Georgian orange wine – or amber wine – is traditionally made from native grapes in buried clay qvevri. The wines offer the structure of red, the brightness of white, and a sense of history that spans millennia. They are some of the world’s most distinctive and delicious wines for wine lovers to explore.

Where does orange wine sit between white, rosé and red?

Not so long ago, wine lists were divided between red, white, sparkling and sweet. In the past two decades, rosé and orange wines have joined that line-up, each developing a distinct following.

To understand orange wine, it helps to see where it sits on a spectrum. If modern reds and whites occupy opposite ends, rosé and orange meet near the centre. Rosé leans towards white: it’s a white wine made from red grapes, served and drunk like a white. Orange leans towards red: a red-style wine made from white grapes, best served and enjoyed like a light red.

Another name for orange wine is skin-contact or skin-macerated wine. In Georgia, qvevri-made orange wine has a history reaching back around 8,000 years, making it one of the world’s oldest continuously practiced winemaking traditions.

The defining element of an orange wine isn’t the colour but the method: fermenting and ageing white grapes with their skins, just as red wines are made, to extract tannin, texture and depth.

What is qvevri winemaking?

In Georgia, qvevri (pronounced KWEH-vree) is the vessel at the heart of traditional orange-wine production – although today only a small fraction of the country’s total wine output is made in qvevri.

Made by hand from clay, qvevri vary in size: the largest hold 1,500–2,000 litres and are typically used for fermentation, while smaller ones of around 800 litres are often reserved for maturation. Once buried in the ground, they provide natural temperature regulation throughout fermentation. This ancient practice is so integral to Georgian identity that qvevri winemaking is recognised by UNESCO as part of the world’s intangible cultural heritage.

The traditional process begins with crushing the grapes – often including the stems – and pouring everything into the qvevri. The must is stirred daily to ensure even extraction, and fermentation may last up to forty days. Once it finishes, the skins and seeds settle to the bottom, forming the chacha or gross lees. The qvevri is then sealed and left through the winter. In spring, the clay lid is broken open and the wine is drawn off, often into smaller qvevri for ageing.

This combination of buried clay vessels and indigenous Georgian grapes defines traditional-style Georgian orange wines. Similar wines can certainly be made in oak, concrete or stainless steel, and while they can still be excellent, arguably few replicate the qvevri’s distinctive texture and balance.

Major Georgian orange wine regions

Three regions dominate Georgian orange-wine production:

Kakheti, in the south-east, produces around three-quarters of the country’s wine. Grapes are often fermented with stems, giving deep, savoury styles with firm tannins and remarkable longevity.

Kartli, around Tbilisi, sits between Kakheti and Imereti and produces slightly lighter, more delicate wines with less grip but greater freshness.

Imereti, closer to the Black Sea, uses smaller qvevri and generally omits stems, yielding fresher, softer orange wines with a lighter touch.

Georgian grape varieties for orange wine

The tannin in orange wine comes from the skins and stems of the grape, so both grape variety and winemaking technique shape the final structure. Around thirty native Georgian grapes are grown commercially, but the most common for orange wines are Rkatsiteli, Kisi, Mtsvane, Khikhvi and Tsolikouri.

Rkatsiteli (er-kaht-see-TEH-lee) – Georgia’s most planted grape and one of its most versatile. Produces orange wines with balanced acidity, fine tannins and spice.

Kisi (KEE-see) – gentler and higher in acidity, with a more supple structure.

Mtsvane (mts-VAH-neh, Mtsvane Kakhuri) – bold and structured, with firm tannins and herbal, waxy notes that soften with age.

Khikhvi (k’HIK-vee) – rare but distinctive, marked by floral, honeyed characters.

Tsolikouri (tsoh-lee-KOO-ree) – the key variety in western Imereti, making graceful, refreshing orange wines with delicate fruit and bright acidity.

How to pair orange wine with food

Orange wines have flavours and textures unfamiliar to many western drinkers, and tasting one for the first time can feel like discovering a new cuisine. They behave more like light reds than whites, and the best orange wine food pairings reflect that mix of tannin, texture and savoury depth.

As a result, it can be hard to know how to serve Georgian orange wines or what to pair them with. In general, they work well with dishes that might suit either a fuller white or a light red.

Roast pork is an excellent choice, its richness complementing the dried-fruit and golden-apple notes typical of Kakhetian orange wines. Orange wines also pair beautifully with Georgian walnut-based dishes, as well as aubergine, tahini, pulses and chickpeas. They flatter gently spiced North African and Middle Eastern vegetable dishes like tagines and work well with nut-based or ghee-rich curries.

They can complement certain Asian cuisines, particularly those using miso, sesame or soy, but tend to clash with chilli or wasabi, which heighten tannin and dryness. Their medium to full body can overwhelm delicate seafood, although richer, spiced fish dishes such as Sardinian sarde a beccafico (stuffed sardines) can work well.

How to serve orange wine

Use large glasses and serve it cool but not fridge-cold, as you would a light red. Over-chilling emphasises tannin and mutes aroma – the bottle should feel cool to the touch, but not icy. The wines often open up with air, so take your time and you’ll get the most out of one of the world’s most unique and delicious wine styles.

Georgian orange wines: Nine to try

Try eight qvevri-aged and one steel-tank-aged orange wine from Georgia. All are available in the UK.

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The marvellous world of orange wines

March 2025 issue: Andrew Jefford on Georgia

Qvevri wines from Georgia: A winemaking story and 12 wines to try

The progress Georgia has made in the last decade is astonishing – on two fronts, in particular.

The first is the country’s work with its genetic treasure chest of grape varieties. On my first visit in 2013, these seemed a research curiosity, and their widespread adoption and use in the country’s most ambitious wines was tentative. Now, a grand renaissance is underway. Every serious wine producer is crafting an increasing percentage of its leading wines with varieties other than the familiar red Saperavi and white Rkatsiteli. The result is a much wider aesthetic spectrum for Georgian wine than formerly, and many more ways to interpret Georgia’s terroir differences.

The varietal research work, too, under David Maghradze and David Chichua, has accelerated. ‘Every Georgian region has at least five indigenous varieties of its own of real interest, which are already planted and in intense use,’ says Chichua.

I tasted micro-vinified wines made from historic varieties from the western regions of Imereti and Guria on my visit in December 2024 and found the results thrilling, especially for the lush, perfumed white Sakmiela, the tender pale-red Jani, the fresh, urgent red Argvetuli Sapere and the dark, velvety red Skhilatubani. For Decanter readers, as for most Georgians, these will be just a set of strange names at present. The point, though, is that this gene bank not only gives Georgia the wherewithal to build a wine offer of remarkable complexity and diversity for itself, but it constitutes a global resource, too. Our existing ‘classical’ variety set is already climate-challenged, and in any case over-narrow; we may need this resource for the future.

The other astonishing advance is the quality of the best Georgian qvevri wines themselves. I found 12 wines of compelling, gold medal-level quality out of the 126 samples my panel tasted: 11 amber white and one red wine. More importantly I realised these ‘novel’ wines meet accepted global fine-wine criteria of subtlety, balance, layering, textural interest, aromatic complexity, drinkability and innate beauty.

Yes, qvevri amber wines require palates open to the textures, aromas and flavours inherent to this, the sixth genre of wine. Many younger drinkers already have such palates, though, and they will be universal within a decade or two. In a century’s time, Georgia’s top grower and estate qvevri wines will be on the wine lists of the world’s finest restaurants, and will sell on allocation. (For the record, the producers of the 12 wines I particularly liked in the competition were Akhmeteli, Anapea Village, Lagvani, Bakhtrioni with two wines, Damarchine Estate, Danieli, Khareba/Monastery, Mukuzani Wine Cellar, Teliani Valley Glekhuri, 39 Qvevri and Tsinandali Estate.)

On allocation, that is, if Georgia is allowed to continue the path of development it has followed since it regained independence in 1991. Coinciding with my astonishment at Georgia’s wine progress, though, came the political shock of Georgia’s manipulated October 2024 elections and (while we tasted) the violent police response to the demonstrations that followed. The pro-Russian Georgian Dream party, led by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, has shelved EU accession talks and replaced elected President Salome Zourabichvili with its own unelected nominee. Georgia’s political future now looks precarious.

A future of Russian domination would be a disaster for Georgia’s wine community, as it would be for the nation as a whole. Georgia’s winemakers need our help, even if this means no more than stressing Georgia’s importance to our beautiful wine world, and trying a renaissance jewel every now and again.

In my glass this month

In a couple of months, I’ll be tackling one of the key dichotomies in the world of wine: the pulse between ripeness and freshness. If you relish generosity in wine (as I do), the 2021 Petra, Toscana IGT from the Maremma’s coastal Val di Cornia region, is ripely rewarding – a Bordeaux blend packed with burnished bramble fruits and darkly allusive tannins, yet lit from within by glowing late-summer acidity. Regal wine which only improved over a three-day run, underscoring its ageing potential.

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A landlocked country framed in the Caucasus Mountains, Armenia has long been trapped within a tough neighbourhood.

Bordering Turkey to the west, Iran to the south, and Azerbaijan to the south and east, with Russia looming in the distance, this international cul-de-sac in the Caucasus was plagued by political, cultural and religious troubles for generations.

Despite the odds, Armenians have proven resilient, with a fierce dedication to protecting their unique culture and wine heritage, proudly shared with visitors willing to make the trek.

