Vladimir Boisa and his line of alcoholic drinks. Foto: Personal archive
Vladimir Boisa and his line of alcoholic drinks. Foto: Personal archive


Boisa was born in 1981 in Georgia and came to Slovenia as a 17-year-old. He first played for Postojna before moving on to Slovan, and eventually to Olimpija. What followed were moves to Italy, Russia, Greece, the Balearic Islands and Zadar. In 2010 he returned to Ljubljana.

Today the 34-year-old Boisa is married to a Slovenian and has two children. He is no longer active on the court, but still is vice-president of the Georgian Basketball Federation. However in recent months he dedicates most of his time on his second passion – winemaking. He first launched his own wine on the market, and then he launched his Boisa brandy. With the brandy he also hopes to conquer the Slovenian market.

Georgia is better known for its wine rather than its brandy, but Boisa says Georgian brandy, judging by its quality, is among the best in the world.

The winemaking tradition in Georgia is older than eight thousand years and through all those years locals have managed to preserve the tradition. The fact that people recognize and respect that makes Georgians very proud. What makes Georgian wines interesting is that they are made in traditional "qvevris". Most of the wine is also organic.

Boisa stresses that Slovenia is still ahead of Georgia in terms of promoting wine-culinary tourism. Georgia’s post-independence period was very poor and there were no investments in the promotion of wine and culinary. However in recent years a lot has been done in that area and progress is evident. Meanwhile Slovenia's culture of food and drink has been raised to a very high level in the last decade, but is still well behind the Italians.