Sergi Baramidze, in Guria offers a wine tour, 50 GEL per person.

Let's learn more about him:

Wine is a strange phenomenon and it brings many different people together. This can be seen particularly well in the expeditions carried out in Samegrelo and Guria by the working group of the "Wine Village" project, when really special people express their desire to join the project - sometimes.

This year, in February, in Guria, we met a beginner winegrower and winemaker, Sergo Baramidze, who is a man from Tbilisi and recently started the difficult business of winemaking in the village of Junetsreni. Sergo, despite the fact that he is originally from Gurulia and had a village in Lanchkhuti, has been interested in winemaking and vineyard care for only a few years. This interest brought him to the "Wine Village" project.

In the "Wine Village" project, mostly novice winegrowers are involved. The "Wine Village" project is implemented by the "Gwine Club" with the financial support of "The USAID Economic Security Program". Within the framework of the project, lectures-seminars are held in the two target regions (Samegrelo and Guria) and the experts involved in the project visited a number of wineries in the mentioned regions, with which they should cooperate in different ways in the future.

Sergi Baramidze, enthusiastic winemaker: "I am from Guruli. My grandfather bought a house in Lanchkhuti and I used to go to Lanchkhuti all my life, but I knew that Junepsreni, the village of Lanchkhuti, was my base. Now I finally have a small land where I am building a cellar. With the help of Andro Vashalomidze, the savior of the Guruli vine, I planted several dozen seedlings of Sakmiela and Jani last year. Last year, as you remember, it was raining, some of the saplings rotted, although Mr. Andro promised me that he would give me the saplings again, and I will not get involved in this matter.

- As far as I know, you started viticulture and winemaking only recently...

- I have been working in the non-governmental sector for a large part of my life and I am good at writing projects. It was from my work that I crossed over with wine and I even stayed in this business. I worked in the "Empard" program project, where the specific direction was to help people in creating wine cooperatives. As a result, I met Rezo Sanikidze, who became my mentor and friend, and it is thanks to him that I took a serious look at wine. Mr. Rezo studied and worked in Germany in the 80s of the last century and brought a lot of knowledge about winemaking from there. Now he owns an organic vineyard in Saguramo. I had to walk a lot with this person. He conducted trainings on viticulture and winemaking. We started from Imereti and then moved to Adjara.

In 2018, I got involved in a project funded by the Danish government. Within the framework of that program, we helped many people, both in developing business models and in receiving grants. Finally, we even sold wine to these people in 2019-2020. I brought the wines of the beneficiary cellars to Paris with my own hands. I brought about 60 Georgian wines of different names to Paris. After that, I realized that my goal is to help small entrepreneurs, collect good wines and sell Georgian wine from small wineries in Europe.

- When did you start building a cellar and growing a vineyard?

- The main thing is that I realized that it is necessary to understand wine well in order to convey information to the consumer well and correctly. Today, I am more of a wine promoter and wine lover. In 2022, within the framework of the "Produce in Georgia" program and also the joint program of the German government, I went to the German city of Leipzig. The Association of Sommeliers there supported us with the help of Geisenheim University. More than 100 sommeliers came to taste Georgian wines at the tasting held in Leipzig. Among the wines, the beneficiary winery of the Wine Village, Teimuraz Sharashidze Winery. Then, I developed a business plan together with the Kartli wine cellar "Armazul", which was financed by the "Produce in Kartelo" program, and I started the construction of a tasting space-warehouse and wine cellar in Guria. All this is in the village of Junetsreni, in the yard of the ancestral family of the Baramidzes. My cousins gave me the land and that's how I ended up in winemaking in a strange way.

- Why did you decide to use tuff stone to build the cellar?

- Before that, I will tell you a funny story. The plot, a part of which was given to me by my relatives, is in the shape of a Mauser. That is, part of the "Mauser" barrel was given to me by my cousins, but they kept the "drum" themselves. You know how much a gun means to a guru. It seems that it is no coincidence that Mauser is featured even in the Guruli winery. To build the cellar, I consulted with various winemakers. The already mentioned Temur Sharashidze gave me very good advice and told me to build the cellar from tuff stone, because tuff is a volcanic stone, it has natural thermal insulation and does not need to be plastered. The main thing is to see good craftsmen. I was lucky to see really good craftsmen and the building of Samarne is already built. All that's left is the roofing. The cellar and the wine storage are first so-called. I close it with "sinkars" and then make the roof. I took the construction materials from the destroyed buildings. I took part of the old tiles needed for roofing from the neighbors, and collected some on the street. Everything is second-hand, which shows my attitude towards the environment.

- Which vessel will you use to make wine in your new cellar?

- For now, I'm going to put the wine only in stainless steel vessels, then you can think about the pitcher, but before that, I'm looking at the capabilities of the pitcher. I will see how the vineyard goes and think about the pitcher. However, stainless steel dishes are probably the most "unfaithful" and that's why they are so popular.

As I told you, I used to be and still am a seller and popularizer of Georgian wine in Europe. Soon I will have my own wine, and I think the best way to learn wine marketing is by selling your own wine."

The views expressed in the blog may not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or the United States Government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahs_kZ2mTeQ