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(28 Sep 1995) English/Nat

Georgia is hoping its revitalised wine-making industry may help it emerge from its post- Communist economic malaise.

Hard-hit by the collapse of the Soviet Union, and years of ethnic unrest, the wine industry in the Caucasian republic is now enjoying a rebirth thanks to some help from friends of Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze.

Pickers bring in the grape harvest near the village of Ikalto in eastern Georgia where for thousands of years wine has been made.

The vineyards are a far cry from the neat sandy lines in France or California, but Georgia is relying increasingly on its plentiful supply of wine to get out of its post- Communist economic mess.

Under the Communist centralised economy, Moscow took the lion's share of Georgia's wines in return for natural gas, oil and petrol.

Now independent, Georgia is hoping to break into Western markets.

An American-Georgian joint venture called Chalice Wines, established last year and managed by an American, is already exporting Georgian wine.

The San Francisco-based company's shareholders include Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze's old sparring partner, former U-S Secretary of State George Shultz.

The two men have been friends since Shevardnadze was Soviet Foreign Minister.

But as manager Bill Boucher explains, the joint venture has had its share of problems.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
The Chechnya thing has really cut into our transportation. We had five wagon loads, five railroad car loads of bottles come in September and we were supposed to get more but we can't because of the Chechens and the war up there cut our rail, so we couldn't bring bottles in and we couldn't get wine out.
SUPER CAPTION: Bill Boucher, manager Chalice Wines

But the orders keep coming -- mostly from Russia -- and the bottling of red and white wines has begun.

With its own generators to beat the country's frequent power cuts, the country is now producing 30-thousand bottles of wine a day.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
We've had rave reviews on our red wines in Washington and in Holland, and in fact the order for -- I'm going off the top of my head -- 14-thousand cases of Mukazani dry red wine came from the recent French VinExpo that was held in June.
SUPER CAPTION: Bill Boucher, Manager, Chalice Wines

And with every Georgian household growing and making its own wines, there is a chance that Western tables may soon be graced by the deep red wines so beloved by Georgia's most famous son, Joseph Stalin.

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