Georgia WineTradeGuide

This small country, of high mountains and huge hearts, has an unbroken wine making heritage of 8,000 years.

‘Mother Georgia’ – the symbolic statue of the nation that overlooks the capital city – is pictured holding a wine cup for guests and a sword against invaders.

Georgia is a country of wine, of poetry, of fierce spirit, of plucky scrum halves, and of sublime food. Wine is in the blood. But Georgia’s strategic location – on the silk route, bounded by powerful and sometimes covetous neighbours – has interrupted her undoubted potential for making world-class wine.

With hundreds of native varieties – including the thrilling red wine grape Saperavi – and a flourishing wine culture, Georgian wine was famous even in the 18th century. Soviet rule homogenised the exuberant, individualistic native wine culture. The wine focus moved – with a few honorable exceptions – to quantity and homogeneity.

Since 1991 – and Georgia’s full independence – the country’s wine scene has mirrored the progress and confidence of this creative, poetic, dynamic and exuberant nation.

Georgian wine exports to the UK increased by 200% in 2020. This site has been developed to connect buyers, retailers, educators and journalists with Georgian wine producers. Many producers and wines here are already imported into the UK. Many more listed here are looking for new partners. All producers listed here have had their wines approved for export under Georgia’s strict quality controls.

“They could out-eat us, out-drink us, out-dance us. They had the fierce gaiety of the Italians, and the physical energy of the Burgundians. Everything they did was done with flair…nothing can break the individuality of their spirit.” John Steinbeck, on Georgia and Georgians, in ‘A Russian Journal’, 1948.