Thirty six wine producers from Georgia will enter the Russian wine market – once again. This is the result of a recent inspection of the Russian alcohol regulating body – RosPotrebNadzor – to 41 Georgian wine estates. Among the approved ones – the biggest Georgian players like Tbilvino, Telavi Wine Cellar, Tiflis Wine Cellar, Badagoni and Teliany Valley.
This “kind” initiative from Gennady Onischenko – well known for his ridiculous control measures and derisive statements – has already provoked Georgia’s president Saakashvili anger. On the 26th of February the leader of Georgia criticized Georgian winemakers for playing ball and fawning upon the Russian officials and pouring their wines into the inspectors’ glasses “with trembling hands”. Saakashvili also proposed to “put something in their pockets for them to leave happily”.
Reacting to these statements Onishenko was even planning to cancel the inspection but didn’t implement his threats. Georgian emotional feedback was somehow softened by other Georgian officials saying that Russian market was a “salvation for Georgia”. Wine expert Dmitry Kovalev believes that Georgia didn’t have any chance to re-target at the European markets with their semi-sweet reds that had been so popular with Russian consumers. “I think these wines has just been sitting in the bottles waiting for the embargo to end”, — he said.
After the inspection Onischenko declared that the “approved” wine estates could start preparing the import procedures. Earlier in March he had already mentioned that “about 200” Georgian wines should be able to come back or enter the Russian market for the first time. Information sources in Georgia indicated that some 65 wineries were ready to deal with Russia at the moment.
Russian retailers are ready to put Georgian wines back on shelves as soon as all the import questions are resolved. The wines are expected to compete in the middle price category – around 10 EUR per bottle.
As usual, Russia does not disclose the quality criteria for the wines to enter the market, which gives a lot to speculate about. After the recent visit Onischenko said some wineries had “issues” not mentioning the nature of those.
Russia has been banning Georgian wines and mineral water imports since 2006. It was officially connected with the quality of wines but political reasons were obviously the only ones that mattered.