Tbilisi hosts 7th annual New Wine Festival tomorrow

Georgia's capital Tbilisi invites the public to taste some of the best wines in Georgia and be in to win a barrel of Saperavi at the 7th annual New Wine Festival at Mtatsminda Park tomorrow.

From mid-morning the event will present 127 wines made by 101 entrepreneurs from Kakheti, Kartli, Imereti, Ratcha-Lechkhumi, Guria and Adjara regions, chosen after festival organisers sampled 360 wines from all regions of Georgia.

As well as wine, the festival will shine a spotlight on small and medium-sized family wineries, and large wine producers to celebrate their contribution to Georgia’s unique wine culture.

Read about experiences and people featured at the annual New Wine Festival in an Agenda.ge report.

Featuring 102 family wine businesses and 78 big companies, the New Wine Festival will allow visitors to sample products harvested during the 2015 season.

As well as wine, the event will showcase wine-related accessories and items. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Opening at 11am on the hilltop overlooking Tbilisi, the festival will include the customary opening of a Qvevri, the traditional Georgian wine amphora-type clay vessel buried in the ground, at 12:30pm. The celebratory opening will be followed by a special ceremony awarding family winemakers certificates in recognition of their work.

One of the highlights of the event will be three special contests giving visitors a chance of winning a barrel full of popular Saperavi wine.

The contests will be staged at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm and during this time visitors can buy wine-tasting glasses in return for raffle tickets. For each contest, raffle tickets will be placed in a miniature Qvevri and selected at random, and the person with the winning tickets will receive a full barrel of Saperavi wine.

A hand-made wooden box for storing wine bottles is presented at the 2014 Wine Festival in Tbilisi. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

This year’s New Wine Festival will also involve an exhibition of wine-related items including hand-made wooden boxes for storing bottles, wine production equipment, product labels, souvenirs and more.

The popular Georgian sweet Churchkhela will also be available to buy at the one-day event, with producers also presenting special gift wraps for the traditional snack made of nuts and grape juice.

Throughout the day guests will be able to enjoy musical performances by four bands that will perform various genres such as jazz and folk music from midday to early evening. The musical line-up will feature the Rezo Kiknadze Jazz Band and Tango Vagabundo group as well as Nali Band and Didgori Folk Ensemble.

The 2016 New Wine Festival will end at 6pm on May 14.