GEORGE M. TABER:  COME VISIT THE BIRTHPLACE OF WINE

Investor.ge spoke with George M. Taber, a bestselling author of wine books, including a recent book on wine tourism that featured Kakheti.

Maia Edilashvili

Georgia has potential as a wine tourism destination, according to author and wine tourism specialist George M. Taber, but he believes the key to success lies in the advertising the country’s past – not just marketing its future.

Taber is no stranger to Georgia – or Georgian wine.

He traveled to Georgia for his 2009 book “In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism,” put Kakheti alongside famous vineyards in Bordeaux, France, Napa, California and Central Otago, New Zealand.

“When I was selecting the most interesting places to visit in wine tourism, I picked Georgia because of the historic importance of the country in the history of wine making,” Taber told Investor.ge in an e-mailed interview.

“I doubt that many people realize the history of winemaking in Georgia or also how different Georgian winemaking is from western winemaking.”

Those differences – coupled with the over 500 types of wine varieties available in Georgia – will help Georgian wines secure a place in “the glut” that is today’s wine market, Taber said.

“[Y]ou do have the aspect of the unknown. Curious people will be interested. I think it would be important for exports to concentrate on just a few wine varieties,” he said.

“I know you have more than 500 varieties, but pick out three or four that are more western in style and go with them.”

According to Taber, there are is one important lesson to marketing wine: make the variety pronounceable.  

 “Someone once told me that the biggest problem the French had in the U.S. market was that no one could pronounce or remember the names of their wineries,” he said.

“You have the same problems, and you also have grape varieties that no Americans can pronounce or remember.”

For Taber, the key to Georgia’s promotion as a wine producer is to highlight history and the fact that visitors will see and taste a type of wine that “to my knowledge doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.”

“I don’t think you can start with wine tourism. But once you have educated them about Georgia, then you can talk about tourism,” he said.

“I’d suggest that you start an advertising program that said simply, “Come Visit the Birthplace of Wine.”

The government of Achara, a tourist-favored Black Sea coastal region, which actually has never been involved in wine making, has recently announced plans to build a wine center in Achara. Adding something like a wine center to the culture of beaches is a good idea, according to Taber.

“Even people who love to sit on the beach eventually get tired of that and want to do something different or learn something about the country,” he said, adding that one or two day tours to vineyards would be a nice distraction for the monotony of sea and sand. Taber noted that once someone sees where wine is made, they become a fan for life. 

“Wine is usually made in beautiful places such as Tuscany or Burgundy. Often there are also opportunities for eating good food to go with the good wine,” Taber noted.

“Wineries around the world have also learned that once someone visits a winery, he or she is a fan for life. “Every time they see that wine in a store or on a restaurant, they will remember their visit to that winery and perhaps buy that wine again.”

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