Why it matters
The producer
Baia's Wine is a family winery in Obcha, a small village in the Bagdati Municipality of Imereti, Georgia's central-western wine region. Baia Abuladze, her sister Gvantsa, and their brother Giorgi grow, ferment, and bottle every wine from their family's vineyards. The estate is among the first organic wine producers in Bagdati Municipality, working exclusively with indigenous Imereti grape varieties: Tsolikouri, Tsitska, Krakhuna, Aladasturi, and Otskhanuri Sapere.
Baia and her siblings grew up in Obcha watching their parents and grandparents make wine, and the family's involvement with winemaking spans three generations. After completing agronomical studies in Tbilisi, Baia returned home to build a commercial winery around that inheritance. Gvantsa joined later, bringing experience from a European Voluntary Service placement in Sweden, and now manages wine production alongside developing the winery's tourism presence. Giorgi rounds out the team, and the three run every stage of production themselves, from selecting grape clusters in the family's Obcha vineyards to ageing the wine in the family cellar.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Imereti stretches across central-western Georgia, east of the Greater Caucasus foothills. The region has its own winemaking tradition distinct from Kakheti to the east: Imeretian winemakers typically use less skin contact than Kakhetian amber wine producers, though Baia's Wine extends that contact considerably beyond the regional norm.
Obcha village sits within Bagdati Municipality, a rural sub-district where the winery became one of the first to pursue organic certification. Georgia itself is considered the birthplace of wine, with winemaking artifacts dating back more than 8,000 years, and the qvevri, the buried clay vessel used for fermentation and ageing at Baia's Wine, is one of the oldest fermentation technologies associated with that history.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The vineyards are in Obcha, and the family selects each grape cluster by hand from their own plots. All fermentation and ageing happens in the family cellar, where the trio work without outside labour. The winery is certified organic, eliminating synthetic treatments in what was pioneer territory for Bagdati Municipality.
The fermentation vessels are qvevri, the traditional Georgian buried clay amphorae that maintain a steady cool temperature through the fermentation period. Maceration times vary by wine: the signature Tsolikouri-Tsitska-Krakhuna blend spends 15 days on the skins; the single-varietal Tsitska goes through a full month of skin-contact fermentation followed by six months in qvevri without skin contact. For some wines, maceration extends to three months, with each qvevri treated individually. The family tastes from each vessel to decide when the wine is ready to move on. Sulfite additions stay low: the signature blend is bottled at 32 mg/L.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range is built entirely from indigenous Imereti varieties, bottled as either blends or single-varietal expressions. The signature white, available at Systembolaget as Baia's Wine Tsitska Tsolikauri Krakhuna, blends 60% Tsolikouri with 20% Tsitska and 20% Krakhuna, all given 15 days of skin contact in qvevri. It is the clearest statement of the house approach: a short maceration, enough skin contact for colour and tannin, less than the extended extraction of the more concentrated single-varietal wines.
Tsolikouri is also bottled as a single variety, available as Baia's Wine Tsolikouri Qvevri Wine, vinified in qvevri with the house's characteristic low-sulfite approach. Krakhuna appears as its own bottling, offering the variety's character without the blending softness of the signature wine. Aladasturi and Otskhanuri Sapere extend the range into red and pink territory, with Otskhanuri Sapere also appearing in a rosé pet-nat under the Gvantsa's Wine label alongside a Tsitska pet-nat. The Gvantsa's Wine label is a distinct product line run by the same family.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
The Tsitska Tsolikouri Krakhuna blend is the right first bottle. It is the signature wine of the estate: three indigenous Imereti varieties fermented together for 15 days on the skins in qvevri, bottled at 32 mg/L of sulfites. The short maceration delivers enough tannin and amber colour to mark it clearly as a qvevri wine while keeping the fruit vivid enough to show what Tsolikouri and its companions taste like before extended extraction takes over. Tsitska brings acidity and floral lift; Krakhuna adds weight and texture; Tsolikouri, the majority grape, carries the stone fruit and length. The wine shows why Georgia's buried-clay tradition produces something fundamentally different from skin-contact wines made elsewhere.