Baltic Wine & Drinks Awards 2025: Winners, Stories & Expert Insights

The Baltic Wine & Drinks Awards used to be a contest with distinct sections and professionals on the panel of judges. Informally, it is a guide to help you find the best places to try wine, cocktails and rare drinks, all carefully curated. The awards showcase places where drinks are not just an addition to the menu, but an independent cultural phenomenon.

The participants are divided into three groups: Wine List, Drink List and Retailers. Each group showcases a different aspect of the drinks industry, from how restaurants work with wine to bar creativity and the role of importers and shops in shaping the market. Importantly, all winners are evaluated by experts— the lists are compiled based on quality, concept, and professional approach, not popularity. As well to promote the understanding and prestige of the sommelier profession, Baltic Wine & Drinks Awards in association with LIEBHERR organized the 2nd edition of the “Top 50 Baltic Sommeliers” Award!

Who are the winners? 

First things first, let’s find out who received 3 stars awards this year:

• Retailers: Venue, Vyno klubas, Barents Wine Collectors, Noble Wine, Time To Wine Bar & Shop Rotermanni

• Drink List: HeJi, Whisky Bar “King & Mouse”, Mākonis Cocktails & Design, The Benjamin House Bar, Mnemonic Bar, Gongu Restaurant, PACAI Bar

• Wine List: HeJi, Riviera, Barents, Truff le Pig, Noble Wine, Time To Wine Kopli, Max Cekot Kitchen, Lee Brasserie, B7, Monte Pacis, Snatch restaurant, DEMO Restoranas, Nineteen18, Time To Wine Rotermanni

For many participants on the list, the award came as a pleasant surprise:

Ivars Kalniņš, top-3 sommelier in 2025, “Riviera”:

The main point is that we are promoting and representing our rare profession of sommeliers. If we took any other profession, we could probably make a top 500 list, but sommeliers have the advantage that there are few of us.

All participants in the Baltic Top 50 deserve to be in the top three. This is about how our profession looks and how we present it in our countries — Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — where there’s no winemaking history.That’s the main thing. And as you saw during the restaurant awards, without sommeliers these great wine lists couldn’t exist. 

What to see, enjoy and drink: Neighborhood’s choice 

Thanks to its award-winning cocktail menu, the airy and playful Mākonis cocktail bar in Riga has become the go-to place for cocktails in Latvia. The jury recommends the ‘holy trinity’ of drinks: the Godfather Milk Punch, the Smoky B and the MayDay. Neighbouring store Kolekcija Dzērieni, a new addition to the Latvian retail scene, was given a special mention for its vintage drinks selection, particularly the vintage Hine 3 Stars Cognac approved by the Queen, which cannot be found anywhere else in Riga.  

There are many more worthy of mention, as each and every one of them has distinguished itself in some way and deserves the attention of wine and cocktails lovers (see the map with the full list here). For our readers, we have selected some of the most prominent and worth-to-visit options — one per country.

Retailers

Established by the vibrant husband-and-wife pair Arūnas and Rasa Starkus, this venue boasts a collection of over 2,000 wines, meticulously curated for those who value expertise and genuineness. They see themselves not just as a wine shop, but as a vibrant community and a hub for enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike. The team comprises some of Lithuania’s leading wine experts, including certified WSET educators and even a Master of Champagne. 

This is a place for true wine lovers, located in the delicately restored Rotermanni Quarter near Tallinn’s Old Town. Established in 2010, it serves a range of beverages, each of which is a personal recommendation from a member of the team, reflecting their tastes, travels and discoveries. Thanks to the wine dispensers, guests are offered a unique opportunity to sample almost every wine on the list. Special mention goes to the well-priced classics: the 2021 Domaine Huet Vouvray Chenin Blanc ‘Le Haut-Lieu’ Sec, priced at just 45 euros, and the Pierre Peters ‘Cuvée de Réserve’ Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Brut. 

DRINK LIST

This bar specialises in contemporary cocktails. With over ten years of experience in the bar industry, beverage director and co-founder Daniil Didenko and owner and co-founder Diana Tšistjakova have created a relaxed yet lively atmosphere. Highly recommended are the Concorde cocktail, which is bright, floral and effortlessly cool, and the Marry Me, which is smoky, bold and moderately unusual.  

WINE LIST

The HeJi concept combines Western and Eastern traditions, evident in the restaurant’s dishes, drinks and interior. The lamps, wall paintings and impressive wooden façade framing the open kitchen all evoke the Far East. Opened in 2024, it quickly gained a Michelin star. It recently won two awards at the Baltic Wine & Drinks Awards. This is hardly surprising, however, given that the wine menu was curated by Martynas Pravilonis, one of the region’s leading wine and beverage experts. 

This brasserie on the quiet street of Ausekļa is a ‘one-man show’: the chef, owner and sommelier is Valters Zirdziņš, who effortlessly cooks, serves and hosts, creating the kind of restaurant he loves to visit himself. This personal approach is evident in every detail: the wine list at B7 is concise yet curated with care, showcasing the wines that Valters himself loves, and the selection of beverages is complemented by music played on a vinyl record player.

P. S.