Georgia on my mind
Georgia isn’t the first place that leaps to mind when discussing wine. And, oh yeah, I’m talking about the troubled Caucasian republic, not the state that grows peaches and peanuts.
Grape growers in the country are being hit by low prices that are half of last year’s already low levels and many are contemplating uprooting vines as a result. But it isn’t oversupply that has driven grape prices down: it appears to be fraud.
A Reuters story reports that “According to GWS [Georgian Wines & Spirits, the country’s largest winery that is controlled by Pernod-Ricard–TC], Georgia can produce a maximum 900,000 bottles of its famous red wine ‘Khvanchkara’ a year, but somehow 15 million bottles are sold in Russia.”
Counterfeiters have been making “wine” with “raw alcohol, special dyes and chemical additives” that apparently are detectable “only to professional tasters.” Whoa. Talk about a trend toward higher alcohol wines.
”Unfortunately in recent years the term ‘wine without grapes’ has taken root here. Many winemakers…don’t see the need to buy grapes to produce wine,” one source said in the story. The local industry and regulators clearly have tough work ahead. There are interesting parallels to the development of the industry in France and America –let’s just hope they can find some good terroir.
On August 2nd, 2006 at 3:12 pm ,Anonymous wrote:
I’m young and my tastes for wine aren’t very developed, but the best wine I’ve had yet came from Georgia. (My friend’s father is a diplomat and he brought some back for us after a trip a few years ago.) How sad that the industry might break down.