Ukraine

Vitalii Kravchenko

Vitalii Kravchenko is a Ukrainian sommelier and a winemaker. Vitalii’s journey in wine begins with a twist of fate. He had a passion for chemistry at school, and thus for his higher education he chose to study a course at the National University of Food Technologies: the class he selected was, by coincidence, winemaking. An internship at a winery in 2008 cemented his love for wine, and since then all of his jobs have been within the industry. Initially he began in a wine sales role, before becoming a consultant to a supermarket group. The next few years after were spent working as a sommelier, first in a wine boutique, followed by two stints on cruise ships, before returning to Ukraine to work as head sommelier of a retail group. Vitalii broadened his horizons in 2018 and 2019, which he spent working in at wineries in Australia and California as a cellar hand and lab technician, before returning again to Kyiv to work as head sommelier of a wine bar and then, following this, a sommelier in a retail group. Throughout this wide ranging experience within the industry, his first love has always remained winemaking, and Vitalii has begun to realise his dream of producing his own wine by planting a small vineyard… we are eagerly awaiting his inaugural vintage!