The past is the present

Armenia is a land of superlatives: it was the world’s first Christian nation in 301 A.D. (Georgia followed circa 326 A.D.), maintains one of the oldest languages with a continuous written tradition, and claims the oldest winery so far discovered – at 6,100 years of age. Winemaking runs deep in Armenia, predating the Silk Road.

Though Georgia may have legitimate claims to the tagline ‘cradle of wine’, which it trademarked (in the EU) in 2012, both countries share similarities not just in their vinous legacy but in their dizzying array of indigenous grapes and use of clay amphora (called karas in Armenia and qvevri in Georgia). Yet each followed a different path, not necessarily by choice, to arrive at its modern wine story, resulting in disparate wines and tourism experiences.

The invasion of the Soviet Red Army in 1920 would be the greatest defining factor of Armenia’s 20th-century wine industry. The country was merged with Georgia into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in 1922. In 1936, it became the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic or Soviet Armenia.

The Soviets abolished private enterprise and nationalised industries by forcing republics into economic roles. Georgia specialised in wine production, while Armenia’s grapes were earmarked for brandy distillation. Vineyards sprung up in poor locations to increase volume, while others faced neglect or abandonment.

Since gaining independence in 1991, Armenia’s wine industry has witnessed a renaissance, partly driven by the return of the Armenian diaspora. Winemakers driven by quality have catapulted Armenia into the global wine scene, earning the country its own tagline: the youngest oldest wine industry in the world.

In the last two decades, Armenia has lured renowned ‘flying winemakers’ to its traditions and potential, with luminaries such as Michel Rolland, Paul Hobbs and Alberto Antonini contributing their expertise. From the vineyards of Karas in Armavir to Yacoubian and Zorah in Vayots Dzor, these collaborations signify the sincerity of Armenia’s aspirations.

For a small country, Armenia boasts diverse topography and terroir. The country has catalogued more than 400 indigenous grape varieties. However, its bona fides as a historical winemaking country are interwoven with its tradition of karas amphorae. These large clay vessels, almost lost to the annals of time in the 20th century, have staged a comeback since the mid-2000s.

Traditionally, winemakers bury two-thirds of these amphorae underground, providing natural temperature control, a method employed over 3,000 years ago in the Kingdom of Urartu.

Today, as more wineries experiment with the karas method, Armenia carves a niche as a guardian of its traditions while pushing the boundaries of contemporary wine styles.

Armenian wine regions

Armenia has six historical wine-growing regions, including Artsakh. Today, the country has five: Vayots Dzor, Aragatsotn, Armavir, Ararat, and Tavush. Of those five, the first three offer the best opportunities for fine wine, sightseeing, and hospitality.

Vayots Dzor

Vayots Dzor, located along a south-central swath of narrow plateau, elevated Armenia’s international reputation for quality wine. Winemaker Vahe Keushguerian dubbed it the Mendoza of Armenia.

The key grapes grown here are Areni for red and sparkling and Voskehat for white. Many compare Areni to a fuller-bodied Pinot Noir or a slimmed-down Grenache for its red fruit aromas, lively acidity and silky tannins. Agile Voskehat, known for floral, citrus, orchard fruit notes, produces clean and bright styles and savoury textural wines, especially when aged in karas.

Many wineries in Armenia buy grapes from Vayots Dzor because grapes thrive in the region’s volcanic soils and cooler climate. Viticulture in the region remained unbroken during the Soviet era, as it was deemed too far away and too cold to bother sourcing grapes for brandy. These same features have protected vines from phylloxera. Vineyards are planted on their own roots at high elevations, some vineyards nearing 1,800 metres above sea level.

Visually, Vayots Dzor features a striking topography of mountains and valleys. The wines mirror that grandeur in quality, complexity and age-worthiness. Though only a few wineries have visitor facilities, it’s worth making a day trip or spending the night for a few experiences.

NOA Wine in Aghavnadzor offers a rustic tasting experience better suited to the countryside than a contemporary winery. A vine-covered pergola shades a stone patio with views of the mountains framing leafy vineyards. NOA produces wine from 100% estate-grown, organic fruit which visitors can taste by appointment. Staff welcome guests with Armenia’s trademark hospitality: a picnic table covered in tangy local cheeses, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from Ararat Valley, aromatic herbs such as purple basil, and lavash, a traditional flatbread used for rolling ‘sandwiches’.

Near NOA sit two of the region’s prime attractions: the Areni-1 wine cave complex and the 13th-century Noravank monastery. Regarded as the oldest known winery in the world, Areni-1 was excavated after archaeologists discovered human skulls and a Copper Age leather shoe. Visitors pay a small fee for the tour, while the monastery, perched dramatically on an ochre-hued cliff deep in a valley, is free.

Back in Yerevan, hit the bars of Saryan Street to taste wines from Vayots Dzor. Look for the traditional method sparkling wines from Keush and still dry reds and whites from Zulal, both made by Vahe Keushguerian. Keushguerian, a champion of indigenous grapes, has helped revitalise and modernise the wine industry, while serving as an international ambassador for the country. Other premium boutique brands to seek include Yacoubian-Hobbs and Zorah.

Aragatsotn

Located in the northwest corner of the country, Aragatsotn (meaning ‘foot of Aragats’) has received significant investment in recent years, both in expanding vineyards and constructing modern wineries. Coupled with its proximity to Yerevan, Aragatsotn presents an attractive day trip option. Compared to Vayots Dzor, vineyards sit at significantly lower elevations ranging from 1,100-1,400 metres above sea level. Most of the soil is volcanic, the result of ancient lava flows from Mount Aragats. The main grapes grown in Aragatsotn include Areni, Voskehat plus Rkatsiteli, and the more obscure Kangun, Haghtanak and Karmrahyut. Two wine and hospitality experiences stand out in Aragatsotn: Van Ardi and Voskevaz Winery.

Founded in 2008, Van Ardi enjoys views of Mount Aragats in the distance. Guests can sit on the patio with a lunch of lake trout or lamb paired with Syrah (grown from California cuttings), Areni, Voskehat and Kangun, a local white grape with floral and tropical aromas.

The family behind Voskevaz renovated the oldest functioning winery in Armenia, dating to 1932, into an ersatz medieval village. Tour the old tank rooms, now a museum, filled with Soviet-era relics and antiques. Voskevaz makes excellent wines, specialising in karas-aged old-vine Voskehat and Areni.

Armavir

In the fertile Ararat plain due west of Yerevan sits Armavir. At 900-1,100 metres, the ruddy, semi-desert landscape speaks to the climate: sunbaked and dry. In peak summer, temperatures can reach 48°C. Meanwhile, plummeting mercury in winter forces wineries to bury vines. It’s a harsh landscape for fine wine, and much of the grape crop funnels to the brandy industry.

Rising from the volcanic soil near the Turkish border sits the modern glass and steel façade of Karas Wines. Founded in 2000, the Argentine-Armenian owners, also winemakers in Patagonia, invited Michel Rolland to help establish the brand. Karas has since grown into an international company.

My perfect weekend in Armenia

Saturday

Morning

Yerevan’s fantastic café culture emphasises style and substance. Start the day as locals do and post up at Afrolab. Whether craving a Kenyan pour-over or an espresso, grab a seat in the sun to enjoy it. Meet your city guide Arpi Yeganyan, owner of Wild Adventures Armenia. With a specialisation in wine, she’ll help navigate the city’s oldest winemaking neighbourhood. Founded in the 13th century, the Norq features a labyrinth of unmarked streets and buildings, making the area difficult to explore independently. You’ll visit the gardens and cellar of a local winemaker, one of many built in the 1880s, then head for a cellar tour, wine tasting and lunch at Norqi Keghar winery. Founded in 1877, it makes white wine from Voskehat using karas and Armenian oak barrels.

Afternoon

After lunch, you’ll visit several attractions, including Victory Park, the statue of Mother Armenia, the Opera theatre and the fascinating manuscript museum, Matenadaran. At dusk, climb the 572 steps (or ride the escalator) of the Cascade Complex, one of the city’s most beautiful and iconic pieces of architecture cut from Travertine stone into an Art Deco masterpiece. Inside, the Cafesjian Center for the Arts holds over 5,000 modern artworks, mainly from the collection of Gerard Cafesjian.

Evening

Discover Armenian cuisine at Sherep Restaurant. Tuck into hearty plates of soups, skewered meats, grilled vegetables, dips, fresh lavash and other typical dishes. Despite a reputation for meat, Armenia is heaven for vegetarians. Start exploring Armenian wine at Decant wine bar. The owner specialises in Armenia’s best boutique bottles and Champagne. Take advantage of the excellent map of Armenia’s key wine regions and grapes in the back.

Sunday

Morning

Don’t hit snooze on that 5:15AM alarm. Pack your camera to meet the Skyball transfer for a sunrise hot air balloon ride with Armenian bubbles. Blue skies yield mesmerising views of snow-capped Mount Ararat. Back in the city, refresh with an espresso at speciality coffee shop Lumen, hidden between two nondescript buildings. Eat a light bite or pastry; save some space for the afternoon food tour.

Afternoon

Near the Cascade Complex, meet your guide from 2492 Travel for a whistlestop tour of Armenia’s greatest culinary hits. You’ll try six specialities, including jengyalov hats (wild greens wrapped in flatbread), lahmajo (flatbread topped with minced meat called Armenian pizza), and manti (crispy meat dumplings served in broth.)

