Tbilisi recently hosted the 33rd World Congress of Vine and Wine.
Winemakers, sommeliers and businessmen from dozens of countries came to Georgia, which made enormous efforts to have the honour of hosting the festival. Wine is an integral part of Georgian culture and some scientists believe that vines were cultivated here on the shores of the Black Sea several thousand years ago. Some go even further, saying Georgia is the cradle which gifted this "divine drink of the Gods" to humanity, although this is without doubt an exaggeration. Meanwhile it is impossible not to accept the fact that in Georgia the cult of wine and vine and of course the tradition of the full table, including the Tamada and other "rituals", have become a vital part of national identity.
Without any doubt, Georgia gave a top level welcome to the participants in the Congress. The event took place in the concert halls of one of the academic theatres, and President Mikhail Saakashvili opened the "wine fest" with a welcome speech. Saakashvili made a short speech in French, paying due respect to the country producing some of the best wines. But he noted that Georgia was the motherland of wine, citing brochures of some international wine forum, but "nothing was said there about the Georgian wine of today. After all, our wine is a not a matter of the past. It's our reality" - emotionally stated the President.
According to information leaked to the media, the Georgian leader is a great lover of wine, in particular a rare "Chkhaveri" - a very special light white wine. No wonder then, that Mikhail Saakashvili spoke a lot about the "Russian embargo" - a ban on Georgian wine imports implemented in 2006. The President "thanked" Russia for these steps: ""It was the embargo that made our winemakers look for ways to new markets, high-quality Georgian wines are now being sold all over the world".
According to Saakashvili the main populariser of wine in the Soviet Union was Iosif Stalin. "It's not a secret that Stalin was a big connoisseur of Georgian wines, so he wanted this small country to supply all the USSR with wine. Without doubt this affected the quality" - said Saakashvili. The Georgian president still considers quality to be the main problem. In particular, the tastes of the wines and their compliance with the taste preferences of Western consumers. The President announced that in the near future 100 agronomists, who speak fluent Georgian and French, will visit all the main wine-producing states, to share their work experience and new technologies of winemaking. However, it seems that Georgian vintners are not willing to return to the Russian market. From time to time they receive invitations from Moscow to start talks on wine imports, but the response is always a refusal, at least while there exists a conflict of views between the states on the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgii Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for VK.
