My Story

From the Alps to the Caucasus

Born and raised in Switzerland, I have always had a passion for travelling. I enjoyed many places around the world, but when I visited Georgia for the first time in 2011, I instantly fell in love with the country. Many more journeys followed, during which I got to know its cities, landscapes, people, culture, and mentality more and more deeply.

At the end of 2019, after 10 years, I decided to leave my main job as CEO of the booking platform Hotelcard and dedicate myself entirely to my side business, a travel agency specialising in the South Caucasus. For this reason, I travelled to Georgia in December with the intention of staying for a whole year. However, it took less than two months before Covid-19 brought the world to a standstill and the travel industry came to a halt.

Despite this, I did not want to cut short my year in Georgia. So I began thinking about new possibilities. Since I had loved working in the garden as a child, but had not been able to pursue this passion later in life, I set out to find a piece of land in Kakheti, my favourite region in Georgia.

In the middle of the Alazani Valley, not far from the village of Sanavardo, I found a place that immediately felt right to me. Part of the land was empty, while another part was covered with vines. The seller told me that a man named Vano had been taking care of the vines and suggested I speak with him. Perhaps we could continue working together. Fortunately, that is exactly what happened.

In the first year, I originally planned to simply sell the grapes. But as summer slowly came to an end, the idea emerged to turn at least part of them into wine. I had absolutely no experience, but with Vano’s help, we brought the grapes into his garden, pressed them by hand, poured the mash into a stainless steel tank, and waited until spring.

To my surprise, the result in the glass was actually quite drinkable. The excitement and passion I felt during the winemaking process completely caught me off guard. And so began a passionate journey filled with learning, experimentation, and new experiences — a journey whose end is thankfully still nowhere in sight.

Founder & Winemaker