Wine in Georgia and the New Wine Festival 2015, Tbilisi (and about 2016)

Georgia wine-making 

As an introduction, I just want to tell you what a history of wine-making Georgia has and how people love wine here. It’s known, that Georgia has a 8 thousand years of history of viticulture and wine-making. And I’m not making that up, if you think this is not true! That is proven by the archaeological findings and examinations.

There were expeditions on Marneuli valley in Kvemo Kartli _ south from Tbilisi, _ and the archaeologists found several grape stones of vine in remains which dates back to 6 thousand years BC. And with morphological and ampelographic signs they ascribed it to a vine culture called “Vitis Vinifera Sativa”. Now, if you go on Wikipedia, you will find out, that the earliest evidence of this vine has been found in Georgia: “The earliest evidence of domesticated grapes has been found at Gadachrili Gora, near the village of Imiri, Marneuli Municipality, in southeastern Republic of Georgia; carbon-dating points to the date of about 6000 BC”; “Grape pips dating back to the V-IVth millennia B.C. were also found in Shulaveri; others dating back to the IVth millennium B.C. were also found in Khizanaant Gora, all in the Republic of Georgia.”

Wine-making in Georgia has a 8 thousand years of history, too, of course, and the tradition is still maintained. Wine-making in Kvevri clay jars (or pitcher) has a traditional Georgian technique and it was listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, which makes this method unique in the whole world.  And as of ranking, Georgia ranks 2-nd (in terms of volume) in grape production in the former Soviet Union. The wine is produced by many individual farmers in Georgia as well as monasteries and large wine companies, such as Teliani Valley, Telavis Marani, Kindzmarauli Marani, Badagoni, etc.

Kvevris are large vessels without any handles or something, usually buried into the ground with just a head above the ground, and even the outlet of its neck remains under the ground, and are used for fermentation, storage and ageing of wine. The earliest archaeological findings of Kvevris are of the 6-th and 5-th millennia BC, and it’s known that the modern shape of Kvevris were developed in the 3-rd and 2-nd millennia BC. So, nowadays Kvevris have a shape of eggs, mainly. Their volume differs largely, and you may find them with volumes of 6-8 thousand litres in Kakheti region, which is distinguished with its large Kvevris.

There are two main methods of making wine in Georgia: “Kakhetian method” and “Imeretian method”. They mainly differ from each other with the amount and quality of chacha used. So the process is maceration of wine for several months with the skins, seeds and stems of grapes in buried kvevri. And it’s known that Imeretian method is milder than Kakhetian method.  I want to say, and just trust me on that, that taking care of Kvevris is very hardand difficult. It needs much effort and time and things like that to be taken care of so that when the time of Rtveli comes and it’s time to harvest, the Kvevris should be ready in all of its aspects to make a perfect wine!

New Wine Festival 2015, Tbilisi

Sixty wine companies, small cellars and family cellars (with wines of 72 varieties) presented their late harvest wines at the New Wine Festival 2015 held in Deda-Ena Park in Tbilisi on 9-th of May.Although, the day was rainy and wasn't going to stop raining, I was surprised how many people there were. The festival was great and the place was right for it, too. 

People had their wine on the tables and stuff like that and you could taste them and while tasting those fine wines you would get a little bit drunk, too. 

There were people from different corners of Georgia. Some of them were from Svaneti and they offered special Svanetian dish _ Kubdari, which I love very much, and I even had one and it tasted good! It was so good, that you wouldn't want it to end. 
There were people from Telavi, too. Telavi is a city in Kakheti. They offered us Mtsvadi _ pork shishkabob, and then you were given a Shoti (Kakhetian wheat bread) and it was a perfect combination with wine.

So the requirements were not many or difficult or something. Everyone who made wine could participate in the festival. Also, they had to register until the 19-th of April, 2015. Then they would go through a choosing round, where the judges would choose the best wine samples which would be presented at the New Wine Festival 2015. And another requirement was that the wine should have been a new wine of 2014 year. Participation for family cellars was free! The participants should have presented 2 glass bottles of their wine and an application form in order to get registered. And the amount of wine to be presented on the festival itself was to be no less than 20 litres.

New Wine Festival 2016, Tbilisi

Now, maybe you are wondering whether this kind of wine festival will be held again soon or ever. I will tell you, that, yes, it will definitely be held in 2016 too! So, if you love wine, or if you just want to go and taste some of them or just enjoy and have fun with friends or taste some other Georgian dishes, you have a chance to do so in the spring of 2016. Well, actually, it will be in May, so it will be kind of a nice ending of the spring. The festival itself is meant to popularize Georgian wine and help people get knowledge about wine making and wine in general.

