CONFERENCES
MUST
A FERMENTATION OF IDEAS
4/18 MEININGER’S WBI
Now in its second year, the MUST conference in Portugal brings together
an array of sharp thinkers. Felicity Carter reports.
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hen television personality Paulo
Salvador and wine writer Rui Falcão
were asked by the city council of
Cascais, near Lisbon, to create a food event,
they came up with a better idea – a wine
conference that would bring some of the
liveliest minds in the wine world together to
encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue.
“We truly believe there are a lot of
excellent events on wine, but most are
focused on one specific side of the wine
industry – wine tourism, or winemaking, or
marketing,” explains Falcão. “There are not
a lot of events that talk about wine under the
whole umbrella and that’s what we wanted
to do.” He goes on to say that the pair
wanted to create something future-focused.
“What are our major concerns, what are
the major problems? That’s the reason
for the name being “MUST ― Fermenting
Ideas”, because we want to discuss what’s
concerning us.” He says that the aim is to
give each presentation a workshop feel,
with plenty of time for discussion.
The first conference was held in 2017.
Here are some highlights from the 2018
conference.
A look at South-East Asia
Hong Kong-based Debra Meiburg MW is
one of the key wine figures in South-East
Asia. A broadcaster, wine judge, educator,
chooser of airline wines and publisher,
she took the audience on a lightning fast
PHOTOS: PAULO PETRONILHO
Rui Falcão and Paulo Salvador, founders
40-minute ride through the main markets
of Asia. First, she said, “there is no clear
boundary of what is and is not Asia. Where
we draw the line is Pakistan – they are not
considered Asia by the Asians.”
South Korea, she says, has a high
PHOTO: SASCHA KREKLAU
potential, though it’s at an early market
stage: “Korea has become the trendsetter
of Asia” thanks to its popular soap operas
and pop bands, and its young and trendy
population. She does, however, say it can be
tough to break into the market, because it’s
“controlled by a few families. It’s not exactly
mafia, but you can think of it like mafia –
they control integrated industries all the way
to supermarkets.”
Singapore, on the other hand, is a market
that too many producers overlook. “Singapore
has the highest percentage of wine sold into
Asian restaurants,” she says, adding that
the population is a mix of Indians, Malays,
Chinese and expats, giving it a lively culture.
Singapore also acts as a wine hub, with
about 68% of Singapore importers exporting
to other countries in the region.
Likewise, few companies make an effort
to penetrate the Taiwanese market. “I love
this market,” she says. “It is small, but it
is not a ‘miniature China’ market. It’s quite
different.” Advantages include a fair rate of
tax and low levels of counterfeiting. And
about 95% of food and beverage outlets allow
you to bring your own bottle, she says. Not
only that, but if you want a particular wine,
the restaurant will call the importer and get
the wine sent directly to the restaurant. “As
a result, there are only two sommeliers in
Taiwan, and they’re with French outlets.
They have zero buying power and influence.”
China, of course, is the market that
everyone is most interested in and Meiburg
had plenty of advice about how to approach
it. “Talking about China is like talking about
Europe and a half. There are 33 provinces to
think about; the key provinces are importing
95% of the market. There are eight that
dominate the market.”
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Whether China should be considered
a mature or immature market depends
on individual cities. “Some of the most
sophisticated drinkers in the world are in
China, but they mainly know Bordeaux and
the rest of the world is a mystery to them
– and they refuse to shift.” Red wine still
dominates, sparkling wine struggles, and
“rosé doesn’t exist”. Meiburg says Chinese
consumers are not yet at the stage where
they want to discover boutique wines, with
the prevailing view being “if it’s good, why
isn’t it big?”
E-commerce is far more sophisticated
than elsewhere. “This market changes so fast
that I’m scared to present on e-commerce –
in two months, anything can happen,” she
says. There are some constants, however,
including the two festival periods of 18
June and 11 November, when sales activity
becomes extreme, and in one instance “ten
thousand mobile phones were sold in five
seconds”.
There are some classic mistakes for
Westerners to avoid. “Don’t count on the
press to move the market,” Meiburg advises.
Although it’s “good to get them on side,
very few people buy because of the press”.
Winemaker visits are key, as is bringing
influential people back to the wine region.
“When working with an importer, find out
their brand building experience. What
experience do they have with mid-market
brands?” She notes that importers used to
working with Bordeaux haven’t had to build
Debra Meiburg MW, Meiburg Media
brands. Finally, if you are selling a prestige
wine, be aware that there is a hot secondary
market for empty bottles, which sell for
about $25.00 each, “due to our counterfeit
culture”.
