Visitors to the festival have a unique opportunity to taste the best Georgian wines and cognacs. Georgian winemakers chose one of Kyiv’s most expensive clubs as the venue of their festival showcasing the products of 13 leading Georgian winemaking companies. Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili was present at the opening ceremony, reports www.proua.com.
The main purpose of the festival is to popularize Georgian wines in Ukraine. Georgian winemakers are trying to conquer the Ukrainian market after Russia banned wine exports from Georgia. The festival organizers say Georgia does not have very many vineyards to be able to produce inexpensive wines, so their products are all quality ones. Their wines are average to medium-priced, which means that they are affordable to all Ukrainians.
There are hopes that the Georgian wine festival will benefit Ukrainians. Unfortunately, Ukraine does not have a strong wine culture. Every year there are 30,000 cases of alcohol poisoning, 10,000 of which lead to fatalities. Needless to say, this statistic is proof that we do not have an advanced culture of alcohol consumption. Ukrainians still have to learn how to distinguish between quality alcoholic beverages and fake “Chinese products.”
Experts say that producers of moonshine cannot be reformed; their profits are too high and the law is too soft. So the only possibility is to try and educate the consumer. The main reason behind the slow progress in establishing a wine culture in Ukraine has to do with the national mentality. While the rest of the world was drinking wine, our nation preferred stronger beverages. Today things are slowly changing, with Ukrainians realizing that they should eat something first and then wash it down with a glass of wine, not the other way around.
In a word, wine consumption belongs to the aesthetic realm, so the average person has a hard time selecting choice wines. Today most Ukrainian restaurants — not only in Kyiv but in the regions — employ sommeliers. Four years ago, when Ukraine’s first sommelier school opened, the very notion was a mystery to restaurant owners.
Today semi-dry and semisweet wines are the most popular in Ukraine. The same is true of white wines because a person can drink more white wine than red. White wines can also be served with a larger variety of dishes. Since 2000 there has been a steady rise in the production of wines, cognacs, and sparkling wines.
