Cradle of Winemaking Refuses to Be Crushed By Russian Ban

The Georgian wine industry, thought to be the world's oldest, is reeling from Russia's blanket ban on exports of its wine to the country, which has traditionally bought 90% of its production.

But the Georgians, who have become accustomed over the past few decades to setbacks and hardship, have remained upbeat. Levan Koberidze, the boss of one of Georgia's biggest wine exporters, GWS, is confident that his company and other Georgian wine firms will be able to develop new markets, and quickly. He predicts that exports will quadruple over the next 10 years, from the current 62m bottles.

The Russians blamed what they said were impurities in Georgian wine but Mr Koberidze, also the head of the Georgian wine producers' union, thinks the move was politically motivated. The country's president, Mikhail Saakashvili, is too western-oriented for Moscow's liking.

Mr Koberidze thinks the spat with Russia may blow over but in the meantime Georgian winemakers are planning to export to countries including Britain, the United States and Germany, as well as expanding sales to eastern European countries such as Poland, which are already familiar with Georgian wine from Soviet times.

President Saakashvili recently promoted Georgian wine during a visit to China but Mr Koberidze says the Chinese, like the Russians, like to buy cheap wine.

"Georgian wines are not cheap wines so we are looking at other markets, particularly the UK," he says.

The high street off-licence Majestic Wines is already selling Georgian wine, he says, and Waitrose supermarkets will stock them soon, priced between £3.99 and £7.99 a bottle. GWS itself has been acquired by the French drinks group Pernod-Ricard.

"People told us to price our wines cheap like wines from Romania or Bulgaria but we are pricing ourselves as a New World wine, not cheap plonk, because our wines really are good."

He also rejects the criticism sometimes heard in Europe that Georgian wines are all sweet or semi-sweet. "This is not really known in Europe but Georgia makes many perfect dry wines of very good quality. We are the cradle of winemaking and are looking for sophisticated clients." Georgia is home to 500 of the world's 1,500 grape varieties, he says.

"There are some painful years ahead for us because it will be difficult to forget the Russian market. But in three to five years we will have transferred our volumes to other markets. In 10 years, I think we could be turning out 200m litres, four times the current amount."

Georgian wine bottles have an ancient, classical look, and most of the script on the labels is in Georgian, which uses its own alphabet - although there is a description of the wine in English on the back of the bottle. "We simply have a great brand story," says Mr Koberidze.