Global industry leaders, including Robert Parker, will meet in Rioja to discuss the future of the wine industry.

WineFuture-Rioja 2009 is an international conference created and owned by The Wine Academy of Spain. This conference, supported by the CRDC Rioja, will be held in the city of Logroño on November 12th and 13th, 2009. The most important leaders of the global wine industry will meet in Rioja to discuss the current challenges that the global wine industry is facing, providing solutions, ideas, strategies and leadership. Some of the topics that will be covered at the conference include the global financial crisis, the environment, how to improve sales, consumption trends, the challenges that the on-trade is going through, brands, marketing strategies and the emerging markets.

One of the stars of the conference is American wine critic and guru Robert Parker, who will visit Spain for the first time. Parker will give a speech, take part in one of the panels and will conduct a guided tasting. Together with Robert Parker, The Wine Academy of Spain has confirmed the participation of the most influential names of the industry including Jancis Robinson, Oz Clarke, Steven Spurrier; experts in marketing such as Kevin Zraly (“Windows of the World Wine School”); Robert Joseph (Founder of the International Wine Challenge); distributors such as Mel Dick (President of Southern Wine & Spirits), Dan Jago (Director of Wines and Spirits for Tesco), and Troy Christensen (President of Constellation Brands Europe, the worlds largest wine company), amongst many others.

The venue that will host WineFuture-Rioja 2009 will be Riojaforum in Logroño and the main sponsor of the event is the Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja. WineFuture-Rioja 2009 offers lectures, panels, a guided tasting with Robert Parker, an official dinner and an exhibitors area with a capacity for 100 tasting tables. A very interesting feature of the event is the live broadcast of some of the most important speeches through the event website, which will allow more than 20,000 viewers to attend the event virtually from anywhere on the planet. The conference is expected to attract more than 500 visitors from all over the world, including, importers, distributors, exporters, marketeers, retailers, critics, writers, sommeliers and other wine professionals.