By Keto Ninidze
New Wine Festival has become a hit in the foreign media. The "Georgian Wine Club" specially invited many popular wine bloggers, wine writers and journalists who visited Georgia on May 8-10, for the festival. It should be mentioned that without the support of friend organizations - National Wine Agency and Georgian National Tourism Administration the foreign guests’ visit could not be organized.
The fact that the experienced and popular foreign bloggers voiced the names of new, inexperienced but very interesting producers and unique Georgian wine varieties, that the New Wine Festival promotes popularization over the years, is very important especially for small wine producers.
So today we will offer an overview of the blog posts, with the help of which the foreign reader / listener once again learned about Georgia, Georgian wine and the New Wine Festival.
Mariëlla is a wine writer and blogger from Holland. Her special interests include the history of viticulture and winemaking that she publishes on her blog - Wine Chronicles. Beukers also is the author of the popular and extensive wine guide - Rainbow Wine Guide, where more than 250 wines of the world are recorded.
Wine writer visited Georgia for the first time and observed the New Wine Festival with great interest. Mariëlla described the first and second day of festival in her blog. In the tasting of "Other varieties" from white wines, she appreciated Tchkapa 2013 by George Barisashvili, from reds-Zhghia 2013 by Lekso Tsikhelishvili.
On May 9, the second day of the festival positive and peaceful atmosphere and the possibility given to the guests to taste wine free in charge during the whole day in “Deda Ena Park” attracted her attention. Such possibilities rarely have the visitors in different festivals of West Europe. The writer's attention is evenly distributed to the big companies and the small cellars; however, she notes that a few days is not enough to study the Georgian wines. Therefore, Mariëlla Beukers will visit the New Wine Festival and Georgia another time.
Sarah May Grunwald, Tasting Rome, Rare Georgian wines at the 2015 New Wine Festival in Tbilisi
Sommelier and blogger, Sarah lives in Rome. She leads the course of Italian wine in the Istituto Lorenzo de 'Medici. Sarah is an old friend of Georgia. She often writes about the local wineries. In short, this place is familiar for her. Therefore, she competently guided foreign guests into the new wine festival and after.
Her article is about the big tasting of “Other Varieties” on the first day of the New Wine Festival in the Funicular Restaurant. Sarah characterizes tasted wines with her laconic style and flexible manner, and distinguishes Chkhaveri 2011 by Zurab Topuridze (Iberieli) and Zhghia 2013 by Lekso Tsikhelishvili.
Sally Prosser, My Custard Pie, Visiting the sulphur baths in Tbilisi
Sally Prosser is a famous food blogger who often writes about the wine. She first visited Georgia in 2014 and described her impressions at her popular blog My Custard Pie. By the way, her blog is very popular in social media and has top place on charts among popular blogs.
This time historic sulfur baths of Tbilisi have became the source of her inspiration. Sally tells readers the local legends, and reminds them Pushkin and Dumas while describing historic places of Ortachala. Full of humor and charming moments her post interestingly tells the stories of her travel that definitely will attract many readers.
Katrin Tan and Marta Abbot, Radio Muse, Georgia I: Wine Culture, Georgia II: Polyphonic singing
Katrin and Marta are creative people. Radio broadcasting they create in Rome is diverse - travel, wine, cousine, art and so forth. They are not limited to any concrete sphere. Their media users are mostly young people, thus their posts where they described the travel to Georgia in detail, will give Italian youngsters a clear idea of the Georgian traditional culture and present everyday life.
Finally, the video by Iaroslava Laipina, (Spitfire Media) that for us, for the representatives of the Georgian Wine Club turned out to be surprise is full of positive moments. This video represents the author's attitude towards the event and, accurately conveys the festival's focus – “All for Wine and Wine for All.”
Personally, I am happy that I met my foreign colleagues and looking forward to meet them next May to share the experience, which we were not able to talk about this time.
© Georgian Wine Club, Wine Informational Center