Georgian Wine - National Wine Agency

At today\'s session lead by the Chairman of the Committee, Otar Danelia, Agrarian Issues Committee discussed  at the level of principles  and unanimously supported the government legislative initiative amendments to The Law of Georgia on Vine and Wine.

At the session, the draft law was introduced by the  first deputy minister of Agriculture, Nodar Kereselidze. He spoke about the reasons of the bill preparation.

According to the First Deputy Minister, the applicable Law, which was adopted in 1998, has been outdated in many directions and does not respond to modern challenges. The main essence of the changes is that it is closer to the International Law. “Today, viticulture and wine-making is unequivocally outlined between the priority sectors of the state economics and for competitive wine-making and realization it became necessary to take into account the native and international market demands and development of relevant legislative base”,- stated the  First Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

Nodar Kereselidze explains that despite the fact that in the current legislation  a number of terms of viticulture and wine-making are explained, also many basic principles are established, it does not meet the modern requirements, is not adapted to international terms, which in most cases makes barrier for wine and grape origin alcohol beverage export and import.

Significant changes were made in the section of wine classification – there are new definitions of Qvevri wine and orange wine. Changes will be made in the labeling rules. The private sector representatives agreed and the amendment was reflected in the draft law, according to which export of wine in pore will be prohibited, which will facilitate export of quality wine and become a barrier to falsification.

As the First Deputy Minister stated, private sector agreed, that tasting will be extended to all the  export wines at the legislative level. Up to date, it was mandatory only for appellation wines.

Next, detailed explanations about the draft law were made by the head of National Wine Agency, Giorgi Samanishvili, according to which submission of the bill  into the Parliament was preceded by  public discussions with the representatives of the field. To put the  export wine tasting issue in the law was proposed  by them.

Thus, the  amendments to The Law of Georgia on Vine and Wine have been developed by International  Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), International Code of Oenological Practices (2015 edition), World Wine Trade Group (WWTG) – according to the main demands of Memorandum of Understanding on Certification Requirements (Santiago, October 20, 2011) and taking into consideration the EU Regulation N491 of 2009 and the EU Regulation  N110 of 2008 on Agricultural market and Certain  Agricultural Product Special Provisions (Uniform Market Regulations).

Also today, the bill  introduced by the government as a legislative initiative  - \"Access and Maturity for Distribution of Agricultural Cultured Varieties Subject to Compulsory Certification\" was discussed for the second reading.

The First Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Nodar Kereselidze said that after the first reading the agreement is reached with the committee and the bill contains a few essential remarks expressed by the committee members. According to him, the adoption of this bill is important, as the main challenge of Georgia\'s agricultural sector has become  productivity and competitiveness for today. This is possible only with quality seed and planting material, which is one of the prerequisites to have successful farms. In addition, preparation of the bill derives from the country\'s international obligations, including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement with the European Union.

After consideration of the articles, the committee voted for the bill and unanimously supported the submission of the bill to the Parliament Plenary Session.