Italian wine fair heads to London to court buyers

BolognaFiere and Slow Food are taking Slow Wine Fair and SANA Food to London this week as Italian wine and food producers look for new export markets amid rising trade pressure from U.S. tariffs.

On April 26 and 27, the two organizations will present a collective of producers and two masterclasses at Wines Experience London, held at Excel London, in an effort to promote Italian agri-food products built around quality, sustainability and traceable supply chains. The move comes after the February editions of Slow Wine Fair and SANA Food in Bologna drew more than 16,000 visitors from the Horeca sector and 350 strategic buyers from 32 countries, according to BolognaFiere.

The London event is the first stop in a new b2b network developed by United Experience with Fiere Italiane SEA and BolognaFiere. Organizers say the format is meant to help wine and food producers reach strategic markets with strong growth potential. After London, the network is scheduled to continue in Ho Chi Minh City on June 25-26 and in Mexico City on Nov. 5-6.

The timing reflects a broader concern in the Italian export sector. With tariffs in the United States forcing companies to rethink sales channels, trade groups and fair organizers are pushing harder into other international markets. BolognaFiere said Wines Experience is designed to connect producers directly with qualified buyers and create commercial opportunities more quickly.

Slow Wine Fair will bring 20 producers to London, including 17 wineries and two spirits makers from 11 Italian regions, along with one Hungarian winery. The selection includes producers from Abruzzo, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Piedmont, Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto. The fair was created from an idea by Slow Food and has positioned itself around the group’s “good, clean and fair” philosophy for wine.

To deepen the presentation for British buyers and operators, Slow Wine Fair and SANA Food are also organizing two masterclasses with Slow Food. Jonathan Gebser, deputy curator of the Slow Wine guide, will lead the tastings.

The first session, “Good, Clean and Fair Wine: Understanding the Criteria for Choice,” is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. It will focus on how sustainability can be evaluated in practical terms, using criteria that can be verified across the supply chain from vineyard to cellar. The tasting will include wines selected from the Slow Wine Fair collective and baked goods supplied by SANA Food and made by La Deliziosa Pasticceria di Mastro Cesare in Borgomanero, near Novara.

The wines scheduled for that tasting are Il Poggio di Gavi’s Gavi del Comune di Gavi Rovereto Etichetta Nera 2024 from Alessandria; Rabel’s Soffio 2020 from Santo Stefano Roero in Cuneo; Faraone Vini’s Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo Le Vigne 2025 from Giulianova in Teramo; Tröpfltalhof’s RosèMarie 2023 from Caldaro in Bolzano; Tenuta Santa Caterina’s Grignolino d’Asti Arlandino 2024 from Grazzano Badoglio in Asti; Cascina Corte’s Dogliani San Luigi 2022 from Dogliani in Cuneo; Anna Maria Abbona’s Dogliani Superiore San Bernardo 2017 from Farigliano in Cuneo; and Fabrizio Dionisio’s Syrah Cortona Il Castagno 2022 from Cortona in Arezzo.

The second masterclass, “The Language of Wine to Share the Memory of Food,” will take place Monday at 1 p.m. It will examine how wine functions as a social link across different cultural settings and how it can be understood not only as a technical product but as part of a meal. The tasting will pair wines with Italian cheeses and other foods supplied by Gastronomica Market, a buyer based at Borough Market in London.

Those wines are PrimaLuce’s Toscana Trebbiano Toscano Punto Luce 2024 from San Gimignano in Siena; Vigna della Cava’s Marche Rosato Flo’ 2024 from Ancona; Venturini Baldini’s Reggiano Lambrusco Frizzante Marchese Manodori 2024 from Quattro Castella in Reggio Emilia; Tiziano Bellini’s Giorgio 2021 from Viadana in Mantua; Tenuta Patruno Perniola’s Puglia Primitivo Lenos 2024 from Gioia del Colle in Bari; Agricola Arzilla’s Marche Rosso Arzillo 2023 from Fano in Pesaro e Urbino; Tenuta il Quinto’s Morellino di Scansano Ficaie 2024 from Magliano in Toscana in Grosseto; and Lidia & Amato’s Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane Riserva 2018 from Controguerra in Teramo.

Rossano Bozzi, director of BolognaFiere’s business unit, said the presence of 350 strategic buyers from 32 countries at the February fair showed that Slow Wine Fair and SANA Food have become important platforms for Italian wine and specialty food abroad. Federico Varazi, vice president of Slow Food Italia, said more consumers are choosing wine not only for taste but also for the values behind it, adding that rigorous producer selection is needed to separate real sustainability from claims that are only marketing language.

Slow Wine Fair and SANA Food are scheduled to return to BolognaFiere for their third joint edition from Feb. 21 to Feb. 23, 2027.