Georgia brought nearly 20 wine producers to London’s “The Ultimate CEE Wine Fair” this month, the National Wine Agency said, as early 2026 exports to the United Kingdom climbed 8 percent over the same stretch last year. Between January and May, the country shipped up to 125,000 liters of wine to the UK, a number the agency is pointing to as evidence that a long-running marketing push in London is paying off. The festival appearance, the year-to-date volume, and the partnerships behind both fit a single through-line: Georgia has been spending on the UK market for more than a decade, and the early 2026 numbers are the most recent measurement of a campaign the agency has been running since 2013.
The London push runs through one local channel: the UK marketing company Swirl Wine Group, headed by Master of Wine Sarah Abbott. The agency has worked with the firm since 2015, and its April 2026 launch statement sets out tasting seminars, exhibitions, and media buys aimed at British trade.
Inside the London Festival Booth
Nearly 20 Georgian wine-producing companies poured at the festival, where visitors could taste “various varieties of wine from nearly 20 Georgian wine-producing companies,” the National Wine Agency said in its 19 June 2026 announcement of the London festival. The fair brings together winemakers from Central and Eastern European countries. That setup gives Georgia a trade audience its domestic push alone cannot reach. The London festival rounds out a string of UK-facing appearances the agency has run in 2026.
A separate Georgian wine masterclass ran alongside the festival, featuring wines “that have won various international competitions,” per the agency. Roughly 40 representatives from the media, commercial, and HoReCa sectors (the trade shorthand for hotels, restaurants, and catering) attended the session. The session’s curated pour list is the agency’s pitch to sommeliers, importers, and journalists in a single sitting.
- Up to 125,000 liters of Georgian wine exported to the UK, January-May 2026
- 8% increase over the same January-May period in 2025
- Nearly 20 Georgian wine-producing companies at the London festival
- Roughly 40 media, commercial, and HoReCa representatives at the masterclass
- Masterclass featured wines that have won various international competitions
The festival runs alongside the year’s broader UK program. The work brings Georgian producers, masterclasses, and competition wins into a single London room to brief sommeliers, importers, and journalists in one sitting. The campaign runs through the rest of 2026. The Swirl Wine Group program runs alongside other UK appearances, and the agency is treating 2026 as one coordinated push.
The Decade Behind This Push
Georgia’s London play is not new. The National Wine Agency has run targeted advertising and marketing campaigns in Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia since 2013. The UK has sat on its strategic list since 2014, when the agency first flagged Britain as a “potentially growing strategic export market.” The European work has included parallel pushes in other major markets, with Germany among the more recent additions to the same marketing playbook.
- 2013: National Wine Agency begins international campaigns in Europe, Americas, and Southeast Asia.
- 2014: UK named a strategic Georgian wine export market.
- 2015: National Wine Agency begins working with Swirl Wine Group in the UK.
- 2026: UK designated a priority export market with increased promotional investment.
The work in London runs through one local partner. That partner has been the same since 2015. Swirl Wine Group is a UK-based marketing company led by Master of Wine Sarah Abbott. The April 2026 announcement lays out the year’s UK calendar with tasting seminars, exhibitions, advertising, and wine tours. The 2026 calendar builds on the same UK program the agency has run for eleven years.
The sequence the agency has run is worth marking on its own. The 2013 launch of international campaigns was the start of a broader export push across the Americas, Europe, and Southeast Asia. The 2014 designation of the UK as a strategic market followed shortly after. The 2015 Swirl partnership locked in a single channel for that work, with the same firm briefing the same trade for the next eleven years.
Each London stop on the festival circuit slots into the same trade funnel the agency has been building since 2013. The agency has not treated any single event as a finish line. The June appearance sits inside a coordinated push that already covered Wine Paris in February and the London Wine Fair in May.
What 125,000 Liters and 8 Percent Signal
January through May exports hit “up to 125 thousand liters” in 2026, an 8 percent rise over the same period last year, the agency said. The agency does not break out the value of those shipments, so it is not clear how price changes contributed to volume growth. The agency is publishing the liter figure as the headline metric. The 8 percent figure, taken from the agency’s own release, is the cleanest read on whether the UK push is gaining traction in 2026. The agency’s framing leaves the dollar sign off the announcement, leaving volume as the headline metric.
Britain is one slice of the agency’s broader international campaign footprint. The UK has stayed on the strategic list since 2014, when the agency first flagged it as a “potentially growing strategic export market.” British trade buyers, sommeliers, and journalists shape demand in markets that follow British wine writing.
For 2026, the agency has put real money behind that logic. It has designated the UK a “priority export market” with increased promotional investment for the year, per the UK Georgian wine trade and events portal. The priority designation sits alongside the Swirl-led campaign, the festival circuit, and the volume figures as part of one coordinated pitch.
How the UK Program Operates in 2026
The 2026 UK campaign is run by Swirl Wine Group on financial support from the National Wine Agency. Sarah Abbott MW heads the local team. The work runs across four channels the agency has named explicitly, each tied to a different segment of British wine trade.
The agency has published the full list of activities for 2026. Tasting seminars will run in UK cities through the year. Exhibitions include both UK shows and international fairs where British buyers attend. Advertising and media buys round out the program.
- Tasting seminars held in cities across the UK.
- Georgian wine presented at international exhibitions.
- Targeted advertising and media campaigns.
- Wine tours in Georgia for media, sommeliers, and sales representatives.
The travel-into-Georgia leg of the program is the piece most readers miss. Bringing British journalists and buyers to Georgia’s vineyards lets the agency brief them in person. That sidesteps the noise of competing wine marketing on a London trade floor.
Each channel targets a different audience. Seminars land with trade buyers. Tours land with journalists who shape British wine coverage. The combined effect is what the agency is calling an “expanded UK programme” for 2026.
Where the 2026 Calendar Goes From Here
London has already seen two other Georgian wine pushes this year. In February 2026, Georgian producers exhibited at Wine Paris with a stand in Pavilion 4. In May, fourteen Georgian wine producers ran a stand and daily masterclasses at the London Wine Fair at Olympia London, on Stand E40.
The June CEE Wine Fair appearance caps a string of UK-facing events. The agency has framed 2026 as the year the UK program gets real budget behind it. The agency’s own marketing site describes the year as one of expanded promotional investment in Britain. The next read on the campaign’s progress will come in the second-half export data, when the year-to-date comparison expands. Until then, the festival circuit and the 8 percent volume figure are the cleanest evidence available on the 2026 push.
