Law of Georgia “On Vine and Wine”

Georgia belongs to the zone of quality and high-quality viticulture and wine-making.

The objectives of the Law of Georgia on Vine and Wine are: overall promotion of the development of viticulture and wine-making as a priority sector of the country’s economy (39.09.98 No. 1604. sakanonmdeblo matsne”[2] No.2); production and marketing of competitive grape wines and other alcoholic beverages of grape origin; and protection of the consumer market from fraud and poor-quality products.

Chapter I. General Provisions

Article 1.

The Constitution of Georgia, this Law and other normative acts form the legal basis for production of vine seedlings, grapes, wines and other alcoholic beverages of grape origin.

Article 2.

This law applies to natural and legal persons whose economic activities include production, marketing, export or import of goods produced in the sphere of viticulture and wine-making, including alcoholic beverages of grape origin (04.07.2002 No.1635).

Chapter II. Definition of Terms

Article 3.

The terms used in this Law have the following meanings:

a)Vineyard – a vine plantation;

b) Industrial Vineyard – a vine plantation of a variety specified under this Law as a variety for industrial usage in a certain viticultural zone, grapes of which are mainly designated for sale or industrial purposes;

c) Special Vineyard – a vine plantation for scientific research, educational, collection, selection and variety testing purposes;

d) Amateur Vineyard – a vine plantation on a household or garden plot, where variety diversity is admissible. The grapes harvested from an Amateur Vineyard are used for direct consumption. Requirements set under the Georgian legislation for Industrial Vineyards are not applicable to Amateur Vineyards.

e) Standard Range of Vine Varieties (Standard Range) – a list of vine varieties tested and standardized on the territory of Georgia;

f) Aboriginal Vine Variety – a vine variety of local origin;

g) Introduced Vine Variety – a vine variety imported to and tested in Georgia;

h) Clone – a shoot from a single variety vine plantation that carries a distinct qualitative feature (crop capacity) or features (high yield, high sugar content, resistance to pests, etc.);

i) Vitis Vinifera – the vine family species comprising the European and Asian cultivated vine varieties;

j) Seedling – a one or two-year old enrooted vine designated for planting and obtained through vegetation;

k) Standard Seedling – a vine planting material, grafted or scion-rooted, complying with the standard requirements;

l) Certified Seedling – a top quality, sound in phyto-sanitary terms, engrafted or scion-rooted seedling, complying with the standard requirements;

m) Mother Plantation of Rootstocks – a plantation of phylloxera-resistant hybrid vine varieties designated for producing rootstock materials for vine reproduction;

n) Mother Plantation of Scions – a vine plantation for producing the vine reproduction scion material;

o) Vine Shoot – a one-year scion part used for rooting or production of budding (grafting) materials;

p) Rootstock – a one-year phylloxera-resistant bud-removed shoot part used for grafting;

q) Testing – investigation of the vineyards, mother plantations and nurseries for generating and reproducing biologically healthy and homogeneous (pure) vine varieties;

r) Scion-rooted Seedling – a seedling produced through rooting of part of a one-year shoot or bud;

s) Engrafted Seedling – a seedling produced through grafting of a bud on rootstock designated for vineyard planting;

t) Viticulture Zone – an extensive geographical territory of the country with favorable agro-ecological conditions for vine cultivation;

u) Viticulture Sub-zone – a part of a viticulture zone distinct from the other parts of the same zone in its agro-ecological conditions;

v) Specific Viticulture Zone (Specific Zone) – a viticulture zone, sub-zone or part of them in the country, where a special quality, image and / or characteristics of grapes and its processed products are fully or mainly determined by natural conditions of the given place and by special qualities of the vine species found only under such agro-ecological conditions;

w) Grape – the vine fruit, ripe or slightly withered;

x) Pulp – crashed grapes with or without stems;

y) Marc – pressed pulp;

z) Grape Must – a liquid product obtained by processing entire bunches of grapes and pressing of unfermented pulp;

a.a.) Mistelle – a fortified grape must with actual alcoholic content not less than 16% by volume;

a.b.) Concentrated Grape Must – a non-caramelized thickened grape must with an extract content increased by partial dehydration. Its sugar content is not less than 50% and the actual alcoholic content does not exceed 1% by volume;

a.c.) Grape Juice – a liquid product with maximum actual alcohol content 1% by volume obtained by methods established in wine-making practices and designated for direct human consumption;

a.d.) Machari – a young wine with incomplete alcoholic fermentation;

a.e.) Wine – a product obtained through complete or partial alcoholic fermentation of grape must or pulp;

a.f.) Table Wine – A wine with a minimum 9% actual alcoholic content by volume, to which the requirements of sub-clauses “a.h.”, “a.j.” and “a.k.” of this Article established under this Law are not applicable;

a.g.) Grape-growing Region – a viticulture zone, sub-zone or their united place in the country where a regional wine is produced;

