Georgia to Re-launch Wine Route Project

TBILISI – Georgia’s National Tourism Administration agency is set to re-launch a national wine route project aimed at documenting and evaluating the country’s countless numbers of wine cellars.

The project includes adding new wine tourism facilities to the electronic database, as well as installing directional and road signs for the individual wine cellars.

The agency will also reach out to small family-owned wine cellars and provide courses on the history of Georgian wine and winetasting methods, as well as basic skills on accounting, financing and foreign language skills.

Promotional materials such as wine routes maps and guides will be distributed for free on the agency’s Website and at tourism information centers across the country.

Information boards will be placed at the entrance of the each municipality and include a map of the region’s wine cellars and local grape varieties.

The Georgian government and USAID first launched the Wine Route Project in 2011. Road signs for about 50 wine cellars were installed in the Kakheti, Kartli and Imereti regions during the first two years of the program.

According to the Wine Route Project, a foreign language-speaking expert should guide a tourist to a traditional Georgian marani, or wine cellar, where the host will present high-quality wine and facilities for tasting.

Tourists will have the option of choosing a marani via the Internet, prior to their visit.

Georgia will host the first global conference on wine tourism in autumn 2016, under the auspices of the UN’s World Tourism Organization.

By Ana Akhalaia

Edited by Nicholas Waller