September means back to school, so we thought we'd do a little revision of our own. If Georgian wine is already on your shelves or wine list, or you're considering adding it, there's no need to memorise hundreds of grape varieties and 8,000 years of history first.

Here are five things that are useful when buying, listing and selling Georgian wine.

Georgia’s wine harvest, or rtveli, can be a brilliant way to experience the country’s wine culture. But the real harvest often exists in parallel with the tourist version.

Amber wine can be confusing. One bottle smells of apricots and tea; another is all dried herbs and nuts. A third is light, floral and barely amber at all. So, which one is correct?

Well, it’s all of them.

Is Georgia really a birthplace of wine? Well, around 8,000 years ago, people living in what is now Georgia were already making wine in clay vessels buried underground. Archaeologists have since uncovered the world's oldest known evidence of grape wine, while centuries of uninterrupted winemaking have left their mark on everything from cave cities and monasteries to mountain terraces and family cellars.

Planning to travel to Georgia anytime soon? This itinerary follows the grapes through eastern Georgia, mixing winery visits with monasteries, mountain roads, historic towns and enough khinkali to make you sign up for Pilates upon returning home. As you might know, the country has more than 500 indigenous grape varieties, and discovering them together with the ancient local culture is a lot of fun! 

We all know the headline facts about Georgia: 8,000 years of winemaking, 500+ grape varieties. They do matter, but they don’t necessarily help you sell a glass on a busy Friday night.

So here’s a more practical way to think about Georgian wine sales: what actually makes it stand out, and how to use that at the table or on the shop floor.

If You Like This, Drink That - Georgian Wine Edition

What is Georgian wine like? We at Georgian Wine UK know this eternal question too well. You want to try something new, but you don’t quite know where to start and what to expect. So you reach for your usual Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay, play it safe, and avoid surprises.

The thing is, Georgian wine isn’t as far from your comfort zone as it might look. You don’t need astronaut training to pick up a bottle with a name like Rkatsiteli on the label. Yes, it looks intimidating at first glance.

Georgian wine labels can feel confusing if you approach them with expectations shaped by France, Italy or Spain. They rarely give you a strict hierarchy of locations, and of course, the names of grape varieties or winemakers’ surnames can be long and confusing.

Nevertheless, there is a logic to them, and once you understand it, most bottles become much easier to place stylistically and commercially.

The key is to start looking at the label as a combination of three elements: grape, method and place.

The National Wine Agency of Georgia has designated the UK as a priority export market

and increased promotional investment for 2026. The programme - managed by Swirl

Wine Group and led by Master of Wine Sarah Abbott - spans trade education, major

wine fairs, sommelier masterclasses at leading London restaurants, press trips to

Georgia, national retail promotion, and Global Judging with the IWSC.