THE UNIQUE ORGANOLEPTIC OF GEORGIAN BRAND

THE UNIQUE ORGANOLEPTIC OF GEORGIAN BRAND

Wine company “Bolero & Company” operates from a historic wine factory in Gurjaani built in 1929. The company has invested in this factory 200 million GEL in total and has restored one of the oldest and biggest Kvevri cellars in Georgia containing 244 Kvevris. The company has also restored an underground storage for alcohol for wine branding located on minus 2nd and 3rd floors. With 25 000 French oak barrels, the company has the largest reserve of spirits in Georgia today. Only in 2021, we exported 20 500 000 bottles of wine and brandy. We mainly export alcohol for wine branding to France, Italy and Spain.

Famous labels such as Iverieli, Betanieli, Daisi, Berikoni, Talaveri, and Ioreli Mironi are much better known abroad. The company also makes wines named after the place they are produced. However, our products have not reached the local market yet. Everything we produce is exported..

Turning Points “traveled” to Bolero & Company’s unique world of brandy with its founder, Vakhtang Karichashvili.

Vakhtang Karichashvili Founder of "Bolero & Company”

When entering the building from the courtyard, the temperature falls notably, it’s almost cold. The building is old, built-in 1929. The building maintains temperatures between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius without any help from technology. From here, we move to an underground storage area used for aging. We see an enormous hall filled with barrels and all of them are full to the brim. The third area is the Kvevri wine cellar containing hundreds of Kvevris.

Vakhtang Karichashvili, the founder of Bolero & Company: We had a winemaking tradition in our family. I remember, in the village, we used to compete about who could make better wine. For some reason, I developed an interest in alcoholic drinks. My uncle used to work in the Eniseli factory. I used to bring 62 to 70% alcohol content raw materials from this factory. Then I would process them, bring alcohol content to 42%, and would sell the good in my region and even in Vladikavkaz. However, this was a minuscule volume of family production. After finishing school, I studied Economics at the University. However, I never lost interest in alcoholic drinks and was accumulating knowledge in this field as well. Then I moved to Russia, afterwards, things turned out in such a way that I ended up supplying Russian factories with alcohol for wine branding from Georgia. Things were still chaotic at that time and the resources those factories had were not enough. This lasted for 7-8 years. I finally returned to Georgia in 2012. However, at that time, I already had some other contracts in this field from France, Spain, and other countries. This sphere is like a big family – everyone knows each other. They saw the kind of raw materials we exported to Russia and they approved of them. When I returned to Georgia, I had already started negotiations with France and the Span about the supply of alcohol for wine branding. At that time Georgia produced 100 000 tons of grapes. However, the government started supporting agriculture with grants and co-financing programs, and consequently, the grape yield gradually increased. This sector started to become more attractive to investors.

In the following period, he took the factory on a lease, got hold of grapes, took large quantities of wine from the government, which it could not sell, and started distilling it. In addition, by this time he already had his own company called “Bolero”. However, it has nothing to do with castanets, rhythm, or the stage:

Vakhtang Karichashvili: One time I was driving with my foreign friends who worked in this field and I told them about my idea to become the number one exporter of alcohol for wine branding to Europe. At that time, I did not have my own company or a factory. I realized that they thought it was a bit of a bold statement and honestly, it did sound unrealistic; however, I had a goal and I knew what I was talking about. One of them told me jokingly: if you have such big plans and want to conquer Europe, then you should give your company an international name. For example, there is one dance called Bolero, you should name your company that. When I finally founded a company, without thinking too much, named it Bolero.

The first shipment of alcohol for wine branding was sold to France, to be used in 1000 tons of Cognac. This was the first precedent when people in this field noticed Georgia. The interest gradually increased and other countries started to appreciate the quality of the product. This created a necessity to open my own private factory.

Vakhtang Karichashvili: When a European says that this raw material is good, he also implies that he wants to see where this product is made. In 2015, an old factory was put up at an auction. It cost 11 400 000 GEL; however, it came with bank credit, so the final cost of the factory was 50 million GEL. The building had a very old infrastructure. The only positive thing about this place was that it had unique buildings that could preserve temperature. The yard was filled with thorny bushes, the water was leaking from the ceiling and the cisterns were covered with rust – everything required renovation and new equipment. In one building, we restored the first and second underground floors. In total, by today’s estimates, 200 million GELwas spent on this place. Construction teams were working 24/7 and we hired Ukrainians and Belarusians to repair the cisterns. At the same time, we were buying grapes, pressing them, and making wine while pouring cement. In short, nothing was standing still. Prior to this, I bought 1200 hectares of land to grow grapes. However, as I mentioned above, due to the growing number of vineyards, I decided to invest this money into technical equipment.

Do you remember when I mentioned enormous cisterns at the beginning? Do you know how much liquid these vessels can contain? 115 million liters. The smallest one can contain 50 tons and the largest one 600 tons. Additionally, we have 25 000 French oak barrels and are expecting to procure the same amount of new ones in the future. According to the latest data, we export 14 million bottles of wine and 6 million bottles of brandy. We are additionally exporting 12 million liters of brandy with cisterns. Our main markets were Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Now there are challenges and searching for alternative markets for wine is difficult. On the other hand, there is a big demand for brandy. Georgia has surprised everyone in this regard, especially France. Just imagine, the largest quantity of Georgian products are sold on the territory of Cognac.