Evening

Head back to Saryan Street for drinks at In Vino. With tables inside and out, In Vino evokes a lively house party where strangers become friends. Between Decant and In Vino, you can taste nearly all of Armenia’s best wines.

Your Yerevan address book

Wine bars

Decant

Wine bar and shop for Armenia’s best boutique producers.

In Vino

Saryan Street wine bar and shop with a solid Armenian selection.

Restaurants

Sherep

Extensive, well-executed menu of regional Armenian cuisine near Republic Square.

Vostan restaurant

Impressive platters of skewered and grilled meats in a wooden heritage building.

Abovyan 12 restaurant

Vegetarian-friendly Armenian classics in a leafy courtyard.

Norqi Keghar winery

Norq district wine cellar and restaurant with fresh, delicious food.

Cafés

Afrolab

Popular café for speciality coffee and Western European and Armenian food.

Lumen

Specialty coffee and espresso with two locations.

Ground Zero

Speciality shop popular with the laptop brigade on Saryan Street.

Hotels

Grand Resort Jermuk

Pink hotel in the hinterland of Vayots Dzor, an hour east of Areni-1.

Activities and tours

2492 Travel

Runs the Yerevan Gastrotrip food tour and organises wine and wilderness tours.

Arpi Yeganyan

A certified wine guide who offers city, cultural, wine and adventure tours.

Skyball Armenia

Armenia’s only hot-air balloon company.

Temple of Garni and Geghard monastery

Two UNESCO-World Heritage sites outside Yerevan include this pagan temple and a monastery on a cliff (book tours in Yerevan).

City sights

Matenadaran

A museum filled with ancient texts and scrolls.

Cafesjian Center for the Arts

Yerevan’s best modern art museum tucked inside the Cascade Complex.

Mini city guide: Yerevan

Given its nascent modern wine industry, Armenia trails other wine-producing nations in enotourism. The best way to experience a range of grapes and styles is at the city’s wine bars. Yerevan itself is a safe, festive metropolis of nearly 1.1 million residents, its walkable layout designed by famous urban planner Alexander Tamanian in 1924.

Striking Soviet-era buildings may surprise first-time visitors with their bold neo-classical architecture of arches, columns and oversized windows. Much of the city was built from quarried pink volcanic rock known as tuff, giving it a distinct pink sheen. Considered the jewel of the city, Republic Square consists of an oval roundabout with a stone pattern resembling a traditional Armenian, surrounded by five major buildings built in tuff.

In the last 10-15 years, city denizens have enthusiastically embraced the culture of dining out. Since developing a taste for nightlife, the restaurant and bar scene has exploded, making Yerevan a fantastic food city. The four key neighbourhoods for lively cafés by day, and restaurants and bars by night are The Cascade, Pushkin Street, Aram Street, and Sanyan Street, the latter home to two wine bars, Decant and In Vino.

Best season to visit

Due to its landlocked continental climate, Armenia experiences cold winters and sunbaked summers. Spring and autumn offer the best weather. May and June explode with wildflowers, while temperatures cool and leaves change in late September through early November.

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It’s no secret the Romans loved wine, but there has been debate about the look and taste of styles that would have graced dinner tables.

New research has suggested that winemaking techniques linked to the use of clay vessels known as ‘dolia’ likely produced wines that were slightly spicy with key aromas of roasted walnuts and toasted bread. 

Dolia have been somewhat overlooked by archaeologists studying ancient craftsmanship, said the authors, writing in the Antiquity journal.

‘[Yet] these vessels were highly valued items that were made by skilled artisans using specially selected clay mixtures.’

Alongside archaeological evidence and ancient texts, the authors built a possible profile of Roman wine styles by exploring the continued use of earthenware ‘qvevri’ in modern-day Georgia, where wine has been produced for more than 8,000 years.

Roman winemakers appeared to know that burying dolia in the ground helped to regulate temperature during fermentation, and this also contributed to the development of flor yeasts on the surface of the wine.

This process produces a compound known as sotolon, ‘which is key to the slightly spicy taste of flor wines (and indeed many qvevri wines), and imparts aromas of toasted bread, apples, roasted walnuts and curry’, said the authors, citing earlier work.

The porous nature of dolia, like qvevri, likely also allowed for a degree of controlled oxidation, said the study, noting that Roman winemaking appeared to involve greater precision than previously assumed.

It added that long maceration times and ageing on lees were likely to have been features of Roman winemaking.

There isn’t yet any direct bioarchaeological evidence for ‘vinification on the lees inside dolia’, but findings of grape seeds and residues inside some dolia and amphorae offer hints, said the researchers.

Ageing on lees may have helped to improve stability in the finished wine, while extended maceration – leaving grape skins in contact with the juice – could explain the range of wine colours described by ancient texts.

‘Romans didn’t make a distinction between white or red vinification, they just vinified a lot of these grapes the same way,’ Dr. Dimitri Van Limbergen, study coauthor from Ghent University’s archaeology department, told Decanter recently.

‘So you must have these kind of macerated, oxidative, amber-coloured wines quite often.’

Dr. Van Limbergen, who is coauthor of newly published book Methods in Ancient Wine Archaeology, also spoke about his earlier research on Roman vineyards.

He said he was particularly interested in how agroforestry techniques employed by grape growers at the time may have relevance to climate change challenges in vineyards today.

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Nestled in the heart of Georgia‘s picturesque Kakheti wine region, the hotel is set in the grounds of the historic Chavchavadze estate (the 19th century palace, once home to Georgian royalty, is now a museum), and adjoins the Tsinandali Estate, one of the cradles of Georgian wine making and where the first Georgian wine was bottled in 1814.

Extensive renovations on the estate began in 2007 under the patronage of the Silk Road Group and the talents of architects John Fotiadis, Christina Gabas and Damien Figueras, along with industrial lighting designer Ingo Maurer and Georgian artist and sculptor Tamara Kvesitadze. Opening in 2018, the ultra-modern, 141-room, four-storey glass and greenery-covered hotel (30,000 trays of plants were used to create the ‘green wall’) has been cleverly designed to integrate with the original buildings and winery. Guests travel from near and far to experience wine tastings, tours of the nearby vineyards and ancient cellars housing a collection of more than 15,000 bottles and for an exploration of the winemaking process, gaining insights into the unique techniques employed at Tsinandali.

Guests are treated to sophisticated yet intimate accommodation options, each with contemporary Georgian designs and super-comfy kingsize beds as well as breathtaking views of local vineyards, forests and the Caucasus Mountains in the distance. The hotel boasts five different dining venues including an all-day restaurant opening onto a sunken courtyard, a Georgian restaurant with terrace and three bars. Guests can visit the Gaumarjos Wine Bar to sample locally-produced Tsinandali Estate wines as well as the sumptuous Library Bar with its full-size snooker table and cocktail menu.

Beyond eating and drinking, the hotel has two tennis courts, a revitalising spa and two swimming pools including an outdoor infinity swimming pool on the top-floor terrace looking onto the mountains. Guests can also enjoy the 18ha park complete with bicycle trails and tree-lined alleys. Originally landscaped by English designers, it was restored to its former glory as part of the renovations and contains more than 1,600 species of plants, a 100–year-old linden tree and Japanese maples. Be sure to visit the ‘wishing tree’ to adorn coloured ribbons representing success, love, marriage and health to the branches.

The hotel and wine estate frequently host cultural events, including art exhibitions, musical performances, and festivals in the on-site open-air amphitheatre for up to 1,200 guests. The annual Tsinandali Festival held in August/September is a celebration of music, art, promoting the language of classical music at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. In November 2023, the estate hosted the first Tsinandali Wine Symposium, showcasing – and raising awareness of – Georgian wines among the world’s most prestigious wine producers, with experts, journalists and wine industry representatives attending the three-day event.

Whether you seek relaxation, cultural enrichment, or a gastronomic adventure, the Radisson Collection Tsinandali hotel promises an unforgettable stay, providing a harmonious blend of luxury and authenticity in the heart of Georgia’s wine country.

The Radisson Collection Tsinandali is located in Tsinandali village, 15 minutes by road from Telavi and a two-hour drive from Tbilisi via the Gombori Pass.

See the Radisson Collection Tsinandali website for further details.

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Georgia prides itself on being the birthplace of wine, with archaeological evidence showing traces of winemaking in traditional earthenware dating back to 8,000 years ago.

In 2013, Unesco recorded the ‘Ancient Georgian traditional Qvevri wine-making method’ on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.

These traditional, oval-shaped clay vessels of varied sizes are still widely used in Georgian wineries today for fermentation, ageing and storage, while also gaining popularity among curious international winemakers.

Why use qvevris for winemaking?

‘Ქვევრი’ is the Georgian word for qvevri (or kvevri). The prefix ‘kve’ means ‘beneath’ or ‘under’, implying the usual way these vessels are used in Georgian cellars. Locals would say that the fact they are buried and used to make and store wine sets them apart from common amphorae, which are more often used for transport and tend to have handles.

These handmade terracotta vessels commonly take on a large-bellied oval shape with a slightly pointy base. Found throughout Georgia, especially in primary winemaking regions such as Kakheti and Kartli in the east and Imereti in the central west, they are essentially inert (although discussions continue regarding the effect of the minerals in them), so don’t impart flavour or tannin to the wine.

These heavy-duty clay jars are hard to produce and transport and more fragile and difficult to clean compared to modern inert vats – but why are they still used and even gaining in popularity?