Fraud patrol
Maureen Downey has heard every possible
iteration of the empty bottle scam. The
founder of Chai Consulting, Downey is one
of the world’s best-known wine detectives,
specialising in authentication. “Ebay remains
a huge problem,” she says. “They sell empty
bottles.”
Downey made it clear that wine fraud is
a multi-faceted problem. “People think of
counterfeit wine, but that’s just one aspect.”
What all forms of wine fraud have in common,
whether they’re sales of stolen wines,
insurance fraud, or the sale of damaged
wine collections, is that they all “involve
misrepresentation of goods”. Unfortunately,
she says, law enforcement does not take wine
crime seriously. “One of the reasons I believe
people don’t take it seriously is because
people don’t die of it,” she says.
As to why it’s on the rise, Downey points
the finger at globalisation, because it has
dissolved the traditional relationship between
buyer and seller, where merchants and
customers built up trust over time. “You have
no relationship with the merchant and he has
no duty to you,” she says. “We’ve shifted from
the merchant as educator to the internet as
educator,” she says, adding that the computer
age has made it easy to create counterfeits.
Counterfeiters now find it easy to refill
bottles, recreate bottles and even create wines
that Downey calls “unicorns – it doesn’t mean
a wine that’s rare, it means a wine that’s
mythical”.
She also says it’s not so much spotting
Maureen Downey, Chai Consulting
counterfeits that’s the problem, as tracking
them all down. Well-known counterfeiters
like Rudy Kurniawan were prolific, and their
creations weren’t all destroyed – many went
back into circulation, as buyers and vendors
became desperate to recoup their losses.
“Every crook needs an enabler. They need
vendors. They need outlets,” she says, visibly
frustrated that more isn’t being done to stop
the trade in illicit wine. “Wine fraud is not a
victimless crime. It affects everyone. When
one vendor is not licensed, he is unfairly
competing against everybody else. We have
millions of dollars of unpaid taxes. We have
corporations spending a lot of time and
energy protecting their brands.”
On the road
One of MUST’s most charismatic speakers
was Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of South
Africa’s Destinate tourism marketing agency.
“Wine tourism is on the rise globally and
people realise that the wine they’re drinking
comes from amazing places,” she says. “Wine
tourism is the key to unlock the warm heart of
the regions.” But wine tourism is a complicated
industry, partly because people don’t always
work together or focus on outcomes. “What
are we trying to change? Change behaviour?
Sell more wine? Get more visitors?” Whatever
the strategy, she warns against marketing
that “gives us goosebumps” but “ultimately
has no impact”.
Du Toit-Helmbold emphasised that wine
tourism is a “good business,” with wine
tourists spending more than visitors in other
tourism categories. “The real value lies within
the value chain. On average, there are 10
businesses affected per average winery – the
woman baking bread for the guesthouse, the
man driving the visitors.”
Globally, she says, the number of specialist
wine tourism operators is growing. “What
are the trends telling us? Our world is a
fractured place. People are tired and stressed
and afraid.” The global shift in power from
West to East “has opened up new markets
and we have to change the way we talk to
people”. Significantly, the definition of luxury
is also changing. “Immersive travel is the
new luxury. Luxury is no longer being driven
around in a luxury car – true luxury for many
people is having programs designed around
their personal needs and interests. It’s going
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places and meeting people that you won’t
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meet if you go for a mass market product.”
In terms of marketing, du Toit-Helmbold
says her company does a lot of influencer
marketing, but chooses not to focus on big
stars. “Some people think Drew Barrymore
will sell their wine. What we have seen
is a new breed of influencer – the micro
influencer. The truly trusted friend who
people follow because they trust them. If
they give a bad review, they will tarnish the
brand.” Ordinary people have something that
big stars don’t have: trust. “Trust is the one
thing that money cannot buy and it’s the most
valuable commodity in wine and travel.”
Finally, she said, there is one core truth
about wine tourism: “You cannot put tourism
together and expect people to have a great
time if your wine is average.” Good wine is
the key.
What’s next
In the two years since MUST – Fermenting
Ideas began, it’s attracted a star-studded
line-up – last year it included Eric Asimov,
Matthew Jukes and Alice Feiring, while this
year’s line-up included Professor Charles
Spence of the University of Oxford and Heini
Zachariassen, founder of Vivino. In the future,
Falcão suggests, he wants to attract hard-
hitting speakers from other industries, such
as fashion.
Salvador’s and Falcão’s efforts may not
yet be filling Cascais’s impressive convention
centre but the quality of the attendees was
high, with many having travelled across
the world. The support of the Portuguese
establishment was also clear from the
enthusiastic participation of Turismo de
Portugal and the ongoing commitment of the
mayor of Cascais. The wine industry certainly
needs a forum and this could be it.  W
Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, CEO, Destinate