baia’s wine
Baia Abuladze grew up in the village of Obcha, in western Georgia’s Imereti region, where winemaking had been part of her family’s life for generations. Alongside her younger siblings, Gvantsa and Giorgi, she spent her childhood watching their parents and grandparents tend the vines and make wine in the family cellar. After leaving Obcha to study agronomy in Tbilisi, Baia realized that city life held little appeal. She returned home determined to build on her family’s traditions and bring greater attention to the wines of Imereti.
In 2015, the family won a small agricultural startup grant, which they used to purchase a secondhand bottling machine. That same year, Baia officially established Baia’s Wine, releasing their first organically produced wine, a dry Tsolikouri. Working with Gvantsa and Giorgi, she began modernizing the family winery while maintaining its traditional approach to winemaking, with an emphasis on organic farming and minimal intervention in the cellar.
Each sibling brought a different set of skills to the project. Gvantsa trained at a biodynamic winery in Germany’s Mosel region and pursued graduate studies in agronomy, while Giorgi studied enology. Together, they expanded production beyond white wines to include reds made from Otskhanuri Sapere and Aladasturi.
Today, the three siblings work with Imereti’s indigenous grape varieties, including Tsolikouri, Tsitska, Krakhuna, Aladasturi, and Otskhanuri Sapere. The grapes come from the family’s vineyards in Obcha, and all winemaking takes place in their own cellar. What began as Baia’s decision to return home has grown into a family project helping introduce a new generation of drinkers to the distinctive wines and winemaking traditions of western Georgia.