The shape is the first hint. Grape musts can move around more freely inside these smooth, egg-shaped vessels, as opposed to cylindrical vats, thus encouraging the extraction of flavours and structure, explains Valeriani (Vako) Gamtkitsulashvili of Twins Wine House.

What makes these traditional clay vessels more remarkable is the fact that as they are buried, stable ground temperatures help the wine inside to naturally maintain a certain temperature range during fermentation – a solution developed in the days when modern winemaking technology was non-existent.

It is, however, down to Georgia’s traditional wine production technique, that shapes these pristine, exceptionally structured and richly-flavoured wines.

How does it work?

Ripe, healthy fruit and ripe stems (if used) are the prerequisites to a successful qvevri wine, says Nugzar Ksovreli of Koncho & Co.

Once the whole bunches are pressed, the juice and some ‘chacha’ (the grape skins, ripe stems and pips) are fed into the qvevris, waiting for natural yeast to trigger fermentation after two to three days.

At Mildiani Family Winery, workers stir the lees with a long stick four times per day, for five minutes each time to ensure there’s enough oxygen for the yeast and to encourage phenolic extraction.

It can take two to four weeks for alcoholic fermentation to complete, with malolactic fermentation kicking in almost immediately afterwards.

At this stage, producers in Kakheti may choose to remove the solids from red wines but leave them in whites for a bit longer, before topping up their qvevris and sealing them.

Producers would usually apply a clay or silicon layer coiled around the ‘mouth’ of the qvevri, then press down a glass disk or stone lid to seal the opening.

Traditionally, these qvevris should not be opened until the next spring, but modern-day winemakers may want to check on the health of the wine occasionally via specially designed lids – though they have to be careful to prevent excessive exposure to oxygen.

As the weather warms up in spring, some producers start bottling their wines for younger styles and cash flow, while others pump out the clear wine to clean qvevris for further ageing.

Heavy oxygen intake (such as due to leakage or frequently opening the seal) can be harmful at the final stage of production. However, micro-oxygenation may help to smooth out the harsh tannins intrinsic to the style, says winemaker and consultant Giorgi Dakishvili, who prefers used oak barrels to give his wines a final polish.

The best size qvevri for winemaking

The size of the qvevri matters, explains Dakishvili. Bigger qvevris tend to accumulate higher temperatures (roughly 28-30°C in the case of 2000L qvevris) during fermentation and smaller qvevris tend to work better in diffusing heat (22-24°C for 200L qvevris).

Higher temperature is beneficial to extract ‘more structure, tannin and phenolics’ while lower fermentation temperature is beneficial for extracting fresh fruits, says the winemaker, who blends wines made from large and small qvevris for his red wines, though he believes that a 2000L vessel is the ‘best size’ for producing qvevri wine.

The thickness of the qvevri walls is another factor to consider when it comes to controlling temperature, says Misha Dolidze, founder of Marani Casreli (Marani means ‘wine cellar’).

Koncho & Co applies an additional cooling system underground for the qvevris, in an effort to help fine-tune the temperature, says Ksovreli.

The making of a qvevri

From merely a few litres to nearly 10,000, the size of the qvevri is tailored towards the demand of wine producers. Therefore, in regions with lower winemaking capacity, such as Imereti, the qvevris made locally tend to be smaller.

Each qvevri maker has their own preference for material and production style. Zaza Kbilashvili of Meqvevre Kbilashvilis Marani in Kakheti, for instance, sources his raw materials from the foothills of the Caucasas Mountains.

By mixing with water and grinding, the potter prepares the clay to the right texture and makes it into rolls (logs). Starting from the bottom, rolls of clay form the wall of the qvevri, layer upon layer, added by hand. Each layer needs a few days to dry before a new layer can be added, which means the building process alone can take up to two months to complete.

Without precise measurements to follow, the final look of each qvevri is shaped solely by the potter’s eyes and hands, backed up by knowledge and experience passed down through generations.

Once the qvevri has taken shape, it needs a further 40 days to dry completely. Arid weather is ideal for these giant terracotta vessels to firm up.

Now it’s time to light the flame. The fully dried qvevris are carefully lined up in the kiln, which is then sealed up with bricks to retain heat. Usually, only an observation window at the top and a small gap at the bottom are left open, allowing firewood to be constantly fed in, taking the temperature above 1,200°C.

It takes seven sleepless days for the firing process to complete. When these freshly-made qvevris are finally rolled out from the kiln, if the job has been properly done, they display a bright orange colour.

While the qvevris are still warm, beeswax is applied to the inner surface as an antiseptic, also to smooth out invisible cracks thus preventing leaks. Iron wire, in addition to a cement and lime layer, can also be affixed to the exterior as a ‘safety jacket’, providing some protection during transport and against earthquakes, which are not uncommon at the foot of the Caucasas Mountains.

The life of a qvevri

Although qvevris were once widely produced in Georgia, nowadays merely a few skilled potters still master the production technique. In the case of the Kbilashvili workshop, the waiting time for producers to get their hands on brand new qvevris is as long as a year.

Some of the increasing demand is met by secondhand qvevri dealers. In fact, some producers prefer ‘tested’ qvevris to the ‘mint-condition’ ones, such as at Tbilvino winery.

The producers’ concerns come with a reason. Leakage is a real risk – if the clay wasn’t properly mixed or if the building and baking process wasn’t up to standard, says Misha Dolidze of Marani Casreli. Therefore testing the condition of the qvevri is crucial before it’s filled with wine.

Hygiene, on the other hand, is key to producing wines to modern standards when using this ancient technique.

As Andrew Jefford puts it: ‘Every qvevri is, potentially, a microbiological jungle, a sensorial car crash, a celebration of hideousness – unless the vessel itself has been scrupulously prepared, unless the harvest has been carefully sorted and cleaned, unless the vinification practices have been honed and refined.’

To give the inside of these enormous clay vessels a thorough clean, the usual practice is for a worker to climb inside with a ladder and do some serious scrubbing, says Vladimer Kublashvili, chief winemaker at Khareba Winery, adding that a special brush is used to ensure there is no damage to the clay.

The team at Marani Casreli takes a more meticulous approach, applying high-pressure water guns and acids, followed by a test of the hygiene conditions, according to Dolidze.

So long as there are no major earthquakes, if maintained with care and under appropriate temperatures, one qvevri can last ‘decades’, says Kublashvili.

Flavour profiles

Classic qvevri orange or amber wines from the main producing region Kakheti are commonly made using local varieties such as Rkatsiteli, Kisi, Khikhvi and Mtsvane.

The top examples typically bear a yellow fruit-driven nose of quince, candied orange peel and dried apricot, sometimes with a hint of blossom and minty herbs. Due to extended skin contact, these wines tend to take on a full-on, structured body but do not lack freshness. The chewy, tea-like tannin structure is wrapped with layers of dried yellow fruits, confected citrus and sometimes spices, followed by a lingering finish.

With the majority produced using Saperavi, the qvevri reds typically display pure, dark fruit aromas, refined by dried flowers and spices that are true to the variety. The palate is structured, with savoury spices and sometimes a mineral edge.

Generally speaking, finishing in used oak barrels and extended ageing help to polish the rough edges and make the wines more palatable.

With their robust character and distinct mouthfeel, qvevri-crafted orange wines may not seem instantly approachable to the mass market at first encounter – but they are certainly memorable, and worth further exploration.

Now is a perfect time. The popularity of qvevri is ‘at its peak’ at the moment, as Dolidze puts it, while the wine world embraces diversity and more ‘natural’ winemaking.

These pristine, richly woven wines made in the ancient vessels that originated from the birthplace of wine are packed with flavours and sensual surprises. They possess unlimited gastronomic potential, awaiting their unravelling by the true connoisseur.

12 Georgian qvevri wines to try

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I’d visited Kakheti, Kartli and Imereti before – Georgia’s dominant central wine-producing zones; but never the wild exterior. From the ice-crisped cemetery grass of the 11th-century church of St George, dominating the mountaintop village of Mravaldzali, we looked north across the mountains of the Greater Caucasus, Europe’s highest. The silence, and the vista, was daunting. Hundreds of dry, drab valleys lost themselves in as many snowy peaks. Russia lay beyond. There was, apparently, a way over: the Mamisoni pass. But you’d need a strong horse. And a compelling motive, too.

Racha is not a large wine-growing region – just 609ha. The quality of its vineyards and its own suite of indigenous varieties (notably the red Aleksandrouli, Mujuretuli and Usakhelouri, and white Rachuli Mtsvane, Tsolikouri and Rachuli Tetra) make it a source of growing interest, and many of Georgia’s larger wine enterprises have hurried to acquire vineyards here in recent years.

But there’s a problem. The best-known wine from Racha is the sometimes charming but rarely complex, semi-sweet PDO red Khvanchkara. It sells for high prices – in Russia. Most of those buying land here did so to make Khvanchkara… but since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Georgians are more troubled than ever by sales to this particular client. Russian war crimes in Ukraine aside, the loss of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia to Russian-backed separatists is still fresh in Georgian minds. Why slake the thirst of a vicious, expansionist neighbour?

In 2021, wine exports from Georgia amounted to 107 million bottles (according to its national wine agency) – and Russians took 62 million of those. The situation is not only uncomfortable, but it also holds Georgian wine developments in check. Contemporary Georgian wine can only flourish if it develops long-term responsive relationships with consumers who value dry wines of texture, finesse and nuance.

