I recently received an interesting email from Inge Olsson at http://news.hvino.com  , an online publication covering Georgia, Russia and promoting Georgian wines. Hvino News is in Tbilisl, Georgia and under the auspices of the publishing house Hvino News with the support of Georgia’s National Wine Agency is organizing the first “Saperavi World Prize“. Entry into the competition is free and open to all Saperavi producers in the world except the ones in Georgia. Inge told me the reasoning is that there are over 300 wineries in Georgia and nearly all of them use Saperavi. Since entry is free they would receive hundreds of Saperavi samples from the Georgian producers.. The few foreign entries would be out numbered, so their chances of winning would be very low. Georgia already has a national contest and the intent of the “Saperavi World Prize” was to create an international competition that would build communication with Georgia, not to position Georgia as a rival. They are currently exploring proposals to solve this.

     The tasting will be in Georgia where the entries will be presented to an international panel of judges. When I posted this article I knew that 19 producers had submitted samples. All 13 Australian producers have entered but they will not have an easy road to victory because New Zealand, Russia, U.S.A. and 3 former Soviet states are also planning to take home the “Saperavi World Prize”.

If you want more information on entering a sample or to provide coverage of this event please contact Inge Olsson via email at    I.Olsson@hvino.com     Saperavi World Prize press http://sapprize.hvino.com