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Barry Jagoda, The Washington Times: How
did you get into the wine business?
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| George Mshvidobadze, General
Director of Georgian Wines and Sprits (GWS)
is shown with a few of the companies bottles
labeled under the names “Tamada” and
“Old Tbilisi”. |
Mr.Giorgi Mshvidobadze, GWS: This happened
in 1995 when I came to this company. By profession
I’m an economist, and before that I worked
in the banking system, but my friend, Levan Gachechiladze,
the founder of this company, offered me the position
of the Financial Director. At that time the company
was very small, just few people worked here, and
we started a business that became very important
for Georgia. Since 1997 I’ve been the General
Director. Actually, I could never imagine before
that I would be in the wine industry.
TWT: Has Georgian wine been produced for
thousands of years?
GWS: According to the archaeological and
historical record wine producing in Georgia has
an 8,000-year-old history. The main justification
for this is that archaeologists found 8,000 year
old grapes seeds on the territory of Georgia which
are still kept in our National Museum. By the analysis
of these seeds it can be determined that these species
of grapes were not wild but cultivated.
TWT: So, let’s assume they are 8,000
years old.
GWS: Besides other historical evidence,
an English scientist, Hugh Johnson, one of the leading
experts in this field, has done very serious research
on this issue. He writes, “Georgia is the cradle
of wine.” This hypothesis suggests that cultivated
vine was transferred from Georgia first to Egypt,
then to the countries of Mediterranean basin, and
then spread over Europe
TWT: When did commercial production of wine
become a serious matter in Georgia?
GSW: If we speak about producing wine for
export, we can say it started in the 18th century,
when Georgia became a province of Russia. Early
leaders included Dimitri Kipiani, who produced “Khvanchkara”
from the region of Racha and an eastern Georgian
aristocrat named Alexander Chavchavadze. These people
brought European wine technology to Georgia, but
we have always had our own exclusive technology.
TWT: What do you mean by that?
GWS: First of all, Georgian wine was kept
in special clay containers, similar to amphoras,
which were buried in the ground. The process of
fermentation happens together with grapes skins
and seeds, which adds tannin to wine.
TWT: Why does Georgia have such good grapes?
GWS: The climate of Georgia, especially
eastern Georgia, is very good for unique grape species.
There are up to 500 species of grapes in Georgia.
But today Georgian wine producers use 12-14 production
species, those which best suite our climate. We
have also small vineyards here with Cabernet, Bordeaux
and Chardonnay.
TWT: Is there a way to generalize about
your grapes?
GWS: We have dry wines, red and white, and
natural semi-sweet wines that come mainly from West
Georgia.
TWT: By 1900 were there serious commercial
companies producing wine?
GWS: There weren’t commercial companies.
Georgia was sending wine to Russia from large land-holdings
and the owners of these places were Dukes of Georgia.
They were producing noble wines.
TWT: What happened to wine industry in the
early period of Revolution?
GWS: After the Revolution Georgia together
with three other republics became the main supplier
of wines to the whole Soviet Union. As this was
a closed space, export to other countries was very
insignificant. Four Russian areas produced wine:
Georgia, which had the best quality; Moldava, the
Crimea and southern Russia. Quite a lot was done
for the development of wine-growing and wine-making
in the Soviet period. The level of specialists and
scientists was very high. 1984 was the peak year
for Georgia in the number of vineyards and in quality.
Then we had about 140,000 hectares of grapes and
today we 60,000 hectares, with about 2.5 acres equaling
a hectare.
TWT: How was the industry managed?
GWS: The wine industry was directed by the
Ministry of Agriculture of Soviet Union. In Georgia,
within the Ministry of Agriculture there was a department
called ‘Samtrest’, which was responsible
for wine making in Georgia, and the only producer
of wines, with many plants all over the Republic.
There was no branding, wines were popular by their
geographical names or grape species names. ‘Samtrest’
had two main types of factories. In one they received
the grapes, made the juice, stored and aged the
wine and prepared it for bottling. The other type
were bottling plants. Everything was centralized.
There were five-year and annual plans. Wines were
very good, but there was a problem with bottling.
Wine used to be pasteurized thus losing much flavor,
taste and freshness.
TWT: Now lets go to 1994 when Georgian Wine
and Spirits was formed.
GWS: Yes, we produce only the highest quality
Georgian wine. Our main market is Russia, the second
is the Ukraine, the third is Georgia and we export
a bit also to the United States, Canada and Germany.
Our two main brands are Tamada, with regional and
varietal labels, and Old Tbilisi, bottles of high
quality table wines. We have brought in the most
modern techniques and we are doing extremely well.
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