National Wine Agency of Georgia: Quality control of Georgian wine is one of our main priorities

In parallel with the growth of wine export, Georgian side pays particular importance to the preservation and improvement of Georgian wine quality.

One of the main objectives of the Georgian winemaking industry regulatory body - National Wine Agency, is the promotion and control of high quality of Georgian wine.

For this purpose, according to the amendments to the Law of Georgia on Vine and Wine in 2017, tasting became mandatory for all categories of exporting wine since January 1, 2018. Until January 1, 2018, the mandatory tasting was only subjected to appellation wines. The initiative of the amendment came from the private sector and aimed to improve the quality of the wine. Legislative amendments also prohibited to export wine in pore from Georgia to avoid Georgian wine falsification outside the country.

In the first quarter of this year, the National Wine Agency's tasting commission conducted 58 tasting for the organoleptic testing of the alcoholic drinks of grape origin. In total, 2115 samples were presented, 196 of them were negatively evaluated.

In addition, during the current year, 370 samples have been taken from wine factories within the wine industry inspection, which is an average of 50% in comparison with the same period of the last years. Companies were refused to issue certificates of export compliance in 24 cases. 30 companies were examined within the scope of state control and state supervision, out of which a number of wines of six companies were not compatible with the requirements set by the law. It is noteworthy that in addition to verifying other parameters of wine, this year the alcoholic carbon stabilization isotope correlation is also checked.

Quality control is one of the main priorities in the National Wine Agency and the work in this direction has been strengthened in the recent years. It is important that tens of millions of bottles of wine produced in Georgia should meet the relevant standards. We believe that there is no objective basis for doubting the quality of Georgian export products.