Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia, said today in Tbilisi: “It is very important that Georgian wine is present in New York, Los Angeles, Europe…In Europe it is a passport of European identity and Christian culture.”

According to reports by the Georgian wine website news.hvino.com, a fortnight ago Saakashvili proposed the creation of a vineyard close to Tbilisi International Airport.

He said: "I asked the municipality to allocate a big land plot next to the airport, where we will create a large vineyard, so that the first thing a guest sees when he[\she] arrives is a vineyard.

“We will give all the guests a small bottle of wine, so they take it back home as a souvenir. We must teach children how to make wine in Georgia. There should not be a single piece of uncultivated land left where a vineyard could be made. I am really fascinated by winemaking. This is part of our national ideology.”

According to news.hvino.com, the president bought a vineyard in the Kakheti region in Eastern Georgia in 2011.