By opening up to gastronomy, the Réunion Wine Fair, the 10, November 11 and 12, very significantly increased its audience with the arrival of 5,300 visitors. There were crowds around the stands, in front of the main stage and at the tables. : Home, for the first time, of local artisans outlines another development path.
Rare are the salons that really give the impression of living a pleasant and special moment that we remember. Far from the lined aisles with the dull atmosphere of ordinary living rooms, the designers of Vinocité, Michael Dionisi, director of the Maestro events agency, and the gastronomic critic journalist Thierry Kasprowicz, had the brilliant idea of investing in a Vouénon place for commerce, but to culture : the City of Arts of Saint-Denis. Since then, the show becomes as much a cultural as a commercial place. It’s a great live show, where visitors respond to exhibitors, and where seriousness competes with cheerfulness. The pass-like entry formula for the three days invites you to come back and linger. This was even more true this year with the evolution of the Wine Fair, also become that of gastronomy, which enriched its program of entertainment and prestigious guests (with notably the sponsorship of Jean-Alexandra Ouaratta, chef from Reunion Island, passed through some of the greatest tables in France, a star at Guide Michelin 2016). The typology of exhibitors responded to the typology of visitors, both showing the decisive place that female entrepreneurship and female customers occupy today in the wine and spirits market. In short, a relatively small living room in terms of size, but large in the number of discoveries and encounters to be made per square meter.
Philippe Faure-Brac, best sommelier in the world
A professional party
“We are very satisfied with how the show went. Both in the exhibition of products and in the quality of direct contact with participants and visitors. Because Vinocité allows you to meet consumers, but also a large professional audience”, declares the commercial director of one of the main wine and spirits distributors in Reunion Island. It summarizes the climate that reigned. And as promised, Vinocité comes to the table in 2023, highlighting the creativity of chefs from Reunion Island. Michael Dionisi explains this evolution. “We were thinking about it from the beginning, because gastronomy and wine of course go together, but what convinced us to go there, these are the answers to the questionnaire distributed to visitors to the 2022 show. We discovered that this was a public expectation. Le Grand Tasting Paris, that we visited, inspired us. The ideas of food court and the ephemeral restaurant also come from the fact that many chefs from Reunion Island deserve to be better known and recognized. » Street food and more elaborate dishes were therefore offered in the outdoor space, and five chefs took turns in the kitchen of the ephemeral restaurant with around forty seats to provide successive lunch and dinner services during these three days.
“A GREAT PRACTICAL EXERCISE”
Behind an air of general relaxation, Vinocité is based on a rigorous organization. Partner of this organization since the first show, The Little Wine School also made it possible, This year, to his students to serve the festive evenings of the guinguette space. “A brilliant practical exercise”, judge Cyrille Camilli, founder of La Petite École du vin. (Also read on leaderreunion.re : “La Petite École duvin joins the WSET network”).
