Neil Pendock speaks to Wade Bales, who is running a wine show at Pezula in Knysna tomorrow and Tuesday

With the WineX franchise, Juliet Cullinan, the Jo'burg Wine Show and now yours, is the wine-show market in danger of becoming overtraded?

In terms of commercial wine shows, I do think we are at capacity, not necessarily from the consumer's point of view but rather the fact that producers can only support so many shows. Sixty-five percent of the Wade Bales Wine Society's customers reside in Gauteng. We therefore host the Wade Bales Wine Festival in Johannesburg to give our customers the opportunity to engage with 50 producers, whom we believe are among the best in South Africa.

Over the years we have also identified, in relation to our market, what we believe to be weaknesses in some of the larger wine shows. For example, in many instances there are over 1000 wines to taste. This can be overwhelming and intimidating and while wine enthusiasts may have a fantastic amount of choice on one level, on another, there is simply too much choice. To address this, we have specifically limited the number of exhibitors to 50 wine producers and asked them to showcase only their flagship red and white wine. The benefit for the consumer is that whatever is being tasted is without doubt the best the winemaker has to offer.

We also limit the number of visitors to 500 per night. This ensures that they have the opportunity to engage with the winemakers. It is not our intention to increase the size of our wine festival; our intention is to create a premium experience for the South African fine-wine market. Our festival doesn't pretend to be all things to all people; it is aimed at a select group of high-profile producers, who target a very specific consumer.

What is the future of wine e-commerce?

The emergence of the Internet over the past 10 years has been a powerful phenomenon affecting the retail sector. It's becoming imperative for wineries and wine retailers to find meaningful and innovative ways to connect with their customers digitally. That the Internet has a strong influence on pricing cannot be denied. It provides customers with the platform to compare prices easily and to seek out the best price for their favourite wines.

However, there are still a number of limitations within the South African market. For example, compared to Europe and the United States, South African consumers are taking a lot longer to trust and embrace on-line purchasing and they are still faced with various technical obstacles. Delivery is another problem. Due to the lack of critical mass in this market, distribution is not always as prompt and efficient as the consumer may wish for. And then there's the issue of making informed decisions: many consumers find the plethora of wines available on the Internet confusing. Our strategy is "communication accessibility". In other words, we aim to ensure that our customers retain their preferred method of shopping, whether that's the Internet, one-on-one, the telephone or mail order.