Anatoly Korneev

Anatoly Korneev didn’t just import wine to Russia. He taught an entire country how to appreciate it. By 2024, his Enotria Wine School had trained over 7,000 sommeliers—professionals now working in restaurants, hotels, and retail across Russia, specifying the wines he imports.

We have no internal competition, no arguments about who wants to manage what.

The Philologist Who Became Russia’s Wine Educator #

Anatoly’s path to wine began unusually: philology. While studying at Moscow State University in the early 1990s—during the chaotic collapse of the Soviet Union—he spent two years in France studying wine with Michel Garnero. The combination of humanities training and technical wine expertise would define his career.

After graduation in 1993, Anatoly worked at Chianti Ruffino in Italy as an assistant representative. He saw how premium wine businesses operated in mature markets: through education, curation, and cultural development, not just logistics. When he returned to Moscow in 1994 and met Maxim Kashirin through a mutual connection, the partnership was immediate. Maxim understood business systems; Anatoly understood wine. Maxim would handle strategy and finance; Anatoly would handle wine selection, marketing, and culture.

They founded Simple in August 1994. The market barely existed. Russia had no sommelier tradition, no wine education infrastructure, no appreciation for terroir or vintage variation. Anatoly’s challenge wasn’t competing for customers—it was creating customers who valued what premium wine offered.

The insight that would define his contribution came early: importing wine without building wine knowledge was pointless. Russia needed education as much as inventory.

Building Demand by Training the Trainers #

In 1999—just one year after SimpleWine nearly went bankrupt during the ruble collapse—Anatoly opened Enotria Wine School in Moscow. It was Russia’s first professional sommelier training program.

The timing seemed irrational. The company had barely survived 1998. Wine demand had collapsed. Revenue was fragile. Opening a wine school required investment with no immediate return. But Anatoly’s logic was ruthlessly practical: trained sommeliers would work in restaurants, hotels, and retail shops across Russia. Those sommeliers would specify wines. If Enotria trained them, they would specify SimpleWine products.

It worked. Over the next 25 years, Enotria became the pipeline through which Russia’s sommelier class developed. By 2017, the school had received state licensing to issue diplomas, formalizing its role as Russia’s premier wine education institution. The curriculum became ASI-approved (Association de la Sommellerie Internationale), giving graduates international credibility.

By 2024, Enotria had trained over 7,000 sommeliers. Those graduates didn’t just work for SimpleWine—they worked everywhere. But their training had been shaped by Anatoly’s philosophy: premium wine rewards knowledge. Customers who understand terroir, vintage, and winemaking pay more. Sommeliers who educate customers build loyalty that discounting never creates.

The school became more than a training center. It became demand-generation infrastructure. Every Enotria graduate represented a node in Russia’s wine distribution network, educated to appreciate what SimpleWine imported. Anatoly hadn’t just built a school. He’d built a market.

The “Left Hand” in a 30-Year Partnership #

Anatoly describes his partnership with Maxim using a metaphor: “We’re right-handed. I’m the left hand—marketing, wine expertise. He’s the right—strategy, finance. You can do everything with one hand, but it’s harder.”

The division of labor has remained constant for 30 years. Maxim handles finance, operations, and strategic decisions. Anatoly handles wine selection, marketing, cultural positioning, and education. There has never been a dispute about who manages what. Maxim holds 80% equity; Anatoly holds 20%. The split has never been renegotiated.

What makes the partnership work, Anatoly suggests, is the absence of internal competition. “We both want to earn, but also to build something.” That shared goal—building an institution rather than extracting and exiting—has kept the partnership stable through four economic crises, regulatory persecution (the 2011 license crisis that targeted Maxim), and 30 years of market turbulence.

Anatoly’s role has been less visible than Maxim’s but equally foundational. While Maxim navigated crises and built vertical integration, Anatoly shaped SimpleWine’s cultural positioning. He selected the wine portfolio (5,000+ SKUs from 478 producers across 45 countries). He designed the education programs that created Russia’s sommelier class. He developed the merchant philosophy that positioned Simple as cultural institution, not just retailer.

“We see ourselves as part of the merchant class,” Anatoly has explained. The framing is deliberate: merchants don’t just sell products; they curate, educate, and build taste. In Russia’s chaotic post-Soviet market, that positioning separated Simple from competitors who competed on price and convenience.

Expanding Beyond Retail: Gastronomy and Production #

Anatoly’s influence extended beyond education into gastronomy and production. In 2006, SimpleWine opened Grand Cru restaurant on Malaya Bronnaya in Moscow. The concept was straightforward: showcase premium wine through food pairings, creating an experiential venue where customers could learn by tasting.

By 2022, Grand Cru had received a Michelin star—the first Russian wine-focused restaurant to achieve that recognition. The award validated Anatoly’s thesis: wine appreciation requires experience, not just education. Enotria taught theory; Grand Cru demonstrated practice.

He also oversaw SimpleWine’s expansion into wine production. In 2014, the company acquired Bertinga winery in Chianti Classico, Italy (16.4 hectares) and founded Shilda winery in Kakheti, Georgia (120 hectares). These weren’t financial investments—they were cultural positioning. SimpleWine wasn’t just importing wine; it was making wine, understanding terroir, and bringing that knowledge back to Russian customers.

Bertinga wines now score 92-97 points from James Suckling and made Forbes’ Top 100 Iconic Wineries list in 2025. Shilda focuses on Georgian varieties like Saperavi, tapping into Russian nostalgia for Soviet-era Georgian wines while applying modern winemaking techniques.

The production facilities serve another purpose: they give Enotria students real-world exposure to winemaking. Sommeliers who visit Bertinga or Shilda return to Russia with firsthand knowledge of how premium wine is made, deepening their ability to educate customers.

A Market Built on Knowledge #

By 2024, Anatoly had built something rare: a market infrastructure based on education rather than advertising. SimpleWine’s 31.6 billion rubles in annual revenue ($350M USD) doesn’t come primarily from marketing spend. It comes from 7,000+ sommeliers trained to appreciate, recommend, and sell premium wine.

Anatoly’s contribution to Russian wine culture is difficult to quantify but undeniable. In 1994, Russia had no sommelier tradition. Wine was vodka’s inferior cousin—something foreigners drank. By 2024, Russia had a sophisticated wine culture with professional training, Michelin-starred wine restaurants, state-licensed education programs, and tens of thousands of customers willing to pay 5,000 rubles ($55 USD) per bottle.

That transformation didn’t happen through advertising. It happened through education. And Anatoly built the education system.

His lesson for other markets is straightforward: competing for existing demand is expensive and fragile. Building new demand through education is slow and durable. Enotria took 25 years to train 7,000 sommeliers. But those sommeliers created a market that discounting could never build—a market based on knowledge, appreciation, and willingness to pay for quality.

Anatoly’s partnership with Maxim has lasted 30 years because their goals never conflicted. Maxim wanted to build a resilient business. Anatoly wanted to build a wine culture. Both required the same thing: a long-term commitment to infrastructure over extraction. The result is SimpleWine—a company that survived four crises, trained a generation of sommeliers, and transformed Russian wine appreciation from non-existent to sophisticated in three decades.

Last updated: March 15, 2026