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| Anja and Georges in Vietnam |
During this project, Georges and Anja are traveling through 22 countries around the world, collecting wine bottles from participating wineries. All bottles will be shipped back to California where an auction will be held at the Mondavi Winery in 2011. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Lao Rehabilitation Foundation which works to improve the life of children, among other causes. The funds raised by the auction in 2011 will go to help rebuild a school destroyed by massive flooding of the Mekong River in 2008. ‘I hope you are doing well! I would like to inform you that we will be landing in India tomorrow and we were wondering if in the coming two weeks you will be by chance in Mumbai area. That would give us a great chance to meet with you, while we are there for our wine mission to gather wine bottles for charity and learn as much as possible on the Indian wine market!’ said an email from Anja to our editor, Mr. Subhash Arora last Friday.
Regrettably, Mr. Arora may not be able to meet them as he is away to Verona as one of the international judges for the Vinitaly Concorso being held from 29th March- 2nd April. But delWine will cover the Indian leg of the tour in detail and also the event organized by their media sponsors, Ambrosia on April 1 at the JW Marriott Hotel where several wine industry stalwarts will be present to interact with Anja and Georges. Although it is getting fairly warm in Mumbai, one hopes they will still be able to taste some of the fruit on the vines and catch the tail end of the harvest in Nashik. Members of the Delhi Wine Club (Mumbai) will also have an opportunity to meet them and understand from a closer distance how a wine appassionato can be driven in various ways.
Anja had contacted delWine in August last. Encouraged by our quick response she wrote back, ‘Thank you very much for your reply. Only through enthusiasm and help from people like you, this humanitarian project can be possible. Thank you for that!’ We have been in touch since then and delWine has been following their progress with interest and wishing them well.
The duo left Russia on January 1, 2010 for their one- year tour. After visiting China, Lagos, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, they reached Mumbai on Saturday. They will be meeting several wine industry people in Mumbai and Nashik. ‘We are very keen to learn about the steps the producers are taking towards sustainability,’ says Anja.
Anja is originally from Belarus and immigrated to the Netherlands with her family. She is a Masters student in the Netherlands, and is also performing research during the Tour. Georges is a California native with French background. He has recently graduated from Netherlands. He has worked in several wineries in Napa and is also the Webmaster for the project.
DelWine, Indian Wine Academy and members of Delhi Wine Club-both in Delhi and Mumbai salute the duo for their enviable interest in the charity tour and wish them a very successful and exciting stay in India and for the rest of the journey.
For more information on the Tour, write to Anja at anja.cheriakova@gmail.com or visit their website www.worldwinetour2010.com
Natasha Vohra
Asst. Editor, delWine |