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| Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity |
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18/12/2009 |
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The Georgian Wine in Jars Presidium visits Tuscany
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From December 4 al 12 two producers from the Georgian Wine in Jars Presidium attended “Vignaioli & Vignerons”, the Slow Food event for winegrowing and wine held in Tuscany.
 Georgia is one of the first places where grapevines were domesticated. Evidence for this is the presence of dozens of native grape varieties and a still practiced method of vinification which involves burying large terracotta jars to allow fermentation and subsequent aging of both white and red wines. Unfortunately the method is at risk: the larger winemaking cooperatives, created at the time of the Soviet Union, use modern technologies, prefer more productive grape varieties, including international ones, and practice conventional agricultural methods.
The Presidium was set up in 2008 in the two areas where traditional wines is produced. The first is Khakheti, the most traditional and suitable production area, which has the best facilities. The second, Imereti, is to the west and its wine is mainly produced for family consumption.
The Presidium will help the producers to bottle and commercialize their wine, and progress towards high quality production. The two groups of producers will be equipped with basic winemaking and storage facilities.
 Together with 600 vignerons from around Europe, the Georgian producers came to the Vignerons event and attended seminars focusing on the quality and environmental, social and economic sustainability of winegrowing. “I was afraid that the situation here in such a rich traditional winegrowing area would be very different from what we face in Georgia, but after spending a week with other winegrowers, I realized that small-scale winegrowers share the same problems and hopes whether they are in Italy, Georgia or any other country” explained Solomon Tsaishvili, a wine producer from Kakheti region.
After the event the producers of traditional Georgian wine were hosted by winegrowers and Slow Food convivia in Tuscany. They met small-scale producers from Massa, the Maremma and the Island of Elba, welcoming the opportunity to discuss and gather information, learn about production methods and ways to promote and commercialize their product.
For the third time since the Presidium was created, they were hosted at the Podere Scurtarola (Massa). The meeting with the Cammino Autoctuve association, which brings together wine producers from Maremma and the Island of Elba in order to promote local traditional winegrowing approaches, resulted in a twinning project between Georgian and Tuscan producers. The association will help the Presidium winegrowers to improve production methods and the Autoctuve winemaker, Marco Stefanini, will hold a training course in Georgia next year.
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