There were five events this spring to introduce 25 winemakers from the Czech Republic with more than 70 wine samples to press, trade and wine drinkers in New York and Chicago. All events were organized and supported by Czech Wine Imports, Inc., the largest importer of Czech wines to the USA, and received very positive feedback from the attendees. Big thanks to the Viticulture fund of the Czech Republic, the partner wineries, Wirtz Beverage, Czech Tourism, the Chicagoland Czech-American Community Center and the Consul Generals in NY and Chicago which supported these events. 
Chicago
Chicago has (officially) more than 110,000 Czech-American citizens; as such it is a good location to introduce the Vino z Czech wines to the American market. With some luck, Czech-Americans will become the first customers and help spread the word about Czech wines and build awareness of high quality Moravian wines in America. Our first launch event was hosted by the Czech Consulate in Downtown Chicago, in attendance were distinguished guests of the Czech community such as Consulate General members, the Deputy of Czech Invest, members of the Sokol movement as well as business representatives of our distribution partner Wirtz Beverage, one of the largest alcohol distributors in the USA. We are grateful for the use of the Consulate space to feature the broad selection of Moravian wines. The next morning we met with the sales teams at Wirtz Beverage to introduce the wines to their sales teams. All of the wines were very well received and regarded as very high quality. Moravian wines make an excellent addition to the Wirtz portfolio. The next event was hosted and organized by the Chicagoland Czech-American Community Center for the broad community to celebrate a “Taste of Czech Culture”. The wines were complimented by food from local Czech restaurants and traditional music and dance of Morava to share the rich Czech culture and heritage in detail. State Representative Lisa Hernandez and Alderman Ted Polashek were in attendance as distinguished guests. Special thanks to Alderman Polashek and his team for great organization support here in Illinois.
New York
New York’s two launch events began with a press and trade event at Hospoda Restaurant followed by a larger evening event hosted by the Czech Consulate General for more than 250 attendees. Our sincere gratitude to Consul General Mr. Martin Dvorak, Mr. Stanislav Benes, Deputy Consul General & Head of Economic Section and their entire staff for exceptional support and organization. All winemakers should be proud of their wines. The people of New York and Chicago who had never had Moravia wines before were happily surprised by their quality. This does not necessarily mean that all wines will meet commercial success – as the USA is one of the most challenging wine markets in the world – but we can now say that Moravian wines have been successfully introduced to Chicago and NYC!