The Prime Meridian of Wine at EBRD HQ

Review

This film is a small song to say I love my country - Nana Jorjadze told us in the Q&A after the screening of her multiple award-winning film The Prime Meridian of Wine at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), her slightly broken English serendipitously allowing for this pertinent choice of words. The film is a celebration of Georgian wine, tradition, music and culture, aspects which all cohere in the Georgian mind to create a strong sense of national identity.

The event was organized by the Embassy of Georgia to the United Kingdom and formed part of its broad program of promoting cultural exchange between the two countries. In a brief welcoming speech, HE Tamar Beruchashvili thanked the EBRD for their help in galvanizing the Georgian economy and described the wine as “the real Excellency” before the film was screened in front of one of the largest audiences in the Bank’s history.

The Prime Meridian of Wine follows a young vintner, initially dissatisfied with life in Georgia, who travels to England and France but whose discoveries lead him back to his home, the birthplace of wine. It charts a fascinating 8000-year unbroken tradition of Georgian winemaking and features contributions from notable figures like Debra Meiburg, Hugh Johnson, and Steven Spurrier – one of the first to import Georgian wine to the UK. It’s an entertaining film that explains the process of winemaking in the country and details the large variety of grapes and types of vine to be found in the various regions of Georgia. Its real strength, however, lies in showing just how interconnected wine, music, and religion are in the Georgian culture: there are instances of Qvevri (the large clay vessels used for storage and fermentation) being used as sarcophagi for viniculturists; specific polyphonic chants developed as a way to ennoble the wine; and even the church’s iconography, like the grapevine cross.

For me, the most striking part of the film was footage of the protagonist making wine, interspersed with archive shots from what looked like the early 20th Century. There are one or two cosmetic differences, but the actual method, from harvesting the grape to burying the Qvevri, has remained the same for millennia, one of the reasons for its listing by UNESCO among the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Wine exports took a hit in 2006 with Russia’s embargo, but instead of crippling the industry it has learned to look to other markets such as China, Europe, and the UK, the latter being one of the fastest growing. Clearly, the event was intended to arouse interest in the industry and Georgian culture in general. After the screening, we heard briefly about UK demand for Georgian wine from Steven Spurrier, before Jorjadze and the film’s producer / president of the Georgian Sommelier Association, Shalva Khetsuriani, elaborated on some of the film’s themes.

“The UK market has to understand Georgian wine for it to sell,” was the takeaway argument of the evening. With the redoubtable work by the Embassy going into its promotion, compelling films like The Prime Meridian of Wine, and recent effective marketing drives, I’ll be very surprised not to see a few more bottles of Mukuzani on the shelves of my local shop in the near future.

The event’s partners and sponsors were the EBRD, the Georgian Sommelier Association & the National Wine Agency of Georgia, Wine Cellar Khetsuriani, GWS, Chateau Mukhrani, Shilda and Georgian Valleys.

Robert Edgar, London