Wine’s coming home

For many generations, we knew that drinking of wines while having your meal is good for our health. Especially before sleep one little glass of Red Wines would help to reduce the heart decease. If you drink out, done ever drive.

Wine’s coming home
03/12/2004 - Archeologists believe that wine was first fermented in what is now the Republic of Georgia in around 7,000 BCE. The opening of a new hi-tech wine testing laboratory in the country has given today’s Georgian wine makers a reason to look to the future, writes Kim Hunter Gordon.

According to the Georgian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the laboratory, which was opened in Tbilisi on Tuesday, is the only one of its kind in Eastern Europe.

Georgia has long suffered from a reputation of producing poor quality wine, notorious for containing illegal additives and stray grape varieties. The new lab, which was funded with 1.4 billion euros by German company GTZ, will certify safety, place of origin and identify illegal additives. Being able to meet the quality and safety standards needed to beat legislation and consumer confidence will allow the country to export more wine to foreign markets.

Georgia was the wine factory of the Soviet Union and its famous son Joseph Stalin was known to be fond of some of its produce. Needless to say, most of Georgia’s vineyards wouldn’t have been to the dictator’s taste, and few will feature in the auction of his wine collection at Sotheby’s this month.

There are about 500 indigenous grape varieties growing in Georgia, of which around 40 are in commercial production with wineries producing only 15 per cent of what they did during the Soviet period. Many of the owners are those who ran the wineries during that time and quantity is often still a more obvious goal than quality.

But, things are beginning to change. Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania seems determined to cash in on the industry. He said on Tuesday that "2005 will be crucial in terms of the renaissance of the wine sector. The era of the destruction of the market by adulterated wine is already over.” Read More...