After a 5-month break, Giorgi Natenadze, founder of Meskhetian Winemaking Company “Meskhetian Brand”, resumed exports of wines of “Natenadze’s Wine Cellar” Company.
As Giorgi Natenadze told BM.GE, the company has exported 4,000 bottles of Meskhetian Qvevri Wines to Belgium, Germany, the USA, Italy, and Canada.
"The best thing is that amid the pandemic we have received first orders from Italy. The process started in the initial phase of the COVID outbreak in Italy. Our communication with Italian partners started in that period. Since then, we have been waiting for favorable times for the export of our wines to Italy. Amid the pandemic, we have also entered another new market in Canada. We will send the test batch of our wines to Canada in several days. Later we will increase volumes“, Giorgi Natenadze noted.
According to him, the company had order from for traditional markets, but the pandemic frustrated the restaurant business and brought lockdowns and the orders were postponed.
“We sent our wines to Belgium, Germany, and the USA 3 weeks ago. We are also shaping another batch to send it to the USA in November. In practice, our sales grow by annual 30%-40% in this direction. We expected slowdowns this year, but only transportation aspects were belated for a period of 4-5 months. Now we have received two orders from the USA for the 2018-2019 wines”, the Georgian winemaker noted.
According to Natenadze, part of export wines have premium quality, while others are above the average grade.
As the entrepreneur noted the company faced difficulties with sending the 2019 wines because all international exhibitions were postponed amid the pandemic and they could not introduce their wines to the target public.
“We have to send several bottles to customers on an individual basis so as they taste them and buy bigger batches if approved. This process takes more expenditures and time, but we manage to hold these “tests” in distance. As a result, the demand for the 2019 wines has increased”, Giorgi Natenadze told BM.GE.
