Georgia Wine & Spirits
Georgian Wines & Spirits (GWS) is a privatized winery in Telavi , Kakheti Region, Georgia .
The French group Pernod-Ricard acquired the majority of GWS in 1993 and has been leading the way ever since. He owns 51% of the shares, 49% belongs to the Georgian businessman Levan Gatchetschiladze . In order to meet European standards and to prevent counterfeiting, the company imports all packaging from abroad. The bottles from France , the corks from Portugal and from Italy the labels and capsules with the trademark, a jumping horse with a winged rider.
Oenological methods
In addition to wine aging in original barriques , toasted wood chips are also used as an inexpensive method. Some of the white wines lie on the yeast for a very long time ( sur-lie method ) and give the end product a fine, powerful structure. The chief oenologist mainly relies on international varieties for export, but wants to make the old Georgian grape varieties internationally known over time. GWS has its own test vineyards. The bottling plant comes from Germany, as do the wine filters.
Market position
Since its takeover, GWS has taken the lead among Georgian wine producers. Ninety percent of the 4 million liters of annual production are exported. Investments in the future pay off here.
At a price of about eight dollars, the export rub is not readily accepted, the wines are mainly (60%) exported to Russia . GWS still produces around 50,000 bottles of sparkling wine per year for the Georgian and Russian markets.
Since 2005 the GWS has been in the process of restructuring, especially with regard to marketing. Like all wineries, they want to grow and export to Germany.
Operations management
The director and chief oenologist is Lado Usunashvili. Giorgi Tewsadze is responsible for quality control. He used to work in Australia as a flying winemaker .