Stories
Wine history, European culture, and the traditions behind the bottle — essays gathered across twenty-five years of diplomatic travel.
Wine Diplomacy: My First Encounter with Europe
It was the autumn of 1993. The active phase of the war in Abkhazia had just ended, but in Tbilisi the war could still…
September 2026 · 11 min readThe Toasts I did not make
Notes from the Berliner Wein Trophy — Part II More than a month has passed since I wrote about my first impressions of the…
September 2026 · 8 min readNotes from the Berliner Wein Trophy
Some invitations you accept for professional reasons. Others you accept because they make you genuinely happy. The invitation to sit on the jury of…
August 2026 · 6 min readWine Europe
Europe’s wine culture is not simply about what is in the glass. It is about landscapes, traditions, and the people who cultivate vineyards generation…
June 2026 · 12 min readWine History – Civilisation in a Glass
From Ancient Vines to the Future of the Vineyard Wine is one of humanity’s most enduring companions. It has celebrated victories, softened defeats, accompanied…
June 2026 · 7 min read