There is a particular kind of jet lag no clock can explain. It comes from landing in Tbilisi in early October, when the air smells of woodsmoke and fermenting grapes, and every road out of the city points toward the wineries. Kosta made that landing in October. It was a working trip in the most Georgian sense of the word: hands stained purple, a glass raised with old friends, and a notebook filling up with the names of winemakers who may soon be on a shelf near you.

Back Where It Started: Chubini, Tilisma, and Artizani

For Saperavi Brothers, our suppliers are more than suppliers, and a visit to their wineries is less a business meeting than a homecoming. Kosta helped with this year’s harvest and recommitted to our suppliers.The main conversations: how the vintage is shaping up, which qvevri is misbehaving, what the American market is asking for and what Georgia can honestly give it. 

What Comes Next?

Then there is the part of the trip that will matter most two years from now: the new names. Kosta’s calendar was full of visits with producers who do not yet work with us, several recommended by the very winemakers we already represent. That is how the good ones always arrive. The Georgian wine world is small and intensely personal, and no portfolio worth drinking was ever built from a trade show floor. We are not ready to announce every name on the list. What we can say is that the shortlist reflects what Saperavi Press has argued since our first issue: Georgian wine is not one wine. The candidates span regions, grape varieties, and winemaking philosophies, from rigorous classical producers to small natural estates. All of them met the same test: could we sit across from this person for ten more vintages and still be excited? Relationship first, wine second, contract third. That is not our slogan.

Saperavi Brothers is growing – new states, new distributors, more retail partners than any year since we started. Growth in the U.S. market creates obligations in Georgia: more cases promised means more grapes sourced well, more stories told accurately, more producers who need to trust that the person across the table will still be there when the market wobbles. Trust, renewed and extended, in both directions of a supply chain we prefer to think of as a friendship with logistics.

Much appreciation to the winemakers who opened their cellars and their tables to us this month.