Some Georgian wine companies, like Tbilvino, have turned their backs entirely on the Russian market. Others are diverting a percentage of their profits to the Ukrainian cause – so that Russian drinkers unwittingly help frustrate Putin’s unprovoked invasion. Pending significant change in Russia, though, Georgia’s wine future must surely lie elsewhere.

There was a notice pinned to the gate: Gogi, it said in Roman script, plus a phone number. We phoned, and Gogi Margvelidze arrived. He refused to let us in at first, since we said we could only make a short visit; visits in Georgia aren’t meant to be short. Point made, he smilingly relented. He showed us the hazel-wood treading tanks, earth-buried qvevris (called churi here) and ancient implements in his marani (wine cellar). We drank chill water from the deep well, and ate rich Racha walnuts whose shells are soft enough to crush by hand. Gogi poured us tumblerfuls of Tetra and Aleksandrouli.

It was easy to make semi-sweet wine, he said, when the winter cold lasted until April’s end; now the climate was warmer, the wines tended to ferment dry. They were rough – but in Gogi’s effortlessly structured Aleksandrouli, in particular, you could see Racha’s potential.

So, too, at newer wineries – such as Naberauli, where the California-trained Giorgi Tevzadze is winemaker; Gonadze Vineyards, advised by Davit Maisuradze, one of Georgia’s leading winemakers and from Racha himself; and Melitoni, run by the young winemaking descendents of a famous Racha winemaking couple from the mountain heights of Mravaldzali.

Outside, up on the hillsides, orange persimmons punctuated the bare woods; hard yet sweet little round pears littered the vineyard edges. There’s still winter to get through, but spring will come to Racha.

In my glass this month

A change in Georgian legislation means that Racha region fruit must now be fermented locally – so Tsinandali’s Mujuretuli 2020 is grown from new Kakhetian plantings of this ancient Racha variety. Dark berry fruits glow in the glass, while the palate seems to glow, too: soft, ripe and tender, yet with an inner energy and natural articulation; the textures owed more to extract than to tannin. Sumptuous, digestible Georgian red.

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‘When I started producing wine, the wineries were all in a very bad condition,’ said Askaneli Brothers president Gocha Chkhaidze, recalling the poor state of the Georgian wine industry shortly after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

‘There was inadequate sanitation, a lack of know-how and old-fashioned bottling lines. People were unable to make wine sustainably, vineyards were not sufficiently cared for, agronomists were unskilled and used to harvest the maximum quantity of grapes possible.’

Like elsewhere within the former Soviet Union, such focus on quantity went to the expense of quality, and of wine grape biodiversity too.

In Georgia, this meant that the high-yielding Rkatsiteli and Saperavi varieties ended up covering most of the country’s land planted to vine, while its immense capital of indigenous grapes – over 500 according to the National Wine Agency – only survived undocumented in tiny plots scattered across rural Georgia.

Today, while the country as a whole is gradually emancipating from its former ruler, its vineyards are yet to shake off this legacy of Soviet policies. Rkatsiteli and Saperavi remain Georgia’s most planted grapes: each year, they represent about 57.5% and 33.6% of the yearly national grape harvest respectively: a mind-boggling total of over 90%.

While the two grapes still dominate plantings, the Georgian wine industry has initiated a process that is slowly yet steadily leading to the recovery of its immense viticultural heritage.

A proactive approach

‘It is absolutely clear by now that the rediscovery of rare indigenous varieties is a popular trend among Georgian winemakers,’ said Davit Chichua, leader of the viticulture and oenology team at the LEPL Scientific Research Centre of Agriculture in Jighaura, a few miles north of the capital Tbilisi.

The centre was founded in 2014 when former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili donated his own private grapevine nursery to the state. It is now home to some 600 varieties all available for businesses to purchase for commercial use. The majority are indigenous, ranging from Geogria’s flagships Rkatsiteli and Saperavi, to some of the centre’s latest discoveries such as Adanasuri (a red grape with a perfumed nose and elegant palate). The centre scouts around for forgotten grape types on a regular basis, but it also relies heavily on proactive Georgian farmers.

‘Unfortunately, we have limited human and material resources so, in order to succeed, we need the cooperation and enthusiasm of all Georgian people who find lost varieties or interesting clones,’ said Chichua, ‘There are still lots of unknown grape varieties in small plots across the country. When people find something interesting in their vineyard, they can take it to us.’

To find, collect, and experiment on neglected grape varieties, the centre works in partnership with wineries too, including Château Mukhrani, a historical France-inspired castle and cellar located in Kartli, Georgia’s second largest region by vineyard size.

‘Two years ago we started looking for other grapes local to our region with the aim to revive our microzone’s varieties,’ explained Château Mukhrani CEO and technical director Patrick Honnef.

‘Alongside the leading team of the nursery in Jighaura we identified six grapes that we would like to look at closer: two reds – Bursa and Danakharuli – and four whites – Tetri Budeshuri, Jvari, Tsivvazi and Chitiskvertskha.’

The experiment involved planting a total of about one hectare at the Château, one row for each variety. ‘Now we need to wait a few years to identify if they are really able to make outstanding wines,’ said Honnef.

While experiments on the six regional grapes are underway, earlier investments in the recovery of neglected varieties led Mukhrani to develop some of its best wines: for instance, their Réserve Royale Goruli Mtsvane and Réserve Royale Shavkapito both won Silver Medals at the latest Decanter World Wine Awards. The former is a creamy, soft white, with a complex nose of white flowers, aromatic herbs and toast; the latter is a bright, medium-bodied spicy red whose elegance and light colour Honnef compared to that of a Pinot Noir.

‘In Georgia, there is an ongoing interest in local varieties. It started 20 years ago, slowly, very slowly,’ said Honnef, ‘We were lucky that in 2003-2004 the people who were working on the rebirth of Château Mukhrani took the risk of planting local varieties like Shavkapito, Goruli Mtsvane, and Chinuri. They just went to private homes to find the plant material.’

Grapes with great potential

Shavkapito and other neglected varieties still contribute to but a small fraction of all wine made in Georgia, but they are increasingly popular among the country’s most influential wineries.

Kakheti-based Teliani Valley, one of Georgia’s five largest producers, released a varietal Shavkapito as part of its Wine People project, a yearly themed programme aimed at amplifying the voices of smaller yet talented independent winemakers.

‘We wanted to do something to support small winemakers,’ explained Teliani winemaker Kato Shalvashvili. ‘In Georgia, there are a lot of amazing winemakers that do not have the means to bottle and market their wines so four years ago we decided to set up this project, with a theme that changes every year. We did one to showcase the Bolnisi region, one focused on women winemakers, then one on rare Georgian varieties.’

The collection consists of 11 limited-edition wines made in partnership with six winemakers and involving a range of unheard-of grapes such as Tetra, Kundza, Tavkveri and a rare, paler mutation of Rkatsiteli.

Shalvashvili believes that indigenous grapes such as Kisi, Khikhvi, Mtsvane Kakhuri (all white) and Alexandrouli (red) show the greatest growth potential. When combined, these represent a mere 4% of Georgia’s annual grape harvest, but are some of the country’s most planted varieties nevertheless.

‘If I had to suggest the Georgian grapes that wine lovers should go after when looking beyond Saperavi and Rkatsiteli, then I would say Kisi, Khikhvi, Mtsvane Kakhuri and Alexandrouli,’ argued Shalvashvili.

She stressed that, although little known, the grapes concur to make some of Teliani’s best award-winning wines, including Glekhuri Kisi Qvevri 2019, Glekhuri Kisi Qvevri 2020, and Glekhuri Khikhvi Qvevri 2019.

With its high natural acidity, Mtsvane Kakhuri lends itself to long periods of bottle ageing, particularly if vinified on the skins in traditional Georgian qvevris, while Khikhvi is a rather versatile grape used to make both table and fortified wines.

Alexandrouli tends to produce delicious, floral reds, with gentle tannins, while Kisi is capable of making both elegantly aromatic whites and layered amber qvevri wines.

‘The only one that we see getting more and more attention internationally is perhaps Kisi. That’s probably because it is quite easy to pronounce even for non-Georgians,’ said Shalvashvili. ‘Our grapes are really difficult to pronounce, so it’s a bit hard for people to remember them.’

Despite the challenges, the plantings of indigenous varieties are increasing exponentially. Vineyards of Mtsvane Kakhuri have grown by nearly 30% over the past ten years, of Alexandrouli by 45%, and of Khikhvi and Kisi by a staggering 400% and 450% respectively.

With the conservation work of the LEPL Scientific Research Centre of Agriculture, and the commitment of Georgian winemakers, the land planted to local grape types is likely to grow further over the next few years. Indeed, beyond the mere response to wine lovers’ demand for more viticultural diversity, the recovery of its viticultural heritage bears a much deeper significance. For Georgia, it is a means to break with the past, define its post-Soviet identity, and build a future as a culturally independent country.

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Franzese was known as the ‘yuppie don’ in the 1980s after rising to the rank of caporegime in the Colombo crime family.

Fortune Magazine placed him at No. 18 on its 50 Biggest Mafia Bosses list, and he gained a reputation as one of the mob’s biggest earners since Al Capone. He was portrayed by Joseph Bono in Goodfellas.

Franzese became a born-again Christian during a lengthy prison sentence for racketeering, and he managed to walk away from the mafia without going into protective custody.

He is now a motivational speaker and author, living in California with his wife and seven children. He runs a mentorship site called The Inner Circle, and one of his mentees approached him with a plan to create a wine brand.

