On November 28, German capital Berlin hosted a world-famous wine exhibition-festival RAW WINE 2021. That was the first major joint event involving winemakers, wine lovers, traders and wine specialists held after the start of the global pandemic, which offers hope that such exhibitions will no longer be postponed in 2022 and that the pandemic will no longer impede the development of natural wines.  

130 wine cellars and distillers of strong alcohol drinks from all over the world took part in Berlin’s Raw Wine 2021 festival. The absolute majority of participating wine cellars belonged to family wine cellar category; all of them are primarily united by natural wine philosophy, which implies growing grapes and making wines without any additional interventions and admixtures. 

This is a sort of union of like-minded people, who, besides introducing their wines to the wine traders from all over the world, are familiar with each other, who know the wine cultures of various countries, their methods of winemaking and means of looking after the vineyards; through this, a sort of movement is being formed that may be termed as World Natural Wine Movement.

This year the Berlin wine exhibition hosted winemakers from France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Turkey and even Finland.

Of course, RAW WINE didn’t miss out on Georgian wines too. 12 small wine wineries  from Kakheti, Meskheti, Kartli and Imereti presented their wines in Berlin. Absolute majority of them were members of Natural Wine Association. 

The following wine cellars presented their wines in Berlin:

1. Baia’s Wine (Imereti);

2. Natenadze’s Wine Cellar (Meskheti);

3. Vazha Getiashvili’s Wine Cellar (Kakheti);

4. Gotsa’s Wine Cellar (Kvemo Kartli);

5. Anapea (Kakheti);

6. Anbani (Kakheti);

7. Ethno (Kakheti);

8. Levani’s Wine Cellar (Kakheti);

9. Nika’s Wine (Kakheti);

10. Matiashvili’s Wine Cellar (Kakheti);

11. Tedo’s Wine Cellar (Kakheti);

12. Andria’s Wine (Kakheti). 

The exhibition was held in line with Covid-19 regulations, during the event the organizers were permanently controlling the observance of anti-pandemic measures with German meticulousness. However, this didn’t prevent those who were interested in exporting wines from tasting the products they wanted and making profitable deals. 

RAW WINE 2021 was no exception and similarly to the previous exhibitions, many wine traders expressed interest towards Georgian wines during this event. There were individuals, who already had information about Georgian wines and were able to easily tell our wine brands and grape varieties apart even according to regions. However, there were also absolute newcomers this year, who only now discovered Georgian wine and believed in its prospects, at least businesswise. 

Generally speaking, it was hard to find a wine specialist, who hadn’t tasted hit Georgian wines in Europe in previous years (Saperavi, Rkatsiteli, Tsolikouri, Mtsvane Kakhuri etc.). Some 20 years ago Georgian winemakers could only dream about this level of visibility, this was something unimaginable back then; however, it’s now a reality and primarily this is due to the activities carried out by winemakers, National Wine Agency and small wine cellars during the recent years.

Results of the natural wine exhibition held in Berlin will soon become known when the concrete samples of Georgian wines presented in Germany will find their way to Europe’s and world’s famous wine shops and restaurants. In future we will be discussing the impressions of representatives of Georgian wine cellars who took part in RAW WINE 2021 as well as modern trends in winemaking revealed at the event.