The fifth annual Florida International Wine Challenge took place at Smith and Wollensky’s in South Beach this weekend. Created and coordinated by wine marketing company Vinamericas Inc. as a way for international wineries to test their products' potential for success in the Florida market, the industry event opened to the public for the first time in its five-year run.
During last year’s challenge, Vinamericas coordinators, led by founder and president David Bernad, realized they had hundreds of bottles of open wine and nothing to do with them. Solution? Invite the public to drink them and test their wine know-how against industry experts.
“We thought this would give south Florida wine lovers an amazing opportunity to taste hundreds of wines without having to deal with the classic trade show format,” said Bernad.
The public could buy tickets through the event’s Web site, priced at $50 for one day or $75 for the weekend. Bernad's committee determined pricing after evaluating ticket prices for other wine tastings in the area, which ranged from $75 to $200.
After a panel of wine experts judged the 240 wines for the challenge portion of the event, the nearly 200 consumers who attended throughout the weekend had their chance to taste and grade each vino. Those who ranked the wines as the judges did received prizes like V.I.P. passes to the Miami International Wine Fair in September and wine and perfume gift baskets.
“It’s not an event with high profitability,” said Bernad. “We do it for the fun of it and to continue relationships with people in the wine business.”
Originally planned to make use of the restaurant's entire 2,000-square-foot second floor—spread across six connecting rooms—the event was downsized when an electrical fire on March 28 burned half of the floor, along with part of the first floor where the bottles for the judging were to be securely stored. The incident forced the planning committee to rework the event format (and rent a storage area for the wine) just four weeks ago.
Launched as part of the 2005 Miami International Wine Fair, another event created by Bernad, the Wine Challenge became a separate event the following year. The money raised from ticket sales benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami.
