Japanese wine importers to bring Georgian wine to Japan

A group of Japanese wine importers lead by master of wine Kenichi Ohashi has visited Georgia for a week to learn about the country’s wine and introduce it to Japanese consumers.

Ohashi visited Georgia a month ago, after which he decided to come back to Georgia with a group of importers.

The guests were in up to 20 wine companies in Georia’s Kartli and Kakheti regions and tasted wines of different styles.

Japanese professionals were especially impressed by qvevri (a large, ancient Georgian winemaking vessel) wine and wine-making technology. Photo by Wines of Georgia. 

Japanese importer, Takako Osawa claimed Georgian wine has potential to become an interesting product for Japanese consumers despite the fact that there are lots of different wines on the Japanese market from Italy, Spain and other countries.

I am so impressed by Georgian wine, we have some of the Georgian wines available in Japanese market, many of them are something unique, so I wanted to see what's actually happening in Georgia. The quality of the Georgian wine is so high and the price is also interesting, because it's not too expensive,” Osawa said.

We enjoyed some of the European style Georgian wines and very historical amber wines. You have so many different categories, so many different styles and very good quality and the price is also attractive for the Japanese market and consumers,” Osawa added.

A famous Japanese sommelier, Motohiro Okoshi was also in the group of Japanese wine importers.