Kabistoni Wine School #18
Wine Enthusiast and Scholar: The Inspiring Journey of Keti Jurkhadze, Founder and Wine Judge
The company’s founder — Keti Jurkhadze — first of all, is a great wine lover and then a wine judge with almost 16 years working experience at Georgian Wine Degustation Commission under the National Wine Agency of Georgia. As a professor, Keti has been involved in various scientific researches and has several scientific publications. She is proud of is an article on CHARACTERIZATION AND VALORIZATION OF INNOVATIVE ENOLOGICAL AND NUTRITIONAL PRODUCTS FROM CULTIVAR OF GEORGIAN GRAPES VINIFIED IN QVEVRI, and Analysis of aroma and polyphenolic compounds in Saperavi red wine vinified in Qvevri. Being a judge, Keti has participated in various National and International Wine Competitions, such as International Qvevri Wine Competition, International Saperavi Competition, Areni International Wine Competition, Turkish Wine Challenge, Concours Mondial de Bruxelles and MUNDUS VINI. Nowadays, she holds position of Imeretian Wine Association Director. She conducts various marketing activities to promote Imeretian vine and wine culture. This year for the 1st time “Imeretian Wine competition” was held under her leadership, where invited International Wine Experts, Judges and Masters from four countries tasted and evaluated Imerian wine. In addition to the school, Keti Jurkhadze also founded the Kabis Toni Winery in 2016. The company aims to produce high quality wine from Georgian endemic grape varieties, emphasizing Georgian traditions in the Qvevri.
From Laboratory Assistant to Trailblazing General Director
She started her professional experience as a laboratory assistant in different wine producing companies and during this period she grew up till the General Director’s position. Her next step was establishment of own business. Keti Jurkhadze has been mentioned in the book “A Gently Fermenting Revolution — Women in the Georgian Wine Business” (Author Ninidze, Natroshvili, 2019) and “Successful Winemakers of XXI Century” (Author B. Kalandadze, 2019) as a notable female winemaker.
Studying in the Kabistoni Wine School
Long terms experience and know-how in this filed was a good opportunity to establish wine school Kabistoni in 2015. Since its establishment, School has aimed to raise the knowledge and awareness of wine in the society and has created a tailor made training program, where wine lovers, small and medium entrepreneurs , representative of tourism industry and related fields could be acquainted and study the culture and history of wine, proper wine tasting techniques, wine aromas, taste qualities, wine evaluation, wine marketing and important and basic aspects of wine production.
Kabistoni wine school with its almost 9 years history could offers students educational programs aimed to the people that are interested to develop and upgrade their basic knowledge in viticulture and winemaking. The School program is aimed to teach students historical trends of vine and wine distribution and development, modern and innovative methods and full agro-technological cycle of vineyard managements.
School program also includes practices such a soil preparation and tilling, growing and planting of varieties, trellising and pruning of vines, specifics of grape processing, modern innovative and traditional wine production technologies, bio-organic direction and trends in winemaking, sensory evaluation based on international rules and practical systems, grape disease and combating/prevention methods of them. HASSP -requirements and meaning. The program is unique and includes a full spectrum of education, both technological and management elements.
In addition, based on her experience, the school program considers the key criteria of international evaluation, meanings of the world market requirements, importance of international competitions as the way of penetration to the International markets.
Recent years, there is quite high demand from different countries such as Germany, Poland, Singapore, Australia, etc who wishes to attend the wine classes as they are very much interested in Georgian wine culture, qveveri wine production, aromas and taste qualities of Georgian wine. For such students, the school offers individual courses tailored to them. Such courses, the school somehow increases the awareness of Georgian wine.
One of the basic study courses of the wine school is Certified “Wine Connoisseur”.
Study duration – 3 months. Classes are given by the leading specialists in the field of winemaking, oenologists, wine experts and marketing.
During three months classes, the trainees get acquainted with the importance and basic details of wine production, developing the necessary skills for this industry, which help them in the future to establish own business as well as to work in various wine enterprises, hotels or wine boutiques.
Students are given great opportunity to have practical training courses in the partner companies, such as industrial size winery “Tbilvino”, family type winery “Feradze Winery”, Irma Chanturia Wine Laboratory, Small size winery “Terra Kisi Winery”, and Crush 525 (Custom Crush Winery). As for theoretical study they could enjoy the cosy atmosphere of the International standard American brand hotel Wyndham Grand Tbilisi conference space that’s fully equipped with modern technologies for the presentations and discussion panels.
