The US-Based Travel Channel is currently working on a film on Georgian wine, which when finished, will be broadcast in 150 countries. The architect of the film, Isabelle Legeron, an award winning wine taster, told Georgia Today the film will be premiered in mid-March.

“We are planning to have a big premier in London sponsored by the British-Georgian Chamber of Commerce (BGCC), and hopefully with Georgian wine for our guests in London to taste,” Legeron explained adding that a follow up premier will be organized in Tbilisi.

Legeron has now toured Georgia twice - in July and October - with the aim of identifying locations and developing a script. Her travels took her to Tbilisi, Kakheti in east Georgia, Guria in the west, and the mountainous region of Racha. The reason for her choice of locations is that these are areas associated with kvevri winemaking, a technique in which clay containers are buried in the earth to store and mature wine.

Legeron is fascinated by this unique and traditional form of winemaking.

“Traditional kvevri wine is my favorite,” Legeron noted. “It is a lost and unique technique - a pure and original way of making real wine. I really liked a number of kvevri wines – especially Pheasants Tears from Kakheti and the Alaverdi Monastery wine.”

BGCC together with the National Tourism Agency of Georgia organized and financed Legeron’s visits to the country, while logistics and technical support were provided by GeoFilm Production, a Georgian company.

The idea behind the film is to help Georgian companies market their wines abroad. As the key challenge for exporters is that there is a low level of awareness of Georgian wine among potential importers, films like Legeron’s are expected to make a significant contribution to the image of Georgian wine abroad.

Born and brought up on a vineyard in southwest France, Isabelle Legeron comes from the sixth generation of a Cognac producing family: “Wine runs in her blood,” as her personal web page proclaims.

In 2010, Legeron won the title of Wine Woman of the Year 2009, a biennial international competition in Paris designed to acknowledge the most talented woman in the wine trade. Her series, ‘Journey into Wine‘ is broadcast on the Travel Channel, and has seen her traverse the globe, from South Africa to Portugal, Spain, Australia and now Central and Eastern Europe, discovering the world’s vineyards and examining their unique histories and cultures.

“[Georgia] is a very fantastic country with great potential for tourism, especially, wine tourism,” Legeron concluded after her voyage across Georgia’s vineyards.

She explained that clever marketing and the careful promotion of Georgian wine in conjunction with the country’s history and culture is essential to developing tourism.

“We hope our film can be helpful in this exciting process,” Legeron said, expressing her hope to return on a regular basis, to take master-classes in Georgian wine and of course, do more tasting.

by Nino Edilashvili

22.10.2010