At the 2025 Chianti Classico Collection, the Consorzio selected one candidate to enhance the list of its global spokespeople – namely the Honorary Ambassadors for Chianti Classico. The new Honorary Ambassador is Thomas Ilkjær, an authoritative name in the small but undoubtedly very active northern European market of Denmark. Despite the complex international situation, in 2024, Denmark was actually one of the markets which recorded a significant increase in sales of Black Rooster wines (+18.8% by volume).
Born in “the excellent 1971 vintage” as he jokingly refers to his birth year, Ilkjær is a Danish writer and wine educator. He lives in Copenhagen with his wife and two children and has been working full-time in the wine industry since 2005, managing his own company, Vinviden. Ilkjær is also the co-founder of the Vinakademiet (the Danish arm of the Scandinavian Wine Academy), where he is currently director and principal educator. He started writing about wine for various newspapers back in 1998 and since 2011, he has contributed to Politiken (the largest circulating newspaper in Denmark) where he now has his own wine column.