China shines spotlight on Georgian wine

Two more Georgian Wine Houses have opened in China, where wine-lovers are invited to taste the traditional Georgian drink and learn the history and culture of the country.

The two Georgian Wine Houses opened in Yiwu, in China’s Zhejiang province in the country’s southeast.

These two Georgian Wine Houses were the ninth and tenth such facilities to open in China’s Zhejiang and Xinjiang provinces within the past eight months.

The idea to open Georgian Wine Houses in China and promote the traditional Georgian drink was a joint initiative of Chinese company Suolun and Georgia’s Tbilinvest Group.

Suolun opened the first Georgian Wine House last year in Zhejiang province. The company promised to open 80 more chains all over China before the end of this year.

Chinese company Suolun and Georgia’s Tbilinvest Group jointly opened the Georgian Wine House in China. Photo by Wines of Georgia. 

In the past two years China was importing increasing amounts of Georgian wine and was now one of Georgia’s top three wine importers.

This year China moved from fourth to third place as the largest importer of Georgian wine, following Russia and Ukraine

Between January and June 2016 more than 1.9 million bottles of Georgian wine was exported to China, latest figures showed. This was a 148 percent increase than the same time in 2015.

Last year Georgia exported 2,672,154 bottles of wine to China - 122 percent more year-on-year.