Baia, Gvantsa and Giorgi Abuladze make up a pretty formidable sibling trio. All still in their 20s, they have a maturity beyond their years and work with an uncommon unity of purpose at their family winery in Obcha, Imereti.
The Abuladze family has been cultivating vines for many generations, but they only ever made wine for family and friends, or maybe to barter with during the hard post-soviet times of the 90s. It was Baia who, in 2015, while just 23, won a grant offered to promote rural businesses in Georgia (she went on to present a TEDx Talk and was even named in a Forbes '30 Under 30' list of budding entrepreneurs) and made the bold leap into commercial winemaking.
The family label is called Baia's Wine, though all three siblings have an equal say in the business. Very quickly their wines - made from indigenous Imeritan grapes krakhuna, tsitksa, tsolikouri (whites), aladasturi and otskhanuri sapere (red), including qvevri, skin maceration and petnat styles - have earned them an international following.
These are three of the most cheerfully dedicated young winemakers I’ve ever met. They are in a constant whirr of activity, whether it's planting new vineyards, driving to Tbilisi to deliver wine to restaurants, hosting visitors to their family winery in Obcha village, attending wine fairs around the world – they do everything themselves. In a very short time, they have established Baia’s Wines as one of the leading wine destinations in Imereti.
According to archaeologists, Georgia is the place where winemaking began around 8,000 years ago. It is a country with more indigenous grape varieties than anywhere else in the world. It is the very cradle of wine. As Georgia strives to promote this story to the world, a tireless sibling winemaking trio like the Abuladzes is exactly what it needs.