a.h.) Regional Wine – a wine made in any grape-growing region of the country that carries out the production and processing of grapes, with a specific quality, image and / or other characteristics depending on the region’s natural climatic and soil conditions, and with the region’s geographic or historic names which must not repeat names of wines with denominations of origin and controlled wines with denominations of origin, or make possible their confusion;

a.i.) Wines With Denominations of Origin – premium quality wines with denominations of origin produced in specific zones and controlled premium quality wines with denominations of origin produced in specific zones;

a.j.) Premium Quality Wine With Denomination of Origin Produced in Specific Zone – a wine produced in a specific viticulture zone (grape production/processing and winemaking) and characterized by stable high quality and specific characteristics. It is produced under a traditional or special technology and is given the contemporary or historical-geographical name of the specific zone;

a.k.) Controlled Premium Quality Wine With Denomination of Origin Produced in Specific Zone – a wine meeting the requirements set for premium quality wines with denominations of origin produced in specific zones and with its quality guaranteed by special production control by the Vine and Wine Department – “Samtresti”;

a.l.) Dry Wine – a wine produced as a result of complete alcoholic fermentation with the reducing sugar concentration not exceeding 4.0 g/dm³;

a.m.) Semi-dry Wine – a wine produced as a result of incomplete fermentation of pulp or grape must (natural semidry wine) or addition of the grape must or concentrated grape must (semidry table wine) with the reducing sugar content from 4 to 25 g/dm³;

a.n.) Semi-sweet Wine - a wine produced through incomplete fermentation of pulp or grape must (natural semisweet wine) or addition of grape must or concentrated grape must (semisweet table wine) with reducing sugar content from 30 to 50 g/dm³;

a.o.) Sweet wine – a wine meeting the requirements set for semidry and semisweet wines and with the reducing sugar content from 51 to 80 g/dm³;

a.p.) Sparkling Wine – a wine saturated with carbon dioxide obtained by primary fermentation of grape must or secondary fermentation of wine in a closed vessel and with excess pressure of not less than 3 bars at 20^oC;

a.q.) Carbonated Wine – a wine artificially saturated with carbon dioxide and with excess pressure of not less than 2.5 bars at 20^oC;

a.r.) Fortified Wine – a wine produced by adding rectified ethyl spirit to pulp or grape must in fermentation with actual alcoholic content from 15% to 22%;

a.s.) Aromatized Wine – a wine produced by mixing dry or fortified wines, spirit extract of plants, rectified ethyl spirit and sugar;

a.t.) Brandy Wine – a young, unprocessed wine designated for production of brandy spirits;

a.u.) Brandy Spirit – an intermediary product of brandy production obtained through single or double distillation of brandy wine;

a.v.) Wine Brandy – a product with specific characteristics obtained through blending and further processing of aged brandy spirits;

a.w.) Aging – a long-term technological process for improving the quality of brandy spirits, wine brandy and wine;

a.x.) Actual Alcoholic Content by Volume – the pure spirit content by volume in 100 volume units at 20^oC;

a.y.) Potential Alcoholic Content by Volume – the pure spirit content by volume in 100 volume units at 20^oC if the complete fermenting of sugar is available;

a.z.) Total Alcoholic Content By Volume – the sum of the actual and potential alcoholic contents by volume;

a.a.a.) Natural Alcoholic Content By Volume – the total alcoholic content before enrichment (addition of grape must, concentrated grape must, sucrose or ethyl spirit);

a.a.b.) Sugar Content – the reducing sugar mass concentration g/dm³;

a.a.c.) Titrable Acidity – the content of acids and acid salts in grape must and wine Titrable with alkaline solutions and calculated in tartaric acids;

a.a.d.) Volatile Acidity – the volatile acid content in wine calculated as per acetic acid;

a.a.e.) Uniformization (Egalisation) – the blending of uniform wines according to vine varieties, quality and place of origin in order to produce the batches of wine with uniform composition;

a.a.f.) Blending (Coupage) ­– a mix of wines or brandy spirits and other components allowed in winemaking under this Law;

a.a.g.) Tirage – the technological operation of bottling and corking of a blend for tirage in sparkling wines production by the bottle-fermentation method;

a.a.h.) Wine Alcohol – the ethyl spirit obtained from products of grape origin (wine, sediments, marc);

a.a.i.) Alcoholic beverage – a product obtained from ethyl spirit received from grape raw material and substances allowed in winemaking in accordance with this Law;

a.a.j.) Color – a product obtained through sucrose heating at a high temperature;

a.a.k.) Flavoring – application of one or more flavors obtained from plant raw material allowed in winemaking in accordance with this Law for wine and other alcoholic beverages’ production;

a.a.l.) Volatile Substances – the volatile substances in alcoholic beverages other than ethyl and methyl spirits;

a.a.m.) Grape Products – primary and secondary products obtained through grape processing;

a.a.n.) Reporting – a statement of the implementation of technological processes in connection with commercial production and storage in the field of viticulture and winemaking by an entrepreneur under the procedures established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Georgia (04.07.2002 No.1635).

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