Daria Kholodilina became the winner of the IWSC 2024 Emerging Talent in Wine Award
Congratulations to WTA nominee Daria Kholodilina from Georgia, who won the IWSC 2024 Emerging Talent in Wine Award sponsored by the London Wine Fair!
The list of exceptionally talented candidates for this award was announced last week. After a detailed review, the judges chose Daria Kholodilina. They were simply fascinated by Daria’s creativity and abilities. “It changes and moves forward the entire Georgian wine industry,” experts noted. “Her influence, ingenuity and work are creating markets and changing the way we think about wine.”
Daria Kholodilina is an expert in the field of wine tourism in Georgia, she is a big fan and popularizer of Georgian wine, has a WSET 3, Georgian Wine Expert certified by the Georgian Sommelier Association. She regularly blogs about Georgian wine in social networks. In 2022, Daria Kholodilina joined the WTA community in the nomination Wine & Food Influencer/The Brightest Journey.
Daria was born in Ukraine, and in 2013 she moved to Georgia and has since fallen in love with this country. She participated in the development of Georgia’s national tourism strategy for 2015-2025, focusing on marketing and promotion.
The judges were impressed by how Daria Kholodilina acquired deep knowledge in such a deep topic as Georgian wine in a few years and became a respected specialist in the field. She is the co-author of the book about Georgian wine, the only English-language guide to the wine regions of Georgia “Georgia: A Guide to the Cradle of Wine“; she hosts a podcast and radio show on the same topic, and also created her own wine tourism company, Trails and Wines.
In 2020, Daria spent several months traveling around Georgia, visiting wineries and filming interviews with winemakers. She gave her notes to Georgian wine importers in Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands to help them promote the wines. In addition, Daria organizes training on the development of wine tourism and conducts numerous tasting events, presenting Georgian wine in Georgia and abroad.
The IWSC 2024 Emerging Talent in Wine judges praised Daria Kholodilina’s work and expressed their admiration for her intention to use her £2.5k travel award to help her community and expand her impact. In her application, Daria said she had two ideas for how to spend her scholarship – an internship at a European winery to conduct more in-depth training sessions for Georgian winemakers, and representing small Georgian producers at one of the major trade fairs.
Daria Kholodilina is sincerely happy about her award: “Georgian wines have already received several medals from the IWSC, but I am happy to bring home the first award in the field of wine communication and marketing in Georgia!”
The Wine Travel Awards team hopes that this year will be a stellar one for Daria – and she will win this project as well. Public voting for the nominees of the 2024 award will start on March 1 and we invite readers to support Daria by visiting her page from March 1 to 31 and giving her a “like”.