Riga's Barents wins Best Austrian Wine List in the Baltics 2024
The Best Austrian Wine Lists of the Baltic states have been announced at an awards ceremony in Riga.
This year's Star Wine List of the Year Baltics awards were held on Sunday, 15 September 2024.
Gold Stars were awarded to the Best Austrian Wine Lists in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, presented by category sponsor, Austrian Wines.
Riga restaurant Barents received the Gold Star for Latvia and the Baltics overall, with judge Salvatore Castano noting the list's "top producers and range of remarkable vintages. The collection includes some of the finest names in Austrian winemaking, offering a true representation of the country's rich wine heritage.”
"It all started years ago," explained Head Sommelier Ņikita Zaičenkovs, accepting Barents' award on-stage. "We, together with my colleagues, my friends, decided to bring Austrian wines into Latvia just to show that it’s a very, very interesting market, which has a lot of very interesting history. For me, it’s one of the places where you can find the most remarkable wines for very fair prices - they’ve got their own terroirs, style, ideas. You can show people that there’s also something more unique, more interesting and you can come and enjoy something more unexpected - that’s one of the things we try to do as sommeliers."
The Gold Star for Estonia was presented to Tallinn's Fox Den for its “concise selection ... showing the strength of the Lower Austria region,” with Restaurant Pacai in Vilnius taking the Lithuanian Gold Star for its broad "choices between four main regions and diversity of styles."
These three winners will go on to compete against the other top Austrian wine lists of the world in the Star Wine List of the Year International Final, which will be held in summer 2025.
Runners up
Silver Stars for lists' Austrian selections were awarded to:
Fotografiska Tallinn, Tallinn, Estonia
HeJi, Vilnius, Lithuania
Max Cekot Kitchen, Riga, Latvia
Riviera, Riga, Latvia
SOMM The Wine Bar, Vilnius, Lithuania
Time to Wine Kopli 6, Tallinn, Estonia
Time to Wine Rotermanni, Tallinn, Estonia
Jury
The awards were decided by our global panel of wine experts:
• Paz Levinson, named Best Sommelier of Americas 2015
• Salvatore Castano, Best Sommelier of Europe and Africa 2021
• Piotr Pietras, Master Sommelier
Categories and criteria
Star Wine List judges the wine lists in several categories such as the Best Sparkling Wine List and Best By the Glass List. These categories are the same across all of the awards. In addition, local categories may be added. We have commercial partners for certain categories, such as the Best Austrian Wine List, presented by Austrian Wine. The commercial partners are, however, never involved in the selections of finalists or winners — that is completely up to our independent jury panel.
The criteria for the jury are straightforward but not simple: vote for the most exciting wine list representing the category.
The winners in the international categories will qualify for our International Final in summer 2025, where they will face off with the category winners from other countries and continents.
Read about the terms and how Star Wine List judges the wine lists here.
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Austrian Wine
The Austrian Wine Marketing Board is based in Vienna, and is a national service body for the Austrian wine industry. The aim is to strategically support, coordinate and maintain quality and sales.