There is this Wine Club in Georgia, that holds these events about wine and stuff. So, this year, in 2016, it will hold this wine festival and it will be the 7-th time that it will be an organizer of the event.

The New Wine Festival 2016 will be held on May 14-th, and it will be in Mtatsminda Park. And there will be wines presented there, which are newly made, just in 2015!

The participants in the New Wine Festival will be any willing person or company. There will be participants from almost all the large wine companies of Georgia and small cellars, and there will also be family cellars presented from different regions of Georgia, just like in the New Wine Festival 2015. So it won’t be just those famous brands in wines of Georgia, but all the other people, who just want to participate in the festival and introduce their wine to other people and just enjoy the festival and meeting everyone else.

The New Wine Festival is the only event, where everyone has an equal chance of participating, from small family cellars to the large wine producing companies. There will be two-language catalogues, which will include information about the participants of the New Wine Festival and their wine. The participants will also be awarded with participation certificates especially done for them and also they will receive some memorable presents from “the Georgian Wine Club.”

Well, in 2015 there were over 20,000 visitors on the New Wine Festival in Deda-Ena Park, Tbilisi, and there were many tourists from many countries  among them. Also, you could see many youngsters on the festival. There were also many children, so, you see, there were people with their families on the New Wine Festival and it was really good, if you ask me. So that, children had fun and they had a chance to taste those Georgian dishes, such as Kubdari and Khachapuri and Mtsvadi, Shoti, etc.

I have already written, but still, I want to emphasize, that there were many large wine companies, small cellars and individual farmers, who presented their wines through the festival and, you know, they were chosen by the judges of “Georgian Wine Club” to present their production on the New Wine Festival. In addition, they introduced their wine to people and wine society, I could say, in general, and after the festival most of them has developed their production and step by step they are setting their feet in wine industry in Georgia.

So, I don’t think so, but still, if you live in Georgia and have your vineyard and made some wine in 2015 and have enough to present it on a wine festival in spring in 2016, or if you just want some information about the participation requirements, I will tell you about them. So the requirements for the New Wine Festival 2016 are:

• Everyone can take part in the festival
• Participants must register no later than the 19-th of April
• Participants will go through a choosing round, where special judges of “Wine Club” will choose the best wines, which then will be able to be presented on the festival
• The wine must be only of 2015 harvest and made in 2015
• Participation for family cellars is free
• Participants must present 2 tasting samples (2 glass bottles of wine) and a filled out application form
• The information about chosen participants will be announced 2 weeks before the festival
• The amount of wine to be presented on the festival is no less than 20 litres.

Georgia Wine Club

So, if you are interested about the Wine Club, it was founded in 2009 and since then it holds this New Wine Festival and other events, too. Their address is 7/10 Gudiashvili str, National Library (Building III), Tbilisi, Georgia, and you can check out other information at www.wineclub.ge. 

Vine and Wine Library in Tbilisi

Just recently, Wine Club Georgia has made a great thing for people who love wine. So, those interested in wine-making and vineyards, let them be specialists in those subjects, students or just wine-lovers, were introduced to a new wonderful idea on this winter by Wine Club Georgia and the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. There was opened a library of vine and wine (see what I did there?) in the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. This is the first time, when in Georgia, _ in this country with more than a thousand years of history of wine-making and wine culture in general, _ became possible to finally have such important thing as this library of vine and wine. This is a great opportunity for people to just go there and get knowledge about many different things about wine and vineyard and everything about that stuff.

There are books about wine in different languages there in the library, as well as the historical books and things. There you will find books, historical records, analytic texts, encyclopedias and photos and others. People can go there and find many things about vineyard and viticulture and vine-growing, wine-making, as well as soil science and things like that. There are sources, that practically give you all the important information almost about all the regions of the world and their histories of viticulture and wine-making and about their situations now and how they are doing in that field nowadays.

There is going to be an electronic library, too, about vine and wine and people will be able to get information via the computer network of the library. They are planning to digitalize and publish all the historical publications about Georgian viticulture and wine-making.

The library team is planning many different activities and events throughout the year that will definitely interest people interested in wine-making and stuff like that.

So, anyone can visit the library in the 3-rd building of the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, from 9 a.m. till 8 p.m. and just enjoy all the cool stuff presented there.

Photo gallery