On February 24, I thought it was the end of the WTA. The abbreviation stands for the Wine Travel Awards, an international wine travel competition organised by Drinks+. Drinks+ is Ukraine’s leading wine and drinks magazine. Or was? I am not sure if it is still publishing in print.
A bit over a year ago, in the spring of 2021, Olga Pinevich-Todoriuk, the editor of Drinks+, launched this project as a way to help the wine business and the wine travel business recover from the difficulties of almost two years of the pandemic, as a tool to promote wine and wine travel. Any wine-related business could participate in the competition, wineries, wine regions, wine guides, wine tour companies, wine museums, wine routes, wine schools etcetera. Candidates from all over the world were welcomed. The deadline for participating was in February 2022.
I had been invited to participate in the jury, so I followed the evolution closely, and saw how more and more candidates signed up for the competition.
And then February 24 happened.
Russia started its war of aggression in Ukraine. Surely the WTA would be shelved or at least suspended until the invasion was over. Surely the war would put a stop to the project.
But no.
Somehow Olga and her team kept going. Kept the deadlines, organised the finals, and organised the public voting. Made it happen as planned. I had never thought that would be possible in a country at war. I was immensely impressed by the team, that they managed to pull it off as planned, with a presence at ProWein and the awards ceremony at the London Wine Fair.
This was the first year Wine Travel Awards took place. They intend to make it an annual competition, so get in the starting blocks for next year. Candidatures should open later this year. Whatever you do in wine, there will be some of all their categories where you can compete and maybe win. Get ready for the Wine Travel Awards 2022-2023.
Here are the winners of the Drinks+ Wine Travel Awards 2021-2022:
- The Visiting Card of the Country
- Must visit: Château Mukhrani (Georgia)
- Brand: the visiting card of the country: Vinaria Purcari (Moldova)
- Progressive approach: Frank John winery (Germany)
- Authentic location: Villa dei Misteri: the wine of Ancient Pompeii (Italy)
- Objet d’Art: Museo d’Impresa Mastroberardino Atripalda (Italy)
- Education in Enotourism
- Unique program: “Master Class”, the first sommelier school in Ukraine (Ukraine)
- Cultural mission: GuideMASTER Wine Tour Guide Program (Armenia)
- Enogastronomic Events
- Magnet of the region: The Shumi Winery (Georgia)
- Effective event: London Wine Fair (UK)
- Event of the year: Yerevan Wine Days (Armenia)
- Ambassador
- Ambassador of the year: Wine Paths (France)
- Creative strategy: Vinuri de Comrat (Moldova)
- Wine & Food Influencer
- Author of the year: Alder Yarrow (USA)
- Research of the year: Wine consumption study (Armenia)
- Expert opinion: Alder Yarrow (USA)
- The brightest journey: AdVINEtures (Canada)
- Wine Guide
- Guide of the year: Vini Armenian Wine Guide (Armenia)
- Unique route: Tanisha Townsend (France)
- Educational tour of the year: WineStatistics (Romania)
Congratulations to all of you!
