Behind the vine

Baia Abuladze - Baias Wine - Meore Obcha, Georgia

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

I make wine in the family house I grew up in with my family in the village of Obcha, Georgia. My family has always farmed vineyards, my grandfather is an oenologist and agriculturist, so since our early childhood, my siblings and I saw our family working in the field with the vines and the grapes and enjoying wine at the table. For a long time, we thought everyone lived in the surroundings we had. When I went to university in the capital, Tbilisi, I met interesting winemakers and producers. I was studying social sciences, but I really enjoyed the wine life. So, step-by-step, I, my sister, and my brother started doing bottlings. Initially, it was 5,000 bottles of two varietals, but since that time we've grown to farm 18 hectares of land and we're undergoing organic classification. We now produce 18,000 bottles with different, interesting projects as a part of our label.

What story does your wine tell?

Behind every beautiful label and bottle, there's always a story. In our case, our family is the main team: me, Gvantsa (my sister), and Giorgi (my brother). Of course, we love each other, but we also have deep trust for each other. When we see each other out in the early mornings or very late at night tending to the vines, we're in the best place energetically, because we're surrounded by people who love us. We've built the idea of Baia's Wine together. It's more than us being siblings, it's our team. We are the new promise of the next generation.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

If we connect that question with Georgian wines, I think it's important to remember that our wine is interesting because we produce it with skin-contact and our fermentation (earthen amphorae), but we don't have the same flavor every year. Each year is interesting and different. We aren't producing something artificial which tastes the same every day. It's Mother Nature who aids the flavor inside.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

You have emotions when you taste wine. We see a sense of true enjoyment when you taste wine from its home - in its real terroir. We have tastings at our winery, and with friends who come to visit us and they say the flavor and taste and surroundings help to turn off their brain and focus on how good life and nature is. Tasting what grapes can become and showing people the beautiful process of it happening proves to them that wine is not an artificial product or drink, it comes from fields and from nature.

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

Winemaking is not easy to do, it's a 24hr job. My advice is to grab as much knowledge and practice as possible. I worked in Mosel in organically-grown fields and saw each step they took. When I came back, it was new knowledge that helped me make better wine. Taking small, but very important steps to diversify your knowledge of oenology, agronomy, and workplace set-up enables you to have good wine in the bottle.

Who is a woman in wine you think everyone should know about?

My sister Gvantsa. She's always working on the wines. From early morning manual farming labor to bottling in the afternoon to late-night work. She's so powerful and so full of ideas. When we have an issue, she's the one who finds a solution. She has beautiful connectivity with people and customers and I really admire her.

Where can women find your wine?

Georgian Wine House is our importer, so your best bet would be to contact them.