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The Georgian feast is one of the most important traditions in Georgian culture. Nowadays, it’s one of the strongest identification means of the Georgian people. The structure of the Georgian feast (supra) is very simple and involves wine, food, toasts and songs. The harmonious mixture of these four elements makes the Georgian feast, but for many the most important issue is the wine. A Georgian dining table without wine is not a real supra.

Georgian wine dates back over 8,000 years and many claim that wine was first made in Georgia, where the ancestral custom consists of fermenting grape juice in earthen amphorae named Qvevri (listed by UNESCO as a cultural heritage) buried in the ground and sealed until the wine matures. Qvevris usually have a capacity of 300 to 500 liters and are buried so as to regulate the storage temperature to between 14 and 15°C.

The Georgians drink a lot, some say too much. They use small glass beakers to drink normal toasts, but will bring out terracotta cups or large cow horns (kantsi) for grander toasts.
The wine is usually brought to town from the countryside, especially from the Kakheti, Kartli, Imereti, and Adjara regions, though grapes are grown country-wide.

Some Georgian wine is exported to other countries, including America and Europe, in this way promoting Georgia as a wine tourism destination. Georgia has made the development of its wine sector an economic priority. The law establishes the basic procedures to be followed in the production of wine, striving to ensure the production of the highest quality wines, and protecting the market from any counterfeit or poor quality product.

Georgian wine production is also exported to traditional markets in the region, namely Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, France and the Baltic countries. In addition to strengthening their presence in these markets, Georgian wine producers also have their eyes on other markets, including China, which is expected to contribute much to the boom in global wine consumption in future.

By Vitaly Makharadze Bouchelagem & Eva Tsagouria