In a wine shop an hour outside of Washington, owner Arthur Lampros sampled a wine from a part of the world that was totally new to him, racking his brain to pin down the tastes on his tongue. Was there a body of water near the vineyards, he wondered, that would moderate any storms or heat waves buffeting the grapes?.
“Absolutely, absolutely” — Ukraine's Black Sea coast, near Odesa, said Giorgi Iukuridze, a Ukrainian winery owner introducing Ukraine's modernized wines to a broad U.S. audience for the first time. Sam Lerman, a U.S. Air Force vet and one of a number of former American military officers and diplomats in Ukraine backing him in the endeavor, nodded, beaming at the words of praise that followed for many of the wines.
Ukraine is in the eyes of the world as it battles the Russian invasion with the aid of the United States and dozens of other countries. But Lerman said he and the others who teamed up with Iukuridze for the U.S. launch want Americans to see “that Ukraine is more than an ally at war, suffering tremendous tragedy.”.
Bringing the wines to the U.S. will help show “what Ukraine was really about, and has always been about,” he said. For Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who served as President Donald Trump's special representative to Ukraine during a stormy time in his first term, what Ukraine is about is determination, dedication and hope.
“Right now, because of Russia’s invasion and the military assistance the U.S. has given to Ukraine, when people hear and talk about Ukraine, it is all about the war. And it’s a little bit groaning ... like, ‘Oh, geez, you know, how much more we’re going to spend on this?’'' Volker told The Associated Press.
