Monday, 2 February 2026, 17:20
One in three Spanish wineries is gathering from this Monday at the Montjuïc fairgrounds to participate in the Barcelona Wine Week. The figures are staggering for what is already the most important Spanish wine fair, but what surprises in the corridors is not the attendance—which at times can be overwhelming—but the sense of a sector uniting when everything seems against it: uncertainty in international trade, domestic consumption contracting, consumption habits tending to reduce alcohol, or landscapes where vineyards are losing ground. Yet, the atmosphere is not one of pessimism, but of seeking opportunities: those offered by nearly 900 international buyers invited by ICEX, who over three intense days will hold nearly 13,500 business meetings.
This time the fair brings together more than 1,350 wineries from 90 denominations of origin and quality seals, nearly 5% more than last year. A third of the country’s wineries have marked on their calendar a fair that already occupies 10,900 square meters in halls 1 and 8 of Fira de Barcelona and attracts buyers from strategic markets in Europe, America, and Asia. But the fair does not want to limit itself to being a well-organized catalogue. Javier Pagés, president of the fair, insisted at the inauguration that BWW is, above all, an economic meeting: “Here doors are opened.” Spanish wine needs platforms today more than ever to connect it with foreign markets in an increasingly uncertain global scenario, “which is why the fair makes more sense than ever.”
The Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, spoke about the formulas to tackle this “disruption of international trade,” which basically involves finding alternative markets to the United States. Faced with the threat of tariffs, he recalled that “the European Union is working on agreements with markets such as India, Mercosur, or Indonesia, in addition to those already signed with Canada, Japan, Mexico, or Korea” and announced “a specific plan to pave the way for Spanish wine in these destinations.” His diagnosis is optimistic: “Spain exports wine worth 2.9 billion euros, but there is still room for growth,” and he cited olive oil as an example, which has doubled the value of its exports in the last seven years.
This uncertain external horizon is seen from a sector undergoing internal review. Climate change is altering practices, calendars, and decisions in wineries; artificial intelligence is beginning to emerge as a useful tool in the field; and consumption habits are forcing the exploration of formulas with less alcohol or lighter styles, without losing identity. All this hovers over the fair, also explicitly in conferences and tastings, as the BWW has a technical program with 80 activities and 136 speakers. Among them, eight Masters of Wine, renowned winemakers such as Willy Pérez, Daniel Landi, Eduardo Eguren, Oriol Llaberia, or Richard Sanz, and the presence of the influential British critic from the Financial Times, Jancis Robinson, who will lead a tasting focused on the relationship between tradition and innovation over time.
Large and Small Families
The theme of this edition—the wine families—serves as a good summary of that balance between continuity and transformation. The program focuses on historic lineages such as Torres, Vega Sicilia, Gramona, Roqueta Origen, or José Pariente, but the underlying question is not so much the epic of the surname as the way generational succession is managed. Evolution or revolution? In many cases, the answer lies somewhere in between: respect for what has been built, but with an open eye to change. Alongside these great families, the fair also reserves space for small projects, often led by young winemakers, who shy away from excessive personalism and advocate for the soil, the landscape, and collective work. A generation tied to the vineyard that speaks less of brand and more of towns, soils, and people.
Catalonia leads the participation with about 320 wineries, followed by Castilla y León, La Rioja, and Castilla-La Mancha, while Andalusia, Murcia, and Asturias are growing strongly. This territorial diversity is joined by a plurality of sizes and approaches: from large consolidated groups that set up monumental stands, to more than 300 micro-wineries that bring dynamism and discourse from the margins of the venue. As Pagés stated: “Here Spanish wine presents itself to the world as it is: diverse, ambitious, and changing.”
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