Stories from our founder series: Grounded in the Present

We have no wine pedigree in traditional sense. Our families were never in the wine or vine business. Well, other than my maternal grandfather’s family running a cooperage in Tbilisi over 100 years ago. Our love for wine comes from trying it in places where they know how to make it and our drive for the business is deeply rooted in the present.

We did not restore an ancient cellar. We picked an abandoned semi-basement in a village and converted it into our boutique winery. The first vineyard we bought had been churning out vintages for brandy distilleries for decades. Now it produces grapes that we turn into award winning wines. Our new vineyard was set up from scratch, even though it sits on the land that was used for viticulture before independence. We transformed this barren land into an oasis teeming with life and biodiversity using sustainable practices for the betterment of the land and the communities around it.

I have no formal training in either viticulture or winemaking, although my background in biology helps to some extent. We do not fall back on history or traditions. We try to embrace modern technologies and knowledge to produce quality contemporary wines. I keep using this phrase, but it’s befitting our MO: we do what we can with what we have where we are.

We are making history by creating something where there was nothing. All genuine wine businesses are always about much more than turning profit, and ours is not an exception. We want to be a part of lifting the community where we are based, to spearhead the regeneration effort. To be, alongside our more established colleagues and neighbours, with whom we cooperate and from whom we learn a great deal, a part of the wine cluster in this still up and coming wine region. This cluster will spread knowledge, wealth and prosperity.

We use experts’ advice to produce world class product and serve it to the world. To me this place is not as much about being a cradle of wine as it is about history in the making. The 6,000 years aside, it took us six years to get to where we are now, and it is only just the end of the beginning.