Daria Kholodilina is a Georgia-based wine tourism specialist, and a big friend and promoter of Georgian wine – with a WSET 2 certificate. Being born in Ukraine, Daria moved to Georgia in 2013 because she fell in love with the country. She participated in developing the Georgian National Tourism Strategy 2015-2025. Her contributions were focused on marketing and promotion. Daria is also a co-author of the definitive (and only) English language guidebook to Georgia’s wine regions, “Georgia: A Guide to the Cradle of Wine.” Published in 2016, this book received the Geoffrey Roberts Award and was highly praised by major international media outlets in the world of wine: The Guardian, jancisrobinson.com, World of Fine Wine, and others.

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After 4 years of working for the Georgian National Tourism Administration, she decided to switch to grassroots tourism activities and founded a travel company Trails and Wines. The idea is to let the guests experience unique Georgian wine, gastronomy and nature through socializing and meeting new people. Trails and Wines proudly supports small and medium enterprises all around the country and holds Best Niche Tourism Award for Georgia.

The pandemic of 2020 put the tourism business on hold and made Daria move online where she continued  working with events and wineries. She organized dozens of online tastings, and started a YouTube channel Drink Georgian,  where Daria invites her followers to an exciting virtual journey around Georgia – the country, which is proud of its winemaking history. She shares her knowledge of unique Georgian wines, which are highly valued and respected by wine professionals, but are relatively unknown to the wider audience. Daria Kholodilina also participated in the Honest Wines project, supported by a variety of Georgian natural wine importers.

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