From March 29th to 30th, the 6th annual edition of International Wine Tourism Conference (IWINETC) brings together a unique blend of wine and tourism industry professionals,
Giorgi Sigua, Head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration kicks off the event with a claim that Georgia has the oldest continuous unbroken tradition of wine making in the world, stretching back over 8,000 years and today, there are more than 500 indigenous grape varieties still cultivated there.
At the end of day 1 Sarah Abbott, Master of Wine and Irakli Cholobargia, National Wine Agency will be presenting Georgian wines from the zesty and aromatic Mtsvane and the firm, stony Rkatsiteli to the striking, and exciting Saperavi red variety. Neither red, nor white, nor rosé, so called ‘Orange Wines’ derived from white grapes fermented on their skins to give darker, tannic whites will alos be included in this Grand Wine Tasting of Wines of Georgia.
To further wet your appetite, below are a sampling of the top quality guest speakers who promise to make IWINETC 2014 a memorable and above all useful learning experience.
- Wines of Uruguay consultant David Furer will host a look into South America’s Littlest Star along with wines from participating wineries to sample
- Guest speaker and professor, Dr. Aleš Gačnik Facutly of Tourism, University Of Primorska together with Marijan Močivnik, Revija Vino will tell us how Wine Queens are helping develop and promote Slovenian wine tourism
- Terry Sulivan, Wine Trail Traveler, Melba Allen, The Wine Profilers, Paul Bonarrigo Messina Hof Wine, Cellars, Tom Plant, WINEormous, will gang up to show how both tour operators and wine tourism experience providers can find different ways of branding and marketing using online activities currently going on in the wine travel blogsphere. Participants are promised that they will leave the session with a list of things that they can say “I can do that!”.
- A look at wine tourism industry lessons to be learnt and mistakes to avoid in Beaujolais, British Colombia, Republic of Moldova and Texas.
- The problem of getting visitors beyond popular city destinations for a well rounded cultural experience which includes people, wine, food and cultural heritage . Case Study Rome and the Lazio wine region by Sarah May Grunwald
- Wine School owner Ashika Mathews will point out that while it is easy to seduce people when you take them to beautiful places and taste wines with them, will answer the questionn how do you keep that memory alive once they are back home and keep them engaged with that region?
And, several more celebrated wine travelers, bloggers, and experts in their fields will speak to topics like Using Sensory Analysis as Games for a Memorable Visit, A Rest Day on a Wine Tour – Wine Wellness/Wine Therapy in Spas and Chicken Soup for the Wine Tourist’s Soul.
View the Provisional Conference Programme>>
And don’t forget to arrive early and stay late to take full advantage of the wine tasting tours around wine, food, and culture of Georgia.
