Catalan wine shows its potential at Barcelona Wine Week with 300 wineries taking part

Almost 300 Catalan wineries will showcase the potential of Catalonia's wine sector at Barcelona Wine Week, the sector's first major international event and one of southern Europe's most important, holding its fourth edition in Barcelona from 5 to 7 February at Fira Barcelona's Montjuïc venue.

The Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, through Prodeca, will support the participation of more than 200 wineries from different Catalan designations of origin under the agri-food brand 'Catalonia, where wine is culture'.

Barcelona Wine Week aims to establish itself as a key, benchmark event for promoting the sector's marketing and internationalisation. The fair is growing fast and this year will feature more than 900 exhibiting companies (15% more than last time) and more than 20,000 trade visitors expected, including 650 major buyers and importers from strategic markets such as the United States, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, China and the United Kingdom. The organisers estimate more than 11,400 business meetings with exhibitors will take place during the event.

Trends in sustainability, wine tourism and innovation will be central in the talks and activities organised at Barcelona Wine Week, with prominent appearances by highly regarded professionals on topics mainly linked to terroir, the authenticity of wines and new trends such as digitalisation.

Tastings with Catalan wine as the star

At the fourth Barcelona Wine Week, INCAVI is running two sessions. First, 'Great Catalan wines made with local tools', a tasting introduced by INCAVI's director general, Alba Balcells, and led by sommelier Ferran Centelles, who has paired makers of a winemaking material with the producer of a wine representative of that element. So tasting pairs will be set up to find the imprint left on the wine by local Catalan materials such as ceramics, chestnut wood, cork and cement. It will be held in the Sala Príncep on Tuesday 6 February at 6pm.

The second tasting is on Wednesday 7 February at 10.30am, also in the Sala Príncep, titled 'An international look at Catalan wines'. Introduced by INCAVI's director general, Alba Balcells, the session will taste 6 wines proposed by WSET-qualified sommeliers from around the world. INCAVI has been a corporate partner of this prestigious international WSET wine education programme since 2023, and the agreement has led to a major push to promote knowledge of Catalan wine: its traditional varieties, territories and most characteristic climates and soils. In this session, sommeliers David Forer (Master of Wine), Ricardo Herrera, Xavier Pacheco, Teresa Cedenilla, Amaia Soto and the host, Sílvia Culell, will explain their choices and how they see Catalan wine in the international context.

#Jotriovicatalà group photo

To give visibility to Catalonia's growing presence at BWW, a toast will be held on opening day at 2.15pm under the hashtag #Jotriovicatalà. In November 2023 INCAVI launched the campaign Catalonia, where wine is culture, its most ambitious Catalan wine promotion campaign to date. Part of the #HoritzóINCAVI2025 roadmap, it has spread across the territory (TV, radio, press and outdoor) the main attributes defining Catalan wine — quality, local sourcing, tradition and landscape richness — along with the hashtag #Jotriovicatalà.

Women increasingly present in winemaking

Meanwhile, INCAVI is also supporting the tasting organised by the Dones del Vi collective , to be held on Wednesday 7 in the afternoon at the Palau de Pedralbes with INCAVI's director general, Alba Balcells. With 350 people expected, the event will offer wines from almost 50 wineries run by women, 80% of them Catalan.