Our Story
How It All Began
Long Before the Wine, There Was Fellowship
Like any tight-knit group of friends, we share plenty in common—yet on paper, we couldn’t be more different:
Meet the Fellas
- Giorgi is an ornithologist, university professor, and conservationist at one of Georgia’s leading NGOs.
- Aleksandre is an IT specialist heading operations for a major telecommunications network in Georgia.
- Irakli is a psychiatrist who studied in Georgia before moving to Germany, where he has practiced medicine for the past 17 years.
To the rest of the world, we are professionals, husbands, and fathers. But to each other, we remain what we’ve been since childhood—the Ugly Fellas. The nickname started as a joke between boys. Decades passed, careers took off, but the bond—and the name—stuck.
And eventually, it found its place on our wine bottles.
The First Fella
Giorgi was the one who started it all. Born in Telavi, he fulfilled a dream by purchasing a small plot in Kvemo Khodasheni.
When the adjacent plot went up for sale, Giorgi reached out to Irakli in Germany, who instantly saw the vision. Aleksandre stepped in soon after, completing the trio—and three friends became owners of one shared vineyard.
We didn’t set out with a grand business strategy. We simply wanted to answer one crucial question: What are the Fellas going to drink when we meet up? The answer to the dilemma was simple—we make wine, and we drink it.
Naturally, it had to be Ugly Fellas’ Wine.
The Joke That Became a Brand
We never intended to build a commercial winery; we just wanted authentic, natural wine for our own table. Then our yields grew beyond what three fellas could reasonably drink. We started sharing bottles with close friends, those friends shared them with theirs, word spread, and the bottles kept moving.
The joke grew up. The fellowship stayed the same.
The joke grew up, but the spirit never shifted. Today, we still craft raw Georgian wine for ourselves, our inner circle, and anyone who appreciates honest wine made without shortcuts.