British wine professionals visit Georgia with support from National Wine Agency, UK’s Swirl Wine Group

A group of 12 British wine professionals have visited Georgia with the support of the Georgian National Wine Agency and Swirl Wine Group, the body’s contractor company in the United Kingdom.

The British importers, retailers, buyers and sommeliers toured wine-producing companies in the eastern region of Kakheti and sampled various types of Georgian wine, the Agency said on Thursday.

They also attended a special tasting event in the capital city of Tbilisi, where they sampled wines by 20 producers.

Mike Boyne, a wine professional from the visiting group, expressed his fascination with the history of Georgian wine and the traditional method of using qvevri clay vessels for storage.

There are truly wonderful wines in Georgia, there are the best wine producers who still preserve the original, authentic Georgian character of the wine. Back home, I can introduce my people to Georgian wine, which I discovered here”, he said.

The Agency said the UK had been a “potentially growing strategic market” for Georgian wine exports. The body has been working with Swirl Wine Group, led by Master of Wine Sarah Abbott, since 2015 to establish a presence in the British market.

The national body said 142,000 litres of wine had been exported to the UK between January and May, representing a 12 percent increase year-on-year.