Born in 1975 into a family of artist’s in Santa Fe, NM, John grew up with creativity. He went on to study to be a visual artist completing his Master’s degree in Fine Art at the Surikov Institute in Russia. John came to Caucasus Georgia first in 1995 but decided to move their in 1998 to paint and collect rare Georgian folk songs, during such expeditions he was discovering the wide variety of Georgian wines and cuisine, which led to the founding of a small boutique winery called Pheasant’s Tears in 2006 followed by several wine focused restaurants then eventually, Living Roots in 2012 a Wine Tourism enterprise focused on the wine, food, and culture of Georgia, John travel’s extensively world wide offering talks and workshops on artisanal wines,food traditions and wine tourism.

John will be delivering a talk titled:

Sustainable Wine Tourism: Celebrate & Strengthen Diversity of Local Traditions

A wine tourist is a seeker of local and rare wines and traditions, in their authentic forms and within their local cultural context. An exceptional wine tourism company fosters this curiosity in their guests to inspire bearers of local wine traditions to continue to celebrate what makes their particular region’s wine heritage and terroir unique. This talk will give specific case examples from multiple wine destinations from different continents of how, wine tourism directly through business and media has positively influenced, developed and nurtured local traditions; including wine styles, fermentation methods, use of indigenous varietals, and even cuisine, to decorative elements of hotels and restaurants, and entertainment world wide.