Brazilian Wine Expands: Expovinis Brasil's Domingos Meirelles Talks Brazilian Wine

Domingos Meirelles, Portuguese born in Angola, has been living for 6 years in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He studied International Trade in Portugal, did his MBA in Sao Paulo, and finally the OIV Masters in International Wine Management to gain a broader perspective on the wine world. He is now the Director of Expovinis Brasil and personally dedicated to promoting Brazilian wine culture and generally pushing the country onto the global wine playing field. I recently caught up with him on a trip to Santiago, Chile visiting local wine producers and was able to ask him about the Brazilian market and the significance of Expovinis which is rapidly approaching.

Can you describe wine expo? (Who participates? Who attends? What is the size?)

We are expecting between 16 to 20 thousands visitors. The types of visitors we have are trade professionals and the public. We have 2 different schedules; professionals can see the exhibit from 2pm to 10pm, and general public can attend between 7pm until 10pm.

Over 80% of the visitors are professionals. They enter for free. Our target is smaller importers that can’t enter the show as exhibitors. Also attending are distributors, wine retailers, restaurants owners, sommeliers, educators, journalists, and anyone else related to the business

The general public that attends is primarily Brazilian wine lovers that are willing to pay around $35 USD to get in the show.