I’ve just returned from the ProWein trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany.
This was my 18th time attending. I’ve seen the show at its busiest, its most energetic, and at a time when it genuinely felt like the centre of the wine world.
This year felt different.
Not dramatically, and not in a way that suggests ProWein no longer matters. But enough to notice that something is shifting.
After attending Wine Paris and Vinexpo last year, I was still unsure whether the industry was truly moving in a new direction. After ProWein 2026, I’m no longer unsure. My mind has changed.
After speaking with a number of South African producers, one theme came through clearly: for some, this may have been their last year exhibiting with a stand. Not necessarily their last year attending, but perhaps the last year justifying the full cost and effort of showing up in the same way.
That is an important distinction.
This is not about ProWein being “bad.” It is about producers starting to ask harder questions about value, return, and relevance.
Those questions become even more pressing when the wider trade fair calendar feels increasingly unsettled. There is ongoing talk around timing, proximity to Wine Paris, and potential date shifts. Whether all of that materialises or not, the uncertainty itself becomes part of the issue.
At the same time, there is clear momentum around Wine Paris. For many, it is becoming the show to prioritise. It works particularly well for European producers and is attracting increasing attention across the trade. Barcelona has a role. Vinitaly has a role. But none of these quite answer the same question for the New World.
And that, to me, is where the conversation gets more interesting.
Because this is not really about choosing one fair over another. It is about asking what producers are actually looking for when they invest in these events.
Visibility? Connection? Distribution? Conversations that lead to real business?
If those things are happening more effectively elsewhere, then naturally the industry will follow.
More importantly, we are operating in a changing wine world, but too often still using old assumptions and old trade habits to solve new problems.
That no longer works.
We cannot keep using yesterday’s playbook for tomorrow’s problems.
If ProWein 2026 showed anything, it is that momentum can move quickly. Relevance can shift quickly. Buyer attention can shift quickly. And if that is true, then producer strategy has to shift just as quickly.
For me, that raises an even bigger question for South Africa.
What would it look like if we stopped thinking only in terms of attendance and started thinking more seriously about positioning?
What if the next step is not simply choosing between ProWein and Wine Paris, but rethinking how we show up altogether?
Over the past year, I’ve had conversations with several South African producers around the possibility of building something more intentional, more premium, and more unified. Not a bigger stand for the sake of size, but a better presentation of who we are at the top end of the market.
Because one of our ongoing challenges is clarity.
When buyers walk into a national pavilion, can they immediately understand what is premium, what is commercial, what is regional, and what story South Africa is trying to tell?
Too often, the answer is no.
And that matters.
South Africa does not have a quality problem at the top end. It has a positioning problem.
We do not need more noise. We do not need another slogan. We need a sharper definition.
We need to present our best producers in a way that reflects the quality, ambition, and distinctiveness that already exist. We need to think carefully about how we frame the Cape, how we communicate provenance, and how we build a more premium and coherent image in market.
That kind of repositioning will not happen by accident. And it will not happen by waiting.
Hope is not a business plan.
If we want the market to see us differently, we have to show up differently.
ProWein 2026 felt like a reminder of that.
A wake-up call, perhaps. Or perhaps simply the clearest sign yet that it is time to rethink.