Sustainable Viticulture & Wine

 The Competence Team for viticulture & wine is involved in projects and initiatives designed and implemented by the Alliance with consultancy, education, and training services to support sustainable rural development for the resilience of small and medium-sized family wineries interested in modern technologies to continue the 8000 years old Georgian history of grape cultivation and production to adapt to climate change and biodiversity challenges and opportunities.

Experts: Tekle Zakalashvili and Hilarius Pütz

The Network

The Competence Team cooperates with the German cooperation partner the Naturland e.V. to promote the organic wine value chain. A cooperation is established with the Georgia Technical University (GTU) Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and the Iberia College in West Georgia to promote vocational education offers for organic viticulture and wine for the Baghdati wine community.

Our Experts:

Hilarius Pütz is a German winegrower and oenologist living in Georgia and working in the Georgian wine industry since 2007. Until 2013 he was responsible for the planting and management of large vineyards and the vinification of the wines of one of the most important wineries. In 2011 he began to support a Georgian winegrower family restructuring and developing their small part-time business into a family wine estate, based on the German model, with bottled wine and marketing. Initially, the small Georgian winegrower did not have modern machines and equipment to cultivate the vineyards or to make high-quality wines for the international market. Today, this wine estate has 7 hectares of vines under “near to nature management”. Hilarius takes care of the vineyards, the vinification, the administration, and the local marketing. Direct sales in the EU markets are carried out by a son of the family who lives in Germany, in Switzerland by a Swiss couple who are friends.

The business concept is “wine and tourism are one”. Many European tourists are coming to the wine estate for professional tastings with traditional Georgian food and music bringing people closer to the culture, the country, and the region. The wine estate always remained peasant and authentic. There is no pomp, but a wonderful view of the Caucasus mountains. This goes well with tourists, and they can order wine that is delivered directly to their homes from warehouses in Germany or Switzerland. The wine estate maintains a warehouse in both, Germany (for the EU – market) and Switzerland with the full range of the estate wine varieties and the possibility of online wine tastings back home by appointment.

Georgian winemakers have a very good university education, but Hilarius Pütz identified the gap in practical education for the development of the sector. He suggested a dual education program according to the German system, which he could realize via a project financed by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Tbilisi. The Bavarian State Institute for Viticulture became a partner for the development of the educational program along with the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science and a group of vocational institutions and wineries ready to launch the first dual winemakers’ education and training in Georgia in 2016.

Hilarius is involved in promoting organic viticulture and winemaking in Georgia as an advisor and contributes to new development initiatives and ideas to further promote sustainable viticulture and wine culture in Georgia.

Tekle Zakalashvili is covering the topics organic viticulture, biodiversity, biotechnology of plants and climate change in her competence portfolio. Tekle is head of the research division of in-vitro propagation of plants and virus free planting materials at the Scientific Research Center of Agriculture (SRCA) and viticulturist at Chateau Buera Winery, Lopota. She is also lecturer of viticulture at the Agricultural University of Georgia and experienced in education, teaching and consultancy.

Tekle has a bachelor of viticulture and oenology of the Agricultural University of Georgia and a master degree of viticulture and oenology of the Georgian Technical University. She studied international wine business at Geisenheim University and grapevine physiology at Montpellier Supagro-grapevine physiology as exchange student.