VIDEO ABOUT FORUM & WINES

Georgia Cradle of Wine

9th ANNUAL

GHVINO

FORUM

OF

AMERICA

On March 11-12, 2026 the America-Georgia Business Council hosted 9th annual Ghvino Forum in Philadelphia.  Forum included multiple events.

On March 11, the Ghvino Forum hosted educational seminar and wine tasting at Rex at the Royal, hosted by Dr. Jill Weber and Dr. Arindam Basu. Participants included sommeliers, restaurateurs, media representatives, influencers. Hosts described different wine regions of Georgia and presented wines from multiple Georgian producers, made with different methods of winemaking, including wines made in qvevri.

The central event of the Forum was a conference at the Museum of History and Archeology at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on origin, history, economics and business of wine. The conference participants honored the life and legacy of the late Professor Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania - the world-renowned biomolecular archaeologist whose groundbreaking research helped confirm Georgia’s 8,000-year winemaking history. Speakers included Professor Steve Batiuk, University of Toronto, Dr. Ian Tattersal, American Museum of National History, Justin Seibert, President, Direct Online Marketing

Dr. Bill Schindler, Co-Founder, Modern Stone Age Kitchen/Archeologist, Author, Chef,  Dr. Jill Weber, Founder and Owner of Sojourn Phill Restaurant Group/Archeologist, Arindam Basu, PhD, DipWSET and Owner/operator of Perfect Pour Experience LLC, Paul Yanon, Vice President, Colangelo and Partners, Noel Brockett, President, Georgian Wine House DC. The conference took place on March 12.

On March 11 and March 12 conference participants and invited guests had an opportunity to pair Georgian wines from multiple varietals and from different producers with best examples of Georgian gastronomy at popular restaurants in Philadelphia: Sakartvelo and Kinto.    

Discover the Origins of Wine -Where History Meets the Future

March 11–12 | Philadelphia, PA

Ghvino Forum 2026 Activities Include

March 11

Seminar and tasting for the trade and media representatives

When: March 11, 12:30-14:00

for trade and media only

Dinner for conference speakers and invited guests

When: March 11, 18:00-21:00

March 12

Conference

History, Geography, Economy, and Politics of Wines in Georgia and Beyond

Celebrating Life and Legacy of Professor Patrick McGovern

Where: Widener Lecture Hall, Penn Museum, 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA 19104

When: March 12, 13:00 – 16:00

Many Colors of Georgian Wines: White, Amber, Red and Black

Georgian Food and Wine Festival

Where: Restaurant Kinto, 1144 Frankford Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125

When: March 12, 18:00-21:00

! Guests must be at least 21 years old to attend the wine tasting!

The event is supported by the National Wine Agency of Georgia

GEORGIA: THE ORIGIN OF WINE

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

In November 2017, the National Academy of Sciences released a report, Early Neolithic Wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus. Authored by Patrick McGovern and other prominent scientists, this report documents the research project conducted by an international team of scientists which confirmed the beginnings of viticulture and winemaking can be traced to around 6000 B.C., in Georgia.

Previous evidence suggested that the earliest signs of winemaking dated to around 5400 – 5000 B.C. in Iran, but this latest project re-examined sites in Georgia at Shulaveris Gora and Gadachrili Gora, 50km south of Tbilisi, using new techniques, and found wine residues from the interiors of eight large jars from the early Neolithic sites. The project was undertaken by scientists from the US, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Israel and Georgia and fully funded by the Government of Georgia.

Using the most up-to-date technology, the team was able to establish the fingerprint compound for grape and wine (tartaric acid) and three associated organic acids (malic, succinic and citric), demonstrating that the Eurasian grapevine (Vitis vinifera) was present in what is now Georgia, in early Neolithic times, and growing in ideal conditions. The team also found that the quantity of wine the jars could hold – upwards of 300 liters each – suggests that the grapevine had been domesticated and was being cloned and transported using horticultural techniques.

These results not only set the dates for the earliest production of wine, but perhaps most significantly, just how important wine was in the social setting of the earliest periods of human sedentary village life and that it has remained much so to this day.“

Early Neolithic Wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus is published online at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences at the United States of America (PNAS).

The earliest biomolecular archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence for grape wine and viniculture from the Near East, ca. 6,000–5,800 BC during the early Neolithic Period, was obtained by applying state-of-the-art archaeological, archaeobotanical, climatic, and chemical methods to newly excavated materials from two sites in Georgia in the South Caucasus. Wine is central to civilization as we know it in the West. As a medicine, social lubricant, mind-altering substance, and highly valued commodity, wine became the focus of religious cults, pharmacopeias, cuisines, economies, and society in the ancient Near East. This wine culture subsequently spread around the globe. Viniculture illustrates human ingenuity in developing horticultural and winemaking techniques, such as domestication, propagation, selection of desirable traits, wine presses, suitable containers and closures, and so on.

Courtesy of: Early Neolithic Wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus - PNAS,114 (48)

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