Soso Vanishvili owns vineyards and a family wine cellar in Ateni village of Gori municipality. The winemaker has had the love for vine since childhood, which later turned into a business. In 2010, after planting vineyards, he set up a family winery, and began processing the harvest and bottling the wine.
Ateni is the only registered sparkling wine in the region, solely produced by Chateau Ateni now. In 2020, Chateau Ateni was awarded as Georgia’s Best Small Winery of the Year.
Taking the business to the next level, and responding to the great visitor demand, the winery faced the need to construct cottages. In partnership with Basisbank, three new cottages were built at Chateau Ateni in 2023, allowing the winemaker to accommodate both local guests and international visitors.
“Over the years, we had our guests saying they would not suffice with just day trips to the Chateau and that they would love to stay overnight. So that has brought us to the idea of building cottages. That became possible in cooperation with Basisbank. I would like to note that the project turned out to be quite successful: we have a lot of demand, and sometimes when we are fully booked, we have to tell visitors to come back another time. Basisbank is our reliable financial partner, and together with it I think we can expand, add cottages and host even more guests at our Chateau.” – Soso Vanishvili, founder of Chateau Ateni, said.
“Supporting small entrepreneurship is one of the priority areas for Basisbank. Our involvement benefited the development of Chateau Ateni and the construction of new cottages. Our individual approach to the business idea and the continued partnership with the winemaker resulted in the three new cottages added to the Chateau.
I wish success to the entrepreneur and I hope we will be able to implement many more projects in our region,” Giga Kotuashvili, Regional manager of Basisbank, said.
Video story of partnership between Basisbank and Chateau Ateni