International wine fair to open on February 27

BELGRADE - The International Wine Fair BeoWine will be held in Belgrade from February 27 to March 2 and it will gather over 140 presenters from 13 countries famous for their rich wine production tradition.

The wine fair will be held at the Belgrade Fair at the same time as the fairs of tourism, hotel and catering equipment and souvenirs, the organisers of the fair announced on Monday.

In addition to wine producers from Serbia, the fair will gather wine cellars from Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Portugal, Sweden, Bulgaria, Austria, Greece, Italy and France.

Wine and gastronomy have been recognised as important tourist products and the wine map of Serbia features over 120 wine-related facilities, representative of the Tourism Sector in the Ministry of Economy Renata Pindzo said.

According to President of the Serbian Association of Winegrowers and Winemakers Gvozden Radenkovic, the wine production tradition in Serbia goes almost two millennia back into history as indicated by the data that first vineyards in Serbia were built some time around 300 AD.

During the fair, a best wine competition will be organised and the selection will be made by jury comprising prominent local and foreign experts in the field, President of the Serbian Wine Company Velibor Pesic said.

He recalled that makers of rakia (strong alcoholic beverage) also took part in last year's wine fair which is the reason why there are some ideas to rename the fair into the Wine and Rakia Fair.

The fair will be open on Thursday, February 27, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, the fair will be open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sunday, guests will be able to visit the event from...