Daniel Sualdea Díaz is the export manager for DO Ribera del Duero winery Diaz Bayo Hermanos in Fuentelcésped, in the province of Burgos, Spain. The Diaz Bayo family has been dedicated to vineyard cultivation and wine making for more that 10 generations. They will be attending the 2011 “Buyer Meets Iberian Cellar” Workshop in Barcelona to present their Tempranillo, Merlot and Albillo wines to buyers from around the world. We caught up with Daniel to ask him about exporting Diaz Bayo wines and the upcoming workshop.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in getting your wines into the hands of consumers? There are some people, who do not want new wines, they just drink famous brands. They appreciate the wine brand, but not the quality. This is a great challenge. On the other hand there are people who want to try a lot of wines, and compare just the quality. That´s a great opportunity for us.
What can you tell us about the kind of consumers who drink your wine? Most of them are wine lovers. People who want to find more than a simple wine, who want to learn about wine by drinking different wines. We want the wine lovers to taste and appreciate our wines and the way we make them. The most important thing is the fidelity of the customer, as when a person drinks our wines, they usually repeat again and again!
What countries are you most interested in exporting to? Of course the United States is a really important market and we are not exporting to the States now. I am sure that after the workshop, we will achieve an importer. But on the other hand, the Asian market is a great opportunity, we are exporting to South Korea, and it is a good market, we have high quality wines, and Korean people recognize this quality. Nowadays our main goal is exporting to China and India, huge countries, with an amazing potential, great economy and a growing interest in wines. Russia is other important goal that we have for the next years.
How would you compare the workshop methodology at Wine Pleasures to a large-scale wine trade fair? What are the strengths and weaknesses of both? I prefer much more the workshop methodology. Both buyers and sellers have much more information, they can choose where they invest their time, and avoid wasting time in meetings with no interest. The strengths that I would highlight is the huge opportunity that buyers and sellers have to meet each other, the weakness most important is that is possible you don´t have time to meet all the people that you are interested in.
The “Buyer Meets Iberian Cellar” Workshop is an annual event usually taking place in the month of February.
I love exploring variety of wine and how they taste good. What could be unique taste of this one?