Georgia’s Tsinandali hosting wine symposium for first time, showcasing country among “world’s prestigious” wine producers

Georgia’s eastern village of Tsinandali hosted the Grand Jury Du Vin wine symposium for the first time in the country, showcasing Georgia among “the world’s most prestigious” wine producers and raising awareness of Georgian wine, with wine experts, sommeliers, journalists and wine industry representatives attending the event at Tsinandali Estate.

The Swiss association Grand Jury Du Vin, founded in 1996, has held the most prestigious wine symposiums for years at Villa d'Este on Lake Como in Italy, and the Tsinandali wine symposium was organised in Georgia at the initiative of the national private investment group - Silk Road Group, with the support of the National Tourism Administration and the Bank of Georgia.

Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili said the evaluation and tasting of Georgian wine at the symposium would be useful for local entrepreneurs, which would contribute to the further improvement of the quality of Georgian wines.

Davitashvili highlighted the Georgian Government’s support to the wine sector of the country and noted the National Wine Agency already registered more than 2,000 companies, while by 2012, before the Georgian Dream Government, there had been only about 50 wine companies.

We have significant support in terms of raising awareness of Georgian wine. We are carrying out targeted marketing campaigns on selected target markets and since then, the campaigns for Georgian wine have been financed every year”, the Minister emphasised, adding the investments included the modernisation of wine factories.

Hosting the Tsinandali wine symposium is “an opportunity” to present Georgia “with dignity” as the homeland of wine, the Deputy Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili said in her comments and emphasised this project was a “clear example of successful private-public cooperation”, adding it would be “a good basis for Georgia to host more such high-level events in the future”.

Kvrivishvili noted that 15 leading journalists and bloggers visited Georgia, as part of the symposium, to prepare articles and stories about the country’s tourism, wine and gastronomic potential, which will “certainly contribute to the popularisation of Georgia”.