The Messenger, Georgia
April 14 2006

Wine blockade update: Armenian winemakers plug their product

“There exists the opinion that Georgia is good in wine and Armenia in
cognac and it is high time to break these stereotypes,” Avak
Arutunian, Armenian Wine Producers head

By Keti Sikharulidze

The head of the association of Armenian Wine Producers Avak Arutunian
believes that his country’s product can easily replace Georgian wine
on the Russian market.

Speaking with the Russian news agency Regnum Arutunian called
Russian’s resolution to ban Georgian wine imports as a “correct
decision.”

Arutunian thinks that Armenian wines can compete with both Georgian
and Moldavian vintages and that the only country that is capable of
competing with Armenian wines, in terms of quality, is France.

“Our wines are highly competitive with Georgian, Moldavian and even
French wines. The thing is that there exists the opinion that Georgia
is good in wine and Armenia in cognac and it is high time to break
these stereotypes,” Arutunian stated on Thursday.

At the same time that Arutunian was speaking of the great merits of
his country’s wines, a Georgian delegation headed by Minister of
Agriculture Mikheil Svimonishvili left for Moscow on Thursday to hold
meetings with Russian officials to discuss lifting the Russian
embargo on Georgian wines.

“We should do everything we can to solve this problem in order to
avoid any kind of confrontation,” Svimonishvili told journalists.

Russia banned imports of all Georgian and Moldovian wine on March 27,
and last week the ban was extended to include cognac and sparkling
wine.

According to Russia’s Chief Sanitation doctor Gennady Onishenko 13
percent of the Georgian and Moldavian wine tested in 38 Russian
districts meet international standards, while 46 percent of the wine
tested in Moscow is of bad quality.