywhere else. Details are available at www.vinexpo.com/en

This talk about wine fairs has left no space for wines I've been drinking so I'll skip the section this week - but do keep up your end!

Alok Chandra is a Bangalore-based wine consultant