ARCHIVETbilvino Turns Georgian Chess History Into a Wine Brand Moment
Champion Wine from Georgia is a 2021 audio, content, and film campaign created by Hans & Gruber for Georgian wine producer Tbilvino, connecting Nona Gaprindashvili's landmark 1978 chess Grandmaster achievement to Tbilvino Saperavi's 2020 Champion Red Wine title in London to position the brand as a symbol of Georgian excellence on the world stage.
Tbilvino launched the campaign in Georgia in August 2021. The creative premise rests on a parallel between two historic firsts: Nona Gaprindashvili becoming the world's first female chess player to earn the Grandmaster title among men in 1978, and Tbilvino Saperavi claiming the Champion Red Wine title at a prestigious London competition in 2020, described by Tbilvino as the first such achievement in Georgian wine history. By placing these two milestones side by side, Hans & Gruber constructed a brand narrative that is less about product attributes and more about national character — the Georgian capacity to compete, endure, and win at the highest international level.
In Georgia, where wine culture stretches back more than eight thousand years and national identity is deeply entangled with viticulture, the campaign's emotional logic is precise. The central proposition, as documented on adsoftheworld.com, is direct: follow your goals, overcome obstacles, change the world, and do not forget where you came from. That four-part maxim doubles as a brand philosophy. Tbilvino is not positioned simply as a quality Saperavi producer but as a vessel for Georgian perseverance. The campaign spans audio, content, and film — a multi-channel architecture suited to narrative storytelling rather than promotional messaging — and was produced by Kio Productions under the creative leadership of Hans & Gruber.
ARCHIVEGeorgia exported a record number of wine bottles in 2021. According to Wine Gov Ge, Georgia exported 107 million 750 ml bottles of wine to 62 countries in 2021, marking a historic high for the independent-Georgian period, with export revenue reaching 250 million US dollars, up 16 percent year over year. That competitive landscape, involving 441 exporting companies according to wine.gov.ge, means differentiation cannot rest on volume or variety alone.
Hans & Gruber's strategic response was to shift the competitive axis from product to provenance, and from provenance to legacy. Tbilvino's head of strategy Maiko Gogiashvili guided a brief that recognised what rational wine communication cannot easily deliver: emotional ownership of a national story. Competitors in the Georgian export market, including Teliani Valley and Château Mukhrani, each carry heritage positioning of their own, but the 2021 campaign claimed something more specific — a documented international championship result tied to an authenticated moment in Georgian sporting history.
The global wine market provides the wider frame. According to Acumen Research and Consulting, the global wine market was valued at 489.3 billion US dollars in 2021 and is forecast to reach 825.5 billion US dollars by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of 6.1 percent between 2022 and 2030. Within that expanding market, Georgian wine occupies a distinctive niche built on indigenous grape varieties, ancient winemaking methods, and a terroir narrative that larger producing nations cannot replicate. Tbilvino's Saperavi scored 97 out of 100 at the 2020 International Wine Challenge, according to Tbilvino Ge, giving the campaign's claims of championship-level quality a verifiable foundation rather than a marketing assertion. The campaign's cultural intelligence lies in fusing that verifiable quality record with a human story that requires no translation across any market Georgia's wines enter.
Davit Borchkadze directed the film at the centre of the Champion Wine from Georgia campaign. The production, executed by Kio Productions, constructs its emotional argument through the juxtaposition of archival and contemporary imagery, drawing the audience from Nona Gaprindashvili's chess victories in 1978 to Tbilvino Saperavi's London podium in 2020. The film's formal logic mirrors its thematic logic: two timelines, two champions, one country.
Creative director Giorgi Kvitatiani and art director Giorgi Maghradze Artman shaped a visual language that balances documentary restraint with deliberate symbolic weight. The chess board and the wine glass are not simply objects in the frame — they function as cultural shorthand for Georgian intellectual and sensory excellence. Copywriter Mariam Koghito Chargazia's script distils the campaign's proposition into the four-line creed that anchors all executions across audio, content, and film channels. The brevity is intentional: a line that can travel across media without dilution.
