#GEORGIANWINE: The first Qvevri Marani and Museum is opening on the grounds of the Plumpton Agricultural College, Wine department - 7th of April 2 pm

Press release. Written by Mako Abashidze

Building Qvevries in Plumpton, UK, Photo: Mako Abashidze

First Qvevri Marani and the Georgian Traditional Winemaking Museum shall be launched in the UK. This project is supported by the Plumpton Agricultural College Wine Department.

The Museum of the Qvevri History and Traditional Georgian Winemaking is sponsored by the SHUMI Winery.

SHUMI winery is sending the artefacts and the Qvevri winemaking tools for the museum display and shall be curating the exhibition.

Henry Mchedlishvili, Georgian by origin, living in Britain since 90th, founder and the Director of the Artisan Cru winery (first English Qvevri Wine), has started to work on this exciting project 18 month ago. Harvest from 2017 had an excellent results- “Artisan Cru” wines are now listed in London restaurants and boutique wine shops.

“For me it’s a great responsibility and honour to work with the Plumpton College wine department. Plumpton Marani is unique collaboration of traditional Georgian Qvevri method wine production from English grapes.” Henry Mchedlishvili, Founder, Artisan Cru.

The Museum sponsored by the “SHUMI WINERY” and the Marani shall be open for the public visits; guests shall have an opportunity to taste SHUMI qvevri wines as well as an Artisan Cru English Qvevri Wines and the Plumpton wines made from the local grapes.

Main purpose of this project is to promote traditional Georgian winemaking technology in the UK and worldwide and to give opportunity to wine department students to learn about the ancient Georgian Qvevri winemaking history. This project is managed and supported by the British Georgian Chamber of Commerce and the National Georgian Wine Agency.

The official opening of the SHUMI Sponsored museum of the Qvevri and Traditional Georgian Wine Making is scheduled in April 2019.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 15th of January, 2019, between the Artisan Cru, Plumpton College and The British Georgian Chamber of Commerce.

Principal at the Plumpton College, Jeremy Kerswell visited the Marani, expressed his support and enthusiasm about this project and signed the MoU.




Photo by Mako Abashidze

As a part of this project Plumpton College is planning to launch a winemaking scholarship through which a year 2 Plumpton BSc (Hons) Viticulture and Oenology student will be selected to carry out a vintage in a SHUMI winery in the following harvest. During the Plumpton student’s stay in Georgia, he/she will link up with a Georgian wine student (subject to the SHUMI selection process). The two students will return together to Plumpton by the beginning of October, and make wine in the Plumpton Marani under the supervision of Sarah Midgley, Plumpton’s winemaker. The Georgian student will be invited to attend classes at Plumpton free of charge.

Importance of the project:

Plumpton Marani and the Qvevri Museum is a unique opportunity for the students of the winemaking department to learn about the Georgian qvevri method, which had been added to the world heritage list of the UNESCO.

This is an excellent opportunity to promote and educate students and visitors about the Georgian Traditional Wine making.

Facts about the Plumpton College Wine Department

Plumpton College Wine Department is a leading educational body in the UK.

The transformation of Plumpton from a small agricultural college to a training ground on the international wine map has taken place alongside the growth in both reputation and commercial prospects of English wine.

A high proportion of the undergraduates and postgraduates at the Plumpton College Wine Centre are people seeking to switch careers and move to the wine industry.

History

Plumpton College started offering wine production courses in 1988 with the arrival of Chris Foss, the current Wine Division Manager. Chris’ mother is from Bordeaux and his family had a vineyard in the Entre-Deux-Mers region. When he first arrived, there were only two rows of vines, and Chris started teaching six students in a classroom located in the Poultry Department, making wine in Demi-Johns with bought-in grapes.

The Wine Division now has four principal activities: Four full-time undergraduate courses in wine business and production (delivered in association with the University of Brighton) attended by over 100 students. These are the only undergraduate courses in wine delivered in the UK, and the only such courses delivered in English in Europe. 20% of students come from outside the UK and graduates can be found in many wine-producing areas, all over the world.

The WineSkills industry training project, delivering courses all over the UK to around 500 students a year. These consist of the highly successful Principles of Vine growing and Principles of Winemaking programmes and one-day workshops and masterclasses. The latter are delivered by experts with international reputations.

A commercial wine production facility, Plumpton Wine Estate, producing around 30 000 bottles of wine a year in a fully equipped commercial winery, from 8 hectares of vineyard, much of it recently planted.

More: Traditional Georgian Winemaking Museum and 8,000-year-old heritage introduced in Plumpton. Posted on March 26, 2019 by Tamar Chikviladze