The Best Austrian Wine List in the UAE 2024/’25 is at The Lana, Dubai
On Monday, 9 December, we celebrated our Star Wine List of the Year UAE competition for 2024/’25 at The Lana, Dubai – a Dorchester Collection hotel. And our hosts were also awarded two Gold Stars by the judges.
The Lana won its first Gold Star for the Best Austrian Wine List, an award presented by Austrian Wine.
“Acknowledging the real difficulty of sourcing Austrian wine in this market, it is remarkable to find a well thought out, carefully selected selection of fantastic producers on offer, including by the glass,” said jury member Stephen Wong MW. “The Lana does a commendable job of highlighting the excitement and innovation of Austrian wine for diners to discover.”
The Lana’s Head of Wine, Bhatia Dheeraj, elaborated when collecting his award: “I think with the market in Dubai, the Austrian selection was scarce, and some of the importers really helped us. But this is just the beginning and we really want to focus more on other core regions of Austria as well.”
Dheeraj then also received a Special Jury Prize, only awarded when the judges believe a restaurant to have done something particularly impressive in terms of style, direction, value and so on; they cited The Lana’s “contribution to the wider wine scene” through its many events, and its ability to secure “unique allocations” that broaden diners’ experiences.
All the winners at Star Wine List of the Year UAE 2024/’25.
Runners Up
Silver Stars for the Best Austrian Wine List were awarded to:
BOCA, Dubai
Hakkasan, Abu Dhabi
Nobu, Dubai
Expert jury panel
The international jury for UAE included four top names from the wine world:
• Ferran Centelles, renowned sommelier, formerly of El Bulli
• Nina Jensen, Second-Best Sommelier in the World 2023 (ASI)
• Vince Truong, Dubai-based wine expert and educator
• Stephen Wong MW
Categories and criteria
The criteria for the jury are straightforward but not simple: vote for the most exciting wine list representing each category.
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 winners in the international categories automatically qualify for our International Final in June 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.
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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.
