Vintage First is a winery established by four friends: Lasha Bedenashvili, Nika Khokhrishvili, Erekle Paichadze, and Nika Jibladze. Their initial goal—to tap into the local market and offer high-quality products—has been achieved. Their new goal is to expand their scale and variety. Alongside developing their own products, the company also offers support to novice winemakers in areas such as technological processes, labeling, and facility entry.
T: How did you start, and what inspired the creation of Vintage First winery?
Lasha and I decided to start winemaking in 2020. At that time, we were both students at the Agricultural University, studying viticulture and winemaking. We thought it would be a great way to apply our theoretical knowledge in practice. We selected grapes from my vineyards located in Lomisqana, Kartli. Due to the scale, we produced 1,400 bottles and received quite positive feedback from customers. A few months later, when we ran out of stock, we realized something interesting was happening and decided to continue.
In the second year, Erekle joined us, and we added a Kakheti line. At the same time, we won a grant from the "Produce Georgia" program, and we directed all our resources toward developing the winery. This year, we have also added a winery in Imereti, which will diversify our range with the region’s varieties. We aim to have one winery in each region.
T: Vintage First: Name, Logo, Label...
In the branding aspect, our fourth friend, Nika Jibladze, joined us to help create the logo and label. Wine enthusiasts often comment that our label is very authentic and fitting for the wine, which makes us very happy. Our goal was to create a minimalist yet richly detailed and memorable label.
We want to maintain the enthusiasm and emotion we felt during our first harvest throughout the following years. It’s challenging, and sometimes in small wineries, the harvest varies due to certain conditions. As a result, the wine carries a different emotion. However, we want to ensure that the emotion of the first harvest is repeated in every subsequent harvest. Every year should be "Vintage First".
T: What makes your winery unique?
We were among the first on the market to start producing pét-nat. This made us realize that Georgian consumers are open to new ideas, so we are no longer afraid of such concepts and strive to introduce innovations every year.
We believe that now is the time for small wineries to unite and offer wine enthusiasts interesting experiences through joint efforts. Therefore, we invite novice winemakers to join us and share our expertise in various areas such as technological processes, labeling, and facility entry. By uniting wineries from different regions and sharing knowledge, we hope to create a collective spirit that will elevate Georgian winemaking to new heights.
T: Strawberry and Blackberry Wine:
Inspired by cherry wine, we thought, why not try something similar? Thus, we created a sweet dessert wine with strawberry and blackberry, which is quite high in acidity but balanced with sweetness and pleasantly drinkable. Generally, we strive to create something less available on the market and contribute to diversification. Currently, only 30 bottles remain, but this year the wine will be available in a larger batch.
T: Future Plans:
We are starting our fourth harvest with three wineries and nine varieties, which will expand further this year. We want each subsequent year to be of higher quality and to avoid focusing on a single variety, instead offering a diverse range to our customers.
We still have much to learn and work on in viticulture. We improve annually and will definitely achieve the results we have set as goals in the near future.
This year’s innovation is a QR code on the counter-label, which allows customers to write their reviews for specific wines. This will enable us to monitor specific bottles, quickly address any defects, and communicate directly with customers to receive feedback from anywhere in the world.
Comments