For the 2025 edition, Dagmar Ehrlich is the honorary president of the Womens International Trophy

Dagmar Ehrlich, food and wine journalist and event organizer, becomes honorary president 2025 

After several internships in viticulture in Germany and abroad, as well as training as a consultant sommelier at the Université du Vin in Suze-la-Rousse, I completed my studies in viticulture and oenology at the prestigious University of Geisenheim. In 1981, I founded Ehrlich's Weinkontor, a wine import and sales company with a bistro in Karlsruhe, which quickly became a popular meeting place for gourmets and wine lovers.
After selling this business in 1988, I joined the management of Hawesko, Germany's largest mail-order wine retailer. Then, in 1991, I was asked to oversee the monthly wine tastings for Feinschmecker magazine, before taking over the wine section of Wein Gourmet magazine a short while later. My list of the ‘100 best wines available in the world’ caught the attention of gourmets from around the globe.
I enjoy organising trips and events for the readers of Feinschmecker as well as for the Jaguar Club Deutschland and Promo Golf Européen.
I also write for well-known publications such as Spiegel, Handelsblatt and international trade press, and have published best-selling books with Gräfer und Unzer and Hallwag Verlag.
I dish out all my secrets on food and wine combinations in my latest book, Rezepte für mehr Weingenuss (Recipes for better wine enjoyment), published by Becker Joest Volk.
Throughout my career, I have never lost sight of my goal which is to enhance the quality of wines in harmony with nature. As such, I am very optimistic about the current trend towards a more holistic view of wine and food. This necessary change is also conducive to new tasting pleasures, which I find very exciting. I put my commitment to ecological viticulture to good use in my role as director of the EcoWinner competition in Germany and in the development of the Büsum gastronomic region. I'm also involved in gastronomic projects in Ærø, a Danish island, as well as a number of other exciting projects in Scandinavia and northern Germany.