Graphic designers Sani Orvelashvili and Sofi Tsankashvili handled the visual identity system, while digital managers Tio Zarnadze and Tazo Kvirikadze oversaw the campaign's online distribution. Content manager Nata Zurabashvili coordinated the content strand, and project leader Saba Javashvili held the overall production brief. The ensemble structure — a full agency team operating alongside an independent production company — reflects a campaign that was resourced for storytelling depth rather than tactical reach. The campaign was submitted to the archive on adsoftheworld.com in October 2023, where its record shows 866 views and 1 like as of the archive metadata date, suggesting its primary audience engagement occurred in channels outside the archive system.
No independently verified campaign performance data — including paid reach figures, brand lift studies, or sales attribution metrics — for Champion Wine from Georgia is publicly available. The archive record on adsoftheworld.com documents 866 views, 1 like, and 0 comments as of the submission metadata date, figures that reflect archival cataloguing rather than campaign reach. No coverage of the campaign was identified in Campaign, Ad Age, Adweek, The Drum, or Contagious, as noted by Clapboard's editorial research.
The campaign did receive recognition at KIAF 2021, where it was listed as a finalist in the Use of Music and Animation categories under the title Wine of Georgia, according to clapboard.com. The KIAF 2021 Food & Drink section recorded a score of 37.0, according to clapboard.com. That festival presence confirms the work was submitted for peer evaluation and met a threshold for shortlisting, even without a recorded win.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness rests on the durability of its narrative architecture. By anchoring Tbilvino's 2020 London championship to a story — Nona Gaprindashvili's 1978 Grandmaster title — that predates the brand's modern era, Hans & Gruber gave the campaign a historical depth that pure product advertising cannot manufacture. The Tbilvino Saperavi 2018 vintage's score of 97 out of 100 at the 2020 International Wine Challenge, according to tbilvino.ge, adds a traceable quality credential that supports the championship claim without overstating it. Clapboard scores the Champion Wine from Georgia campaign 63 out of 100, reflecting strong conceptual cohesion and credible sourcing of its central metaphor, offset by limited documented market impact and modest archival engagement.
Champion Wine from Georgia is a 2021 audio, content, and film campaign created by Hans & Gruber for Tbilvino. It connects Nona Gaprindashvili's 1978 chess Grandmaster title to Tbilvino Saperavi's 2020 Champion Red Wine award in London, positioning the brand as a symbol of Georgian excellence and perseverance on the international stage.
Hans & Gruber created the campaign for Tbilvino. Creative director Giorgi Kvitatiani led the creative team, director Davit Borchkadze helmed the film, and Kio Productions handled production. Project leader Saba Javashvili oversaw the full brief, with head of strategy Maiko Gogiashvili shaping the campaign's cultural intelligence approach.
Gaprindashvili became the world's first female chess player to earn the Grandmaster title among men in 1978. Hans & Gruber used her historic achievement to parallel Tbilvino Saperavi's 2020 London championship, framing both as expressions of Georgian ambition and international competitiveness rooted in cultural identity and national pride.
Tbilvino Saperavi won the Champion Red Wine title at a prestigious London competition in 2020. Tbilvino describes this as the first such achievement in Georgian wine history. The Saperavi 2018 vintage also scored 97 out of 100 at the 2020 International Wine Challenge, according to tbilvino.ge, supporting the campaign's quality claims.
The campaign was a KIAF 2021 finalist in the Use of Music and Animation categories, entered under the title Wine of Georgia, according to clapboard.com. No win was recorded. No coverage appeared in major trade publications including Campaign, Ad Age, or Adweek, limiting its documented reach within the international advertising press.
Clapboard scores the Champion Wine from Georgia campaign 63 out of 100. The score reflects strong conceptual cohesion and credible use of Georgia's chess history as a brand metaphor, offset by limited publicly documented market impact and modest engagement figures on the adsoftheworld.com archive record.
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