With over 4000 exhibitors VINITALY, the international Show of wines and distillatesi s the main appointment to know, taste and appreciate excellent wines and distillates from all over the world. Enolitech is the instrument of international promotion dedicated to the wine and olive oil sector, it is an irreplaceable moment of market and opportunities for all the companies of the industry to present the best of their production. The occasion for meeting and discussing with the operators willing to learn and buy new applications and technologies.

“Besides market share, we have acquired a wealth of additional marketing expertise.”
The Netherlands-based Amefa, one of the world’s market leaders in stainless steel cutlery, has taken over Couzon, France’s second largest cutlery brand. Effective January 1, 2006, the takeover means important new market share for Amefa. At the same time it enables the company to expand its branding, sales and marketing potential. Amefa customers are expected to experience the benefits in the years ahead.
Couzon’s history
The Couzon company was founded in 1934 by Mr Jean Couzon. After having started producing stainless steel flatware and hollowware in 1946, the company quickly developed into one of France’s undisputed market leaders. The trading brand ‘Jean Couzon Orfèvre’, adopted in 1971, was soon recognized on the market thanks to clever advertising – and, obviously, fine product quality. In the late seventies and early eighties the company worked hard to be at the leading edge of progress, not only technologically but in areas such as sales, advertising and creation as well. The efforts paid off; in 1986 Couzon had over 700 employees and its products were sold with great success all over the world.
Acquiring market share and expertise
From 2000 on, the Couzon company was restructured and changed hands several times. Near the end of 2005, after a few financial difficulties, Amefa decided to step in and take over. Mr Peter Hollaender, Amefa’s Purchasing Director, was there from the start: “First, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to expand our market share. Taking over Couzon was a possibility to do just that. However, our motives were more far reaching. We have always looked upon Couzon as a very market-oriented company. Besides market share, we have acquired a wealth of additional marketing expertise.”
Couzon customers first
After the takeover Amefa is now also the owner of a number of brands that are still widely recognized on the French market, such as Couzon, Cuisinox, Sabatier Trompette, Charles Menière, Marie Cotte, and Durol. Which of these brands will be continued under the Amefa flag is yet to be decided. As Mr Hollaender states: “In the upcoming year we will not be selling Couzon products through the Amefa network. Our first priority is to guarantee delivery and service to Couzon’s existing customers. Once all that is in place, we will start looking across the borders of the French market into ways of making the synergy work for both Amefa and Amefa’s customers.”
www.amefa.com

Enrico Bernardo, the creator of this new series, was inspired by his day to day work. For the last ten years he dealt with customers in upper class restaurants who appreciate the excellence of service. On the course of the job he found that the kind of glasses existing in the market could not fulfill his needs for a wine-tasting under perfect conditions. He graved for a series of glasses that could fully satisfy his necessities.

He was well aware of the existence of glasses of uncontested quality, but in Bernardo`s opinion: “[…] they are every time too much related to one specific appellation of a wine or specific grape.”

When creating THE FIRST, Bernardo took all kind of world-famous wines into consideration and developed different categories for them. These categories were based on the most outstanding tasting characteristics. Having decided upon the categories, the next step was to combine the category with a new, specifically shaped glass. The complexity of the wine can be represented in the best way with special structural features being the custom-built shape and the height of each glass.

Gourmets of wine who appreciate having the right glass matching the characteristics of a special wine will be delighted with the new series THE FIRST. When based on the classic categories of appellation and grape, gourmets of wines would need 50-60 glasses to experience the pleasure of tasting different wines. With a reasonable number of eighteen glasses, Enrico Bernardo has created a series that satisfies his own necessities of tasting world-wide wines.
His experience in various blind wine-tastings over the last ten years not only prepared him for his victory in the “World`s Best Sommelier Competition” but also helped him to develop personal criteria for the tasting of wine. These criteria were of great help and could be utilized in the design and development of the new series THE FIRST.

In order to make the experience of wine-tasting successful and satisfying, Bernardo recommends a glass with following characteristics: “I choose a glass which is 100 % crystal, completely handmade without joints and very light weighted.”

While working on the design of the new glass series THE FIRST, the objective was to enable the glasses to express the different bouquets of selected wines as well as the structure and gustative persistence unique to each wine. For the first time there is no classic combination of appellation and glass as the example “Chianti glass” shows.

Enrico Bernardo has created different and new classifications such as: ‘Pure and fresh white wine glass’, ‘Soft and mature white wine glass’ or ‘Young and oaky white wine glass’.

“The major revolution”, says Enrico Bernardo, ”has been the attempt of creating the perfect combination between the main characteristic of the wine in the precise moment of tasting and the specific shape and characteristic of the glass free of one specific appellation.”