You can take someone out of Georgia, but you can’t take Georgia out of them.

Doug Ball is a retired diplomat from Portland, Oregon. He served as USAID/Georgia Mission Director from 2015 to 2018.

During their time in Georgia, Doug and his wife Janet fell in love with the culture, including the wine.

“I can’t tell you how much we miss Georgia,” Doug said from his home in Portland.

Eventually it became time to leave, but they decided to take a little piece of Georgia home with them. They bought four qvevris and started building their own marani back home in Portland.

The project has been a way to stay connected with the country that means so much to them:

“I don't think I ever really intended for this project to become so complicated. But as I got into digging out the crawl space under my house and collecting bricks, one thing led to another and the concept for creating an authentic Georgian marani blossomed into what Janet affectionately calls ‘Doug's Folly.’

Now, when Doug and Janet receive guests at their house, they are pleased to offer qvevri wine as part of an authentic Georgian supra.