Franzese Wine was born. There are currently three wines in the range – a Malbec, a white made from the indigenous Kangoun grape and a fortified, port-style wine – but another five varieties will soon be rolled out.

The team has already secured a US distribution deal with Sysco Foods covering 41 states. Now Franzese is in London to kickstart an international expansion.

Decanter caught up with the former ‘prince of the mafia’ to learn more about his journey from racketeering to winemaking.

Wine plays a key role at sit-downs

Franzese’s grandfather emigrated from Naples to New York in 1902. He made his own wines, which would feature at family occasions.

His father, Sonny, was an underboss of the Colombo crime family, but he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery in 1967. Franzese responded by dropping out of college to help his family earn money – and he proved to be remarkably successful. He claimed that at the height of his career, he was generating up to $8 million per week from various criminal activities.

‘There was always wine at every dinner, every banquet,’ says Franzese. ‘Every time we went out there was always a bottle of wine or two. We all indulged in it. I didn’t really acquire the taste for it as much as I did in later life, but we always enjoyed it and we didn’t have dinner without a bottle of wine ever. It was very customary.

‘Just about every meeting that we had, which could have been a critical meeting at some point in time, there was always a bottle of wine to calm things down in case tempers started to flare and things started to get out of control. We’d always say, “have a glass of wine, let’s calm things down a little bit, everything is ok”.’

Wine also played a more subtle role in Colombo family sit-downs. ‘Whenever we had a meeting with people we didn’t know, or people we were unsure of, there was always a bottle of wine – or two or three – on the table, and if there was somebody questionable at that meeting that we as a group didn’t want to talk in front of, we’d pour the wine the right way, and when we got to that person, we’d do it in a different way, and everybody would be observant of that.

‘We would know that we needed to stop talking in front of that person, and the whole conversation would change. It was always with a bottle of wine, so wine has played a significant role in my former life in some very critical meetings.’

From New York to Armenia

Italy would have been the obvious choice when Franzese decided to get into the wine business, but he was inspired by Armenia’s history.

‘I’m a Christian and pretty strong in my faith. I just love the story behind the wine. According to scripture, Noah’s Ark landed at the foot of Mount Ararat. When the flood subsided, the first vineyards in the new civilisation were planted there – in Turkey and Armenia.’

Armenia is certainly one of the world’s oldest wine regions. Archaeologists have discovered a wine press and fermentation jars dating back 6,000 years in Armenian caves.

Franzese’s partner has been producing wine there for 25 years, so there is a mature operation behind the brand.

It was a young member of the Armenian family, who Franzese mentors, that convinced him to lend his name to the brand.

‘This young man has been following me since he was 10. He’s now 23. When he approached me about this, I was so attracted to his integrity and work ethic that I said if I’m going to go into business with somebody, this is the young man I should be with. We went through the whole process of tasting the wine, researching his family history, and it all came up roses, so I decided to allow him to take my brand to market.’

His wife, Camille Garcia, is passionate about wine – Franzese describes her as ‘almost a sommelier’ thanks to her in-depth knowledge. ‘We get involved in the wine tasting. I leave that mostly to my wife and my daughters, who have a better taste than I do in fine wine.

‘We’ve had several people taste them, and we’re happy with it. I’ve been making connections with distributors, speaking to various restaurants and putting my partner in touch with contacts.

‘We are now expanding into the UK, and we are working on some other relationships around the world. Everyone that has tasted the wine so far has enjoyed it, and there’s no better way to sell it than to let them try it.

‘We are very confident with how it has been received so far, and we keep pushing ahead. I think the wine has appeal in restaurants and retail stores. Direct to consumer has been very strong for us. I have a big reach, and a lot of people want the wine on the table and to tell the story behind the wine.’

Franzese says they can scale up quickly to meet demand. ‘We’ve assured Sysco Foods that we can provide 40,000-50,000 bottles a month for them. We’re exploring getting into Costco, and if we do that, we’ll really have to scale up, as the orders are huge.

‘This is a 25-year-old operation, and they’re very excited in Armenia about what we’re doing in the States and around the world.’

When asked how meeting with the wine trade compares to dealing with mobsters, a wry smile breaks out on his face. ‘It’s a lot easier speaking to people in the wine industry than the guys on the street.

‘For the past 25 years, I’ve been sharing my story all over the world in person. I’ve been to Singapore, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Australia, everywhere, and I’ve got a huge YouTube channel. People are taken in by the story, they love the genre, and the fact that this was reality for me. I was at a pretty high level in that life. People are intrigued by it, and it’s very easy to speak with them. I’m a people person. I’ve always been that way.

‘One of my strongest points was being able to relate with people, whether they’re in the boardroom or in prison garments, it doesn’t matter to me, so I just enjoy it and people enjoy the conversations, so we get in the door and from that point on they gotta love the product.’

Will any of his former associates be drinking Franzese Wines at future sit-downs? ‘I’ve had some guys calling me on it, and of course they want free samples. Yeah, they’re going to drink it.’

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The recent Azerbaijan Grand Prix was one of 23 events in this year’s Formula One calendar, a timely reminder of the self-confidence emanating from a county that can no longer be perceived as the Baku of beyond.

Indeed, as part of the bulwark hinging the landmasses of Greater Europe (and Russia beyond) and Asia Minor, its strategic position has long been appreciated.

Scroll down to see Simon Field MW’s tasting notes and scores for 11 wines from Azerbaijan

Roads rather dustier than those used for the Grand Prix lead the Silk Route through Azerbaijan, and, in vinous terms, the region, including neighbours Georgia and Armenia, is known as the ‘cradle’ of the civilization of wine. This is where it all began.

Background

Azerbaijan is also known as the ‘land of fire’, the metaphor fueled by natural underground gas reserves and illustrated by such tourist destinations as the eternal underground flame of Yanar Dag.

An unusual terroir is thereby engendered, its other key features being the Caucasus mountains to the north and the Caspian Sea to the east. The capital, Baku, is eye-catching, strong Islamic influences everywhere (the country is 95% Muslim), its heritage now peppered with decidedly modern gems, courtesy of architects such as Zaha Hadid.

Many buildings have flame-like shapes, dazzling towers of glass and steel; the Caucasus, after all, are where Prometheus was chained to a rock by Zeus as a punishment for stealing the fire of the gods.

Modern Azerbaijan describes itself as a semi-Presidential Republic, independence from the Soviet yoke having finally been secured in 1991, the ensuing loss of the key export markets promoting ongoing forays into the west.

Maybe as a result there is a distinctly Western feel to parts (and only parts) of the country, and it was not only the Grand Prix which was welcomed there recently, several of the Group A Games in the recent European Championships were also hosted in Baku.

Sporting endeavours aside, what about the wines?

Well, here everything is set fair, with climate, terroir, savoir-faire and the investment potential to develop an already-present infrastructure all fired up.

Azerbaijan wine regions

The country can be split into three main winemaking zones; Ganja and the Lesser Caucasus, Shirvan Valley and the Greater Caucasus and Caspian Shoreline.

Within these, there are eight autonomous sub-regions which may or may not form the part of a formalised legislation at some point.

The most significant is called Shirvan and is home to many of the most dynamic wineries. This photogenic region benefits from relative proximity to both the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains.

Some of the best vineyards are located in the province of Ismayilli, which has been compared to the famous enclave of Kaketi in Georgia. The soil, gaseous influence aside, is dominated by volcanic elements, by calcium and by limestone. Interesting.

Azerbaijan grape varieties

In terms of grape varieties, 54 ‘active’ indigenous varietals have been identified and the debate today centres on the extent to which they should be nurtured, or whether it may be safer to continue to develop the international varietals. Or maybe the better-known Caucasus grapes (for want of a better term), chief amongst them Rkatsiteli and Saperavi. Many progressive wineries hedge their bets, which seems sensible.

Of the indigenous varietals, the two which seem the most promising to me are the white Bayan Shira, which reminds me a little of Garganega, and the red Madrasa, which has something of the Grenache (or Cannonau) about it.

The charismatic Andrea Uliva, the ex-pat Italian winemaker at Chabiant, makes lovely examples of both. ‘I do not wish to replicate Italian styles here’ he says, somewhat disingenuously maybe, but there is something distinctly appealing in both wines. It must be those unusual soils.

Production

Azerbaijan makes about ten times more wine than the UK (in a warm year) and about ten times less than Georgia. It ranks in the low 50s in terms of global production. In terms of aspiration, however, it aims a lot higher.

It seems that there is only modest enthusiasm to try and emulate Georgia and the traditional Qvevri model, with more stress perhaps on demonstrating the historical backdrop through the development of traditional varietals.

Getting closer to the soil is important to many; Nizami Aliyev at Meysari is proud that his winery was the first to be certified as organic in Azerbaijan. Over at the larger scale Azgranata, on the other hand, Yusif Lezgiyev tells me that the altitude of his vines is fundamental to the personality of his wines. Many vineyards are located in sites at well over 650 metres. Here they make excellent whites from Rkatsiteli and superb reds from Saperavi, amongst many others. Indeed one common feature, as with the modern Savalan winery, is the sheer number of different wines are made and sold.

Maybe they should, for the export markets at least, narrow the range and thereby forge an identity, or at least put down a ‘calling card’, based on the very best of the rich tapestry of local varietals. It’s relatively early days for sure, but time marches on.

