🥃 Georgian brandy

Georgian brandy is a grape brandy from Georgia: wine distillate aged in oak. Georgian law defines brandy as wine distillate aged for at least six months in oak barrels or in contact with oak wood, with at least 37.5% alcohol. ⁶ The best-known producer is the Tbilisi house of Sarajishvili, founded in 1884. ¹

Brandy wine. The law sets rules for the base wine too: wine for brandy needs at least 9% alcohol and at least 5 g/l of acidity, and only such brandy wine may be distilled into brandy spirit, whose volatile acids may not exceed 0.8 g/l. Since 1 January 2019 neutral alcohol may not be used. ⁶

Grapes. David Sarajishvili studied Georgian vine varieties for years and settled on Tsitska, Tsolikouri, Goruli Mtsvane, Chinuri and Rkatsiteli as the best for brandy. The company makes the base wine by European technology, moderately sweet and sour, with a neutral fruit flavour. ⁴

Distillation and ageing. Sarajishvili distils twice and says it is the only company in Georgia using a French Charente still. Its spirits age for at least three years in oak barrels of 350–400 litres, where about 3% evaporates as the angels' share, and the finished blend then rests in oak for another 4–12 months. ⁴

History. David Sarajishvili set up the first classical brandy technology in Georgia in 1884, and his Tbilisi factory released its first product in 1887; in 1903 the first company shop opened in Tbilisi. Between 1889 and 1912 Georgian brandy won gold medals at exhibitions in Paris, Brussels and Chicago. ⁵ In 1921 the factory became state property as the Tbilisi Brandy Factory, and the present factory was built between 1939 and 1954 to collect spirits distilled in different regions of Georgia. ¹

A living archive. In 1994 the Bubuteishvili family bought the company together with its reserves of historic spirits, including some distilled in 1893 and 1905 under David Sarajishvili himself, and restored the original name. ⁵ A line of special products followed in 2006, and by 2018 the brandy was sold in 20 countries. ¹ The company counts more than 250 international prizes. ⁵

The cognac name. The company recalls that it once called its product cognac, and that after a French decree of 1 May 1909 reserved that word for the Charente, its labels switched to wine brandy while the method stayed the same. ⁵ The EU–Georgia Association Agreement of 2014 lists Cognac among the EU spirit names protected in Georgia. ⁷

What the label means. Under Georgian law a bottle may say «Georgian brandy» only if at least 85% of its alcohol comes from grapes grown in Georgia, and the label may state the age or an age category. ⁶ In the EU, brandy must have at least 36% alcohol and mature at least one year in large oak vessels or six months in oak casks under 1,000 litres, with caramel allowed only for colour. ²

Why it matters to you. In 2025 Georgia exported 46.6 million litres of spirits worth up to 283 million dollars to 55 countries, so its brandy is easy to find abroad. ⁸ Check the label for «Georgian brandy» and the age rather than the word cognac. ⁶ WHO stresses that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. ³