Vaktang Karichashvili, the founder of "Bolero & Company: these 30 years have taken by this business, must have been spent on the study of preferences of our customers, what “nose” or what kind or organoleptic properties they like. To be more precise to understand what the French, the Spanish, the Italian, or Americans would like. I know what vine breed should be processed for each of them and which breeds should be blended. This business is very complex and labor-consuming; firstly you should make a good wine to receive the relevant brand. The introduction of our wine to France was a certain type of challenge connected with huge excitement. The quality is controlled with great precision; a laboratory study envisages splitting the analysis at 265 components. Once we had a case, when the 5-year-old brand was assessed as 3-year old at the place; as it turned out that was the mistake caused by the Russian oak barrels, though the document accompanying the product was in full compliance with them. After that, we substituted the Russian wine barrels with the French ones. We have managed to promote Georgia in the first position by exporting the alcohol for wine branding for three consecutive years. We imported 6 500 000 liters the first year and later

this amount fluctuated between 7 to ten million liters. That is a very dramatic result, under the condition that you had never been on the market before.After three years of success, we were outdone by the Spanish and only because they had a huge harvest that year and we failed to catch up with them in prices. But we still managed to stay in the top three.

We start to talk about the Soviet-era influence; discuss the interdependence of quantity and quality, touch upon such issues as the local business environment and export possibilities. As it turned out only 8000 years of history in wine is not sufficient to present yourself to the European market. Today we crea te a quality product but the market is so saturated that it is difficult to make yourself memorable.

Vaktang Karichashvili, the founder of "Bolero & Company“: during the soviet period no one had ever gone abroad with their wine. That was the time when the quantity and not quality was a priority that should have been fulfilled. Today we have all our steel tanks connected to a refrigeration system to keep the right temperature; no one had ever done this at that time; there were no norms on the organoleptic and the unique and interesting qualities that are organic for wine were just lost in vain; the wine was not natural and nobody looked after its quality too much. Now we have to work on the erase bad memories and rebuilding our prestige anew.

Europe needs a quality product and we do create it but we should make the consumer believe it. European market is competitive active. We are proud when the amount of the harvested vine reaches 300 000 tons, in the whole of Georgia, when Spain harvested 5 600 000 000 tons of grape last year. Can you imagine what difference we are talking about?! If the state has not been subsidizing this sphere this business would have stopped functioning. It would stop functioning as if a peasant fails to realize that he should process the vineyards with mechanical equipment and to lower the prime cost, he will not be competitive. The price of grapes is very high, and if the business fails to gain profit it won’t be able to work. Georgia is not considered a cheap segment, rather it is ascribed to as an average or high segment. Our export amounts are impressive for Georgia, but in comparison to other countries, it is just a raindrop in the ocean. The position of other countries on the market is reinforced by prices. Today, almost everyone produces good wine in Georgia. Will you try to falsify it? Be ready for failure. You won’t be able to sell it. Everyone is well aware of it. The more powerful companies will be in Georgia, the more prospects we will have. Every rack can maintain a certain number of bottles and the more bottles of Georgian wine find their place there, the better. You must agree with me that to notice one particular bottle is very difficult. If you consult the statistics you will see that we are experiencing huge losses every year.

Working with export countries has an individual character. We produce different labels for each of them, to be more precise the labels for each specific company is different and the product in each case visually it looks different. Such marketing has proved to work much better:

Vakhtang Karichashvili, the founder of Bolero & Company: Europe, Asia,America: countries in these regions are so vastly different from each other that you can’t sell the same product in each country, or introduce the same design. Europe has never heard of Khvanchkara, or Kindzmarauli and can’t even pronounce it. Just recently they have introduced a law regarding semi-sweet wine and they cannot understand why the wine is not fully fermented. However, in Ukraine for instance the most popular was semi-sweet wine. What is sold in

France, could never be sold in Moldova and Kazakhstan. One time, we exported Chacha to China, but it did not work out.Then we raised the alcohol content from 42% to 53%, and then the sales started. This year we have great hopes for America. It’s a big and new market with huge potential. The negotiations lasted three years. Today the wine sector was forced to diversify its market, but this does not happen easily because negotiations take years before concluding.

The factory employs around 2000 people, however, most of the production process is automated. This is the most optimal solution if we consider the speed and the scope of production. In the fords of the company’s founder and an economist with good business sense:

Vakhtang Karichashvili: At the moment, only one line of automatic bottling conveyors is operational. If it becomes fully operational, we can triple the production. A person simply can’t fulfill such a demand. The team is very hard-working and motivated; it is thanks to them that we managed to remain stably on top. It’s always busy here, there is always work, especially during the harvest season, although, nothing ever stops during other seasons either. You will not achieve results unless you love your work. The main objective for all of us is quality and you should live by this objective. Pressing wine is easy, the main thing is how you look after it. If you stop the fermentation process, you must transfer it separately – the cycle must never be disrupted. You must always be vigilant; the quality lies in such details.And this quality emboldens us when we send our product for export. If we don’t have a product of certain quality, we don’t export it. Today the factory has 12 wine technicians, who have their assistants; plus, we have students as well. Everyone takes care of their segment of work and the job is distributed accordingly. We constantly hold tastings and assess our products, check which wine is being bottled, where is it exported, etc. Now, when the wine sector is facing challenges, this factory gives hope to wine producers, because if they can’t sell wine, it can always be turned into brandy.

He always tastes the wine before bottling. He is constantly searching for innovations and is certain that one day he will create a distinguished product and the name of Georgia will be proudly pronounced everywhere. But for now, he puts the brandy that he produces in a sanitizer bottle and is literary saturated/soaked in the job that he loves.