Before Gorbachev’s crackdown on alcohol in the early 1990s there was no need to seek new markets. Now the need is pressing, all the more so as Turkey, Azerbaijan’s closest ally, the country will not be in a position to pick up the slack.

There is a lot going on in the world of wine, with new markets opening up and an insatiable thirst for diversity from an increasingly mature, experienced and inquisitive demographic of wine lovers.

It seems most appropriate, essential even, that a part of this renaissance should take us all back to where it all started.

See Simon Field MW’s tasting notes and scores for 11 wines from Azerbaijan

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Georgia’s place is well deserved as the birthplace of winemaking, originating more than 8,000 years ago.

With a UNESCO-recognised, clay-vessel vinification method and more than 470 native grape varieties, it’s great that Georgia’s traditional and modern wines are now far more widely available.

Scroll down for Carla Capalbo’s tasting notes and scores for 18 top wines from Georgia

I sampled nearly 50 wines imported to Britain from Georgian producers small and large.

They divide roughly into two groups: traditional, including amber, wines made by family producers in clay qvevri – hand-made coil pots buried in the ground – and contemporary, ‘European-style’ wines from Georgian grapes made by larger wineries favouring steel tanks and wood barrels that can offer a bridge to less familiar tastes and styles.

Amber nectar

Iago Bitarishvili, one of Georgia’s most celebrated independent winemakers, lives on the land and vinifies his own grapes in qvevri.

‘Our pots provide neutral winemaking vessels in which wines can ferment, breathe and evolve without wood,’ he says. Grapes may be left on their skins for months in qvevri, resulting in the amber, macerated wines that are becoming increasingly popular.

In this method, white grapes are treated as red, extracting more aromas and tannins and adding complexity. Spurned by the Soviets, this ancestral art is still practised by rural families throughout Georgia.

Several top qvevri producers’ wines are imported into the UK by Les Caves de Pyrene, one of the first to seek out these hand-made wines.

Doug Wregg, its founding partner, is a fan of Georgia’s skin-contact wines. ‘The appeal is a texture I can only describe as “cashmere”,’ he says. ‘They feel unmediated and natural; I love their versatility with food. Growers from throughout the world travel to Georgia for inspiration.’

Bright future

Personally, I’m delighted that wines from this historic winemaking country in the Caucasus are finally becoming more available in the UK.

Imports in 2020 were up 243% on the previous year, with more than 365,000 bottles imported, according to Georgia’s National Wine Agency. That’s no mean feat for a country whose wines were considered niche until recently.

That change began when a handful of pioneers burst onto the scene with their remarkable wines a decade ago. Many more have since joined them, with support from the Georgian Wine Agency: wine is a major export and helps underpin Georgia’s tourism economy.

In Britain, we take our cosmopolitan marketplace for granted and expect to find global wines in our shops. That’s unusual: it’s still rare to find international wines for sale in Italy or France.

Foreign winemakers describe the British market as the toughest to break into: a battleground between up-and-coming and well-established regions. But Georgian wines have now joined that list and are attracting considerable attention.

I hope this exciting range will inspire you too. And one final word: don’t over-chill your amber wines.

Carla Capalbo is an awarded food, wine and travel writer. Her books include Tasting Georgia: A Food and Wine Journey in the Caucasus (revised edition 2020, Pallas Athene)

See Carla Capalbo’s top 18 wines from Georgia

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Named ‘Stalin’s Wine Cellar’, the book details the ‘wild ride’ of Australian wine merchant John Baker, who went looking for the secret, multi-million-dollar cellar, according to publisher Viking – a division of Penguin Random House.

Following a tip-off, Baker and his business partner, Kevin Hopko, travelled to Tblisi, Georgia, to explore claims that a winery in the country was home to a supposed underground treasure trove of fine wines – including the top names from Bordeaux.

The book, which says it is based on a true story, has been published in Australia and is co-written by Baker, a former hotelier and rock music promoter, with journalist and author Nick Place.

It charts the two merchants’ journey, describing the characters they met along the way as they were eventually shown the purported cellar and consequently sought advice on whether the wines were genuine.

According to legend, the wines once belonged to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. They became state-owned after the Russian Revolution of 1918, and effectively the property of Stalin following his rise to power in the 1920s.

Baker and his colleague were told that, during the Second World War in the early 1940s, Stalin moved precious wines to underground locations in his native Georgia – then part of the Soviet Union – in order to avoid the bottles falling into the hands of Nazi Germany.

However, as publisher Viking noted in an article about the book, when Baker and Hopko are eventually shown this particular set of wines, ‘the labels are in a bad state, and the backstory is questionable’.

Separately, it has been previously reported that Stalin ordered the evacuation of the cellars at the historic Massandra Winery in Crimea to prevent its collection of rare bottles being looted by Nazi Germany.

However, it was also reported that Stalin ordered the return of the collection after the war.

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For at least 8,000 years, wine has played a prominent role in the cultural and economic activities of these ancient lands. It was said that when the nation adopted Christianity as the national religion in the 4^th century, Saint Nino bore a cross made from vine wood.

The ‘buried’ wine

The nation is perhaps best known for its ancient winemaking tradition, which is still being followed by many of its modern winemakers. The earliest archaeological traces of winemaking in Georgia include grape seeds found in what the locals refer to as qvevri (ქვევრი, which literally means ‘buried’).

Scroll down for 17 top-rated Georgian wine tasting notes and scores

Qvevri are clay vessels coated with beeswax inside and lime outside. These egg-shaped pots do not usually have a flat base, thus are buried in the ground to stay upright. By doing this, these vessels naturally maintain a relatively constant temperature during fermentation, just like the contemporary temperature-controlled tanks. Their sizes can vary between 20 to 10,000 litres, according to the official body Wines of Georgia.

Traditionally, crushed grapes are fed into the quevri, then fermented and aged in contact with the stalks and skins. Wines made this way, including reds and ‘whites’ (more in golden or amber colour), tend to pick up a richer and more tannic texture.

This method was recognized by UNESCO as ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ in 2013.

Although qvevri wines only account for a small fraction of wines made in Georgia, the ancient method is now adopted and modernised by producers around the world, especially for making orange and natural wines.

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Geography

Georgia is situated south of the High Caucasus range, facing the Black Sea to the west. It borders Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east and Turkey and Armenia to the south.

A third of its land is mountainous, hosting a number of rivers and shielding the country from the cold air of the north. The Black Sea to the west provides increased rainfall and moderates the temperature. The complex topography means Georgia is home to varied microclimates and soil types.

Viticulture

Like many vineyards across Europe, Georgia was hit hard by phylloxera at the end of 19^th century, which devastated half of its vineyards.

However, today the nation still has a wealth of more than 525 recorded indigenous grape varieties, 38 of which are approved for commercial wine planting.

Although international varieties such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are present, the vast majority of wines produced in Georgia are made from indigenous varieties with Rkatsiteli and Saperavi the most widely planted white and red grapes.

Rkatsiteli is high in acid and tends to give refreshing apple and stone fruit flavours.

Saperavi is native to Georgia, literally meaning ‘the place of colour’ and as the name suggests, is capable of making deeply coloured red wines with black fruit and meaty, spiced flavours.

The Russian influence

Throughout the last century, Georgia’s neighbouring countries have been one of the key factors in shaping its wine industry.

During the Soviet Union years from the early 20^th century, massive lands in Georgia were assigned to make wines in large quantities, at the expense of quality, to meet the thirst of the USSR market. Unsurprisingly, vineyard plantings in Georgia dropped sharply after the fall of the USSR in the 1990s.

The Russian market continued to consume 89% of wines produced in Georgia until 2006, when the Kremlin decided to ban all wines from the country, claiming that the public health authorities found heavy metals and pesticides in the Georgian wine exports.

The ban, which was imposed during a series of political disputes between the two countries, forced Georgian producers to improve the quality of their wines, while seeking new markets including Europe, the UK and Greater China.

Though the Russian ban was eventually lifted six years later, in 2013, Russian authorities again warned consumers about a ‘deterioration’ in the quality of Georgian wine when the political tension between the two countries arose.

Georgian Wine Appellations

Georgia has 10 registered wine regions, the principal being Kakheti in the southeast which contains the micro-regions of Telavi and Kvareli and is home to 72.1% of the country’s 55,000ha grape plantings.

In alphabetical orders the 10 appellations are*:

• Adjara
• Apkhazia
• Bolnisi (new in 2020)
• Guria
• Imereti
• Kakheti
• Kartli
• Meskheti
• Racha-Lechkhumi
• Samegrello

(*Source: Wines of Georgia)

See Decanter’s top selection of Georgian wines worth seeking out

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It’s hard to imagine a prouder but more oppressed people than the Armenians, who have played starring roles in the creation of coffee culture, the colour TV, the hairdryer, the ATM and even the green dye of US banknotes but, throughout history, have faced waves of invaders from Persians to Soviets via Byzantines, Mongols, Ottomans and Russians.

The shadow of the 1915 genocide still looms, with at least 7 million Armenian diaspora living around the world and only 3 million in Armenia itself.

When it comes to Armenian wine, the country is on very solid ground with its pioneering claims – and a rival to nearby Georgia as the birthplace of wine.

Wild grapevines can be found in the hills and the country is home to one of the oldest-known wineries in the world, located in Areni-1 karst cave in the Armenian mountains and dating back more than 6,100 years.It’s an eerie place to visit, and quite spine-tingling to see that winemaking was already large-scale and a key part of complex human rituals; there’s evidence of possible human sacrifice here, too.

