A Group of American Sommeliers is Exploring Georgian Wine
A group of American sommeliers is visiting Georgia for a week tour, under the frame of which the wine professionals will see wine cellars in Samegrelo, Imereti, Kartli and Kakheti. The visit was organized by the National Wine Agency. The guests have already tasted wines in the Western Georgia and now, they are in Kakheti.
The group of wine professionals is headed by the chair of “Marq Energie”, Agency contractor American marketing company, Julie Peterson, who states, that the interest towards Georgian wine on the US market is progressive.
“We are here this week in Georgia with a group of sommeliers from the US market, from some of the top restaurants in the US market, because we are trying to introduce them also to the exciting wine environment that is happening in Georgia right now, already in this year, exports have been up 43% from last year to the US market, so we just want to continue introducing the trade to all the producers here in the market, we are bringing importers and media, this group and particular sommeliers from Chicago, Saint Louis and New York City, they have just had an amazing week so far, learning about the diversity of the grapes from Georgia and the producers, so we just look for to the rest of the week and we have a waiting list of other sommeliers from the US market who are really interested in exploring and understanding what is happening in Georgia right now” - stated Julie Peterson.
The sommelier of one of the top restaurants in New York, James Slay is specially attracted by Aladasturi. He says that it\'s been a long time he wanted to come to Georgia and taste the wines on the place of it\'s birth.
“Wine is made by traditional methods in Georgia, but they are experimenting and changing, that\'s what really inspired me to come on this trip. In addition to that, what I have learnt or started to understand is moving across the country starting in Tbilisi, and going all the way to Imereti and coming all the way back here in Kakheti seeing the range and the diversity in terms of regionality, and in terms of being able to stand in he place and feel the sun here, the way the rain feels, the way the air feels and the great varieties being different in styles and wine being different and the lightness and the freshness of Western wines and intensity and the power and concentration and structure of the Eastern wines, I started to understand Georgian Wine not just as a single thing, not just as Georgian wine, but as a whole spectrum of different sort of possibilities and flavors and even though I have tasted 30 Georgian wines, I came here and tasted so many great varieties I had never tasted before, Aladasturi for example in Imereti was like I could not believe what I was tasting, I\'ve never had anything like that not from Georgia, not really from anywhere” - stated the sommelier.
Under the frame of the tour, American sommeliers had the opportunity to visit the following wine companies: “Iago Wines”, “Chateau Mukhrani”, “Ramaz Nikoladze Wines”, “Oda Family Winery”, “Vino Martville”, “Vartsikhe Marani”, “Winery Khareba – Imereti”, “ Telavi Wine Cellar”, “Tchotiashvili Wine Cellar”, “Schuchmann Wines”, “Orgo/Vita Vinea”,”Shalauri Cellars”, “Shumi”,”Chelti”, “Papari Valley”, “Joni Oqro”, “Pheasant\'s Tears”, “Askaneli Brothers”, “Shavnabada”, “Lukasi”, they also visited Qvevri-maker, Zaza Kbilashvili.
The USA is one of the potentially progressive and important export market for Georgian wine. Marketing activities in the US will provide Georgian wine publicity growth and popularization in the US market and widening Georgian wine export area in general. According to the data of 6 months of the current year, 176 274 bottles (0,75) of wine have been exported from Georgia to the Us, that is 43% higher than the similar data of the previous year.