The legal frame of winemaking in Georgia
The wine business in Georgia is not regulated by a single law: its legal frame unites several interconnected regimes. The central place belongs to the Code on Food/Animal Feed Safety, which determines the status of the business operator, the rules of labelling and the mechanisms of state control; the National Wine Agency is the specialized institution for the control of alcoholic beverages. This page explains what obligations a winemaker has at the stages of registration, labelling, control and export-import.
Registration as a business operator
The first step for every winemaker is the formalization of status. A business operator is obliged to carry out the registration of the relevant activity in the register of economic activities according to the procedure established by the legislation. In the case of the commencement, cessation of the activity and/or any change of registered data connected with it, the operator must apply to the National Agency of the Public Registry in order to make the change. Activity of a business operator without registration is prohibited — this rule applies to every participant of the wine industry.
Registration is complemented by the institution of recognition: recognition is mandatory for a business operator whose activity is connected with food of animal origin and certain other spheres, including those determined by a government resolution. Recognition is carried out by the agency according to the results of inspection, in accordance with the procedure approved by the government, and activity of an operator subject to recognition without recognition is prohibited.
The labelling rules
Before wine is sold, the label is a decisive legal document. Under the code, food intended for sale, animals, plants, animal and plant products and other production must be labelled in accordance with the procedure established by the government. Wine and other alcoholic beverages of grape origin, however, are subject to a special rule — they must be labelled in accordance with the Law of Georgia on Vine and Wine. The conformity of a label with the requirements is established during state control.
One clear prohibition is especially significant: it is impermissible to indicate on the label of food or in an accompanying document any combination of the terms biological, ecological, eco, bio or organic, if the product does not conform to the bio-production rules established by the government and this conformity is not confirmed by a conformity certificate. A claim to organic wine without a certificate is, so to speak, prohibited by law.
Control by the National Wine Agency
The specialized institution of state control in the sphere of alcoholic beverages is the public-law legal entity, the National Wine Agency. It is authorized to exercise state control at the stages of production and processing of alcoholic beverages, ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin and distillate of agricultural origin in the following forms: monitoring; documentary inspection; sampling and conducting examinations in an accredited laboratory; and issuance of a conformity certificate.
This means that a winemaker must be ready for all four forms of control at any time: monitoring may be continuous in nature, and documentary inspection requires that every production and warehouse operation be documented. Sampling in an accredited laboratory is precisely the mechanism through which the conformity of production is objectively verified.
General obligations of the business operator
The code obliges the business operator to ensure the conformity of food with the requirements at the stages of production, processing and distribution. Where the operator has a substantiated doubt that food produced or placed on the market by it does not conform to the requirements, it must immediately take measures to prevent its placing on the market or to withdraw what has already been placed, and where necessary to withdraw what has been supplied to the consumer; measures taken must be immediately reported in writing to the agency. It is impermissible to place on the market production that does not satisfy the established requirements.
Export-import requirements
For wine export the main rule is this: production intended for export must satisfy the requirements of the importing country. For such export, the relevant agencies issue hygienic, veterinary and phytosanitary certificates, while the National Wine Agency issues a conformity certificate for alcoholic beverages, ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin and distillate.
On the import side: production imported into Georgia must conform to the requirements defined by Georgian legislation; and production re-exported from Georgia must conform to the requirements established by the code, unless the receiving country requires otherwise. These norms give international operations of the winemaker a legal foundation and oblige the exporter to study in advance the rules of the destination country.
Practical conclusions for the winemaker
If you are building a wine business: register as a business operator and register the activity in the register of economic activities; assess whether your activity requires recognition; observe the labelling rules — for wine, those established by the law on vine and wine; do not use organic terminology without a certificate; be ready for all four forms of control by the National Wine Agency; and study the requirements of the importing country before starting export. This complete list is exactly the minimum that the law of Georgian winemaking requires. Legal.ge.