Following the launch of Slow Wine Fair and the partnerships that brought the FIVI Wine Market and then the Champagne Experience under the Twin Towers, BolognaFiere is making another move on the wine events scene. The announcement was made yesterday: the organization, through its American subsidiary BolognaFiere USA, is acquiring 30% of the US company United Experience, previously wholly owned by Maurizio Muzzetta’s FiereItaliane Sea. This is a significant move: United Experience operates in the events sector and, with its new corporate structure, will launch three international wine events in 2026 in London, Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), and Mexico City, under the Wine Experience brand. This is a real challenge for BolognaFiere to Vinitaly, the player that until now has been the ambassador of Italian wine around the world on the events front.
Wine Experience focuses on new markets with high growth potential for wine: BolognaFiere’s three events in 2026
BolognaFiere’s 2026 initiative was created to support Italian wineries in expanding into new markets with high growth potential, at a time when US tariffs are requiring accelerated diversification of export destinations.
The United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Mexico are the development directions for Wine Experience, with a calendar already defined between April and November.
The first edition of Wine Experience will be held in London on April 26 and 27, 2026, in the ExCeL pavilions, and will feature over 200 exhibitors, joined by 60 food exhibitors. More than 1,500 buyers are expected in a country that already represents a key market for Italian wine exports.
On June 11 and 12, 2026, it will be the turn of Ho Chi Minh City at the Exhibition Center in Adora (Vietnam), while on November 10 and 11, 2026, the exhibition will be in Mexico City, at Expo Santa Fe.
“The wine sector is one of the pillars of the Italian agri-food industry and an extraordinary ambassador of our country’s culture around the world,” explains Antonio Bruzzone, CEO of BolognaFiere Group.
“With Wine Experience, BolognaFiere is helping to showcase this excellence, offering an innovative format and a concrete tool to support the exports of Italian wineries in a complex and constantly evolving international context. This initiative is fully in line with the Group’s internationalization strategy, which aims to strengthen its presence in the most dynamic markets and confirm BolognaFiere as a global platform for Made in Italy.”
With this initiative, BolognaFiere further consolidates its role as an international hub for wine business development, expanding its network of events supporting the supply chain in the most dynamic global markets.
Vietnam, with over 100 million inhabitants, is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia, with GDP increasing 5% in the last three years. Demand for wine is constantly growing, and Italy, which currently accounts for 24% of imports, will benefit from a market expected to grow by 45% in volume and 90% in value in 2026-2027.
Mexico, on the other hand, has seen a 60% increase in per capita wine consumption in recent years, with a projected market value of $6 billion by 2030, 70% of which will be covered by imports.
“Wine cannot remain anchored to traditional models that risk alienating potential new consumers. While other industries have been able to innovate thanks to technology and dialogue with the public, our sector must also make a leap forward, making itself more accessible, direct, and engaging,” explains Maurizio Muzzetta, president of FiereItaliane SEA and founder of United Experience. With Wine Experience, we aim to transform wine fairs into meeting places that unite culture and market, tradition and innovation. BolognaFiere’s involvement in this process is strategic: we are a group that has already demonstrated its ability to export winning trade fair models to Asia and North America, with several successful events organized even in 2025 alone. This international experience allows us to look concretely and ambitiously at new markets, positioning Italian wine at the center of the world’s most dynamic trade routes.
