The brand «Brand Wine» has a large selection of drafted,bottled wines and products of small wineries. We got vodka, cognac, liqueur – up to 100% of the wine presented on the Georgian market. Here people of all tastes can easily find the suitable drink at an affordable price. Giorgi Chkhaidze, who owns this store, is also the owner of the Wine Palace Hotel. He often meets and hosts himself both hotel and shop guests.

 

- Mr. George, your wine shop offers a wide range of drinks to customers, at the same time, your hotel has a large cellar, where there is a special program for guests in terms of wine making and hosting …

 

 

- That's right. Now is the vintage season. Our family is envolved in wine production. We are waiting for the harvest of up to 4 tons of grapes, which we will process and my father and I will pour: Khashmi Saperavi, Tavkveri, Manavi Mtsvane and Rkatsiteli. Additionally I want to buy an 1 ton of khikhvi, because we plan to make a mix of Khikhvi and Tsolikauri. At this point we started bottling last year’s wine at the hotel. As in other times, also in this case, the guests of our hotel are watching this process

with great interest. We agree that in the hotel «Wine Palace», the cellar is a really special place, where along with tasting different drinks, guests have the opportunity to prepare traditional Georgian dishes in the kitchen, bake bread in a bakery, open a pitcher and taste different wines. We recently had Kazakhs and we held the master classes on Georgian dishes. The interior is decorated with Svan furniture, stories about Georgian culture are shown on the TV screen, which allows us to popularize the national

culture. Thank God, among the guests at our hotel, the coronavirus was not detected. We take guests based on the PCR test and take a quick test on the third day after arrival. Our hotel staff are all vaccinated and we attach great importance to this issue. As for the store, of course there is a much larger selection of drinks in the store. Davit Maisuradze and I, who own the store «Wine Gallery», have the most diverse selection of drinks in Tbilisi. In the first place is his shop, in the second mine. I am proud of this man and our friendship.

 

- Which drink is most popular?

 

- The best-selling products are the products of small family wineries. I have great respect for the small family wineries in Georgia, with the representatives of which I make friends and at the same time we cooperate. I want their natural wines to be familiar to as many people as possible. If a person works hard, it should be appreciated. We do not work on consignment, the products are purchased directly from the winemaker in full and the money is credited to the supplier within three days.

 

- As far as I know, tasting evenings are temporarily stoped…

 

- Yes, we only held it twice during the pandemic. We usually had three times a month before the pandemic. Despite the fact,that we meet our guests in the open space in front of the store, this time we have temporarily stopped the tastings and when the epidemic situation gets better, we will hold the traditional meetings again. For wine lovers, tasting is an important event like a wedding and we hope to resume such meetings soon.

 

Author: Ana Kalandadze

 

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