Scroll down to see Caroline’s Armenian wine recommendations

The cave has a rudimentary grape press surrounded by clay wine jars surrounded by grave caskets. Analysis on the jars has confirmed grape pigments, alcohol and traces of grape material.

The atmosphere of the cave has preserved organic material incredibly well, and other finds include a six millennia-old human brain and a leather shoe from 5,500 years ago.

There’s evidence that winemaking has continued on throughout Armenia’s history.

Four thousand years ago, Armenia had five gods with specific winemaking traits, while the 3000-year-old Karmir Blur site has uncovered 480 ‘karas’ – Armenian clay wine jars.

Then there are later records of Assyrian conquerors taking wine and identifying grape-growers as especially valuable people.

Armenia was believed to be the first official Christian nation in the world, after King Trdat III adopted the religion in 301 AD, and churches continued to maintain vineyards, even throughout the Ottoman era. Remnants of a medieval vineyard still hang on in the Norovank monastery gorge.

Post-Soviet revival

Stalin designated the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, which existed between 1920 and 1991, as a brandy producer, providing around 30% of the USSR’s premium brandy, meaning many vineyards were replanted with grapes for distillation.

Historically Armenia grew up to 400 grape varieties, but today only 31 are grown commercially for wine and brandy.

A decade ago, Armenia had barely any quality wine industry, but largely thanks to its proud diaspora, the last few years have seen an incredible wine industry revival.

Several expats have returned to their family roots, wanting to do something close to the soil of their ancestral country. Grapevines are an obvious choice.

High altitude vineyards

Armenia is a continental country with more than 300 sunny days in a year, but its vineyards are at serious altitude, going up to 1,800 metres above sea level, and so it has cool nights and chilly winters. Most regions have to bury vines to protect against winter cold.

It’s a volcanic landscape with outcrops of limestone, and most of the country has no phylloxera so some vineyards are centuries old, at least where they were so remote that they escaped Stalin’s planned economy.

Areni Noir: a variety to watch

It was the arrival of Zorah in the early 2000s that first showed the outside world that Armenia was capable of seriously exciting quality.

Owners Zorik Gharibian and Yeraz Tomassians dropped their dream of a Tuscan winery in favour of a remote spot surrounded by dramatic snow-capped mountains in the Armenian highlands.

They recruited renowned consultant Alberto Antonini to help them realise their vision.

‘I’m here to find my roots, but I don’t just want to be the best wine in Armenia, I want world recognition,’ said Gharibian.

They took a chance on the largely ignore local Areni Noir, planting cuttings from old vines. This led to their first vintage, 2010, which they released in 2011, coincidentally the same year that the Areni-1 cave finds were announced.

Today, almost all serious wineries have followed suit with Areni, recognising its quality potential. It channels a little of the elegance of Pinot Noir with the linear structure and freshness of Sangiovese, although it is totally unrelated, along with its own ethereal aromas.

There’s a lot of research now going into rediscovering Armenia’s viticultural legacy. Grapes showing potential include:

• the wonderful golden Voskehat, which really comes into its own with a bit of age;
• inky dark Sireni from Artsakh;
• Karmrahyut with its red juice, only grown by ArmAs;
• fresh white Kangun;
• and Chilar, which suits long vinification with skins in karas. Try Zorah Heritage as an example.

Other renowned international figures have found their way to Armenia, too.

Michel Rolland is consultant to the Karas project, started in 2010 by Argentinian expat Eduardo Eurnekian and his niece Juliana, who wanted to invest in their ancestral country.

It began with international grapes to showcase Armenian terroir on a sunny, rocky site overlooked by Mount Ararat. But, indigenous grapes have been added, too, and local flavour is also added via part-ageing in local Causcasian oak.

Other notable projects from both expats and locals include Van Ardi, ArmAs, Voskevaz, Voskeni, Armenian Wine Company, The Old Bridge, KatarO, Keush, Koor, Maran and Gevorkian, while Trinity Canyon is the first winery to gain organic certification.

Few people know where Armenia is, let alone that it grows grapes and produces genuinely exciting wine in a very dynamic wine industry.

The last decade has seen it go from almost nothing to a bright spot with a great wine future, all rooted in its ancient and glorious history.

Birthplace of wine or not, wine is all about place and Armenia is well worth exploring.

Fact File: Armenian wine

Vineyard area (2018): 15,840 ha

Number of wineries/distilleries: 40 to 50

Wine production (2018): 9.7 million litres

Grape varieties: 400 native varieties, 31 grown for wine and brandy

Key native varieties: Areni (Noir) aka Sev Areni, Voskehat, Haghtanak aka Akhtanak, Kangun, Kakhet, Karmrahyut, Khatouni aka Khatoun Kharji, Sireni aka Khndoghni

Wine Regions: Vayots Dzor, Armavir, Aragatsotn, Ararat Valley, Tavush, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)

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Andrew Jefford tastes Georgian wines

There has been a ‘deterioration’ in the quality of Georgian wine imports in recent years, said Russia’s consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, on Monday (24 June).

It said officials have tightened controls over the quality and safety of imports, after introducing new and unspecified tests in 2017.

The timing of the announcement coincided with rising political tension as both countries blamed each other for whipping up anti-government protests in Georgia’s capital, Tblisi.

Kremlin officials denied a link between events in Georgia and tougher checks on wine, according to Reuters.

However, Russia banned Georgian wines between 2006 and 2013 in a move that many commentators at the time believed had political motivations.

This week’s complaint from Rospotrebnadzor specifically alleges a decline in the quality of Georgian wine imports between 2014 and 2018.

Georgia’s national wine agency quickly issued a riposte. ‘We think that there is no objective basis for questioning the quality of Georgian export products,’ it said, adding that it had increased quality controls itself in recent years.

Georgia, which has an 8,000-year history of winemaking, has worked to decrease its reliance on the Russian market, particularly by seeking expansion in Asia and also in the UK and US.

Around 86.2 million bottles were exported in 2018, to 53 countries, which represented a 30-year high and a 13% increase in 2017, according to Georgia’s national wine agency.

Exports rose by 20% in value, in US dollar terms, to $203m.

Russia is still the destination for more than half of Georgian wine exports, however.

See also: Crimea’s historic Massandra winery set for controversial sale

The antiquity of its wine culture, the genetic diversity of its indigenous varieties and the uniqueness of its native wine-making techniques: those three calls on our attention make Georgia a wine magnet.

It’s easy to forget, in the enthusiasm for all of this, that it is still a wine-making nation in recovery. The country has 48,000 ha of vines, according to the OIV, but that is only just over a third of the plantings it had as recently as 1976; in its pre-phylloxera glory days, too, it had around double the current total. Most of us know that the country nurtures 525 indigenous varieties, but you have to scour the country’s key grapevine collections to meet this extended family; in practice, a handful of varieties dominate today’s Georgian vineyards, notably the white Rkatsiteli (around 20,000 ha; over 80 per cent of Georgian production is of white wine and most of that is Rkatsiteli) and the red Saperavi (almost 4,000 ha). The two other major varieties are the white Tsolikouri (6,000 ha) and the white Tsitska (almost 3,000 ha).In mid-December 2018, I had the chance to head back to Tbilisi to help judge the Georgian Wine Association’s first Saperavi International competition, alongside a distinguished array of Georgian wine-makers and wine tasters, as well as international winemakers working in Georgia (such as Patrick Honnef of Ch Mukhrani) and Georgian expert Lisa Granik MW, currently writing a book on Georgian wine.I was nervous. I’d discovered on previous visits to Georgia just how showy a variety Saperavi could be – but could it be subtle, fine and intricate? How well might its wines age? Might it have global potential outside its current range (there are also significant plantings in Ukraine, Moldova and Russia)? The organizers had solicited samples from elsewhere, including Saperavi from Australia, the Finger Lakes and Russia; these were judged separately.

When you first meet Saperavi, it can seem hoodlum-like, as if it has a superfluity of everything: colour, fruit, acid, tannin, character. It is a semi-teinturier variety, with pink juice; the name means ‘dye’ in Georgian. Like Pinot Noir, it occurs in different forms and variants, which in itself suggests antiquity. The first references to the variety come in the C17, but there is some archival evidence that it was known in Georgia as long ago as the C11. According to researcher David Maghradze, it has long been considered “the best” red variety in Georgia – and never better than in Georgia’s key wine-producing region of Kakheti, which is where it produces its most powerful and long-lived wines.

I compared notes with my Georgian co-judges. They tended to be suspicious of the young wines which I liked, regarding them as astringent and undrinkable; they much preferred the older, more mature wines in the competition (which explains why some of my choices below did not receive gold medals). Qvevri Saperavi wines were judged separately to conventionally vinified versions. Remember, though, that qvevri red wines are less radical a departure from the norm than qvevri whites; they are worked with skins during fermentation, as all red wines are, and may after fermentation pass to wood ageing rather than undergoing long post-fermentation maceration in a qvevri. Whole bunches are not always used for reds (though they may be, in whole or in part).

What might you expect from your first Saperavi? Look out for amazing density and texture when young, but note that this polyphenolic ferocity is capable of evolving swiftly. You’ll find an astonishing repertoire of fruit characters, principally black fruits — blackcurrant, plum, blackberry, sloe, damson; there’s always high fruit drama in a Saperavi. You’ll find spices too, and citrus peel, and incense in the more exotic versions. Acidity can be very prominent, but it’s usually fruit-saturated, not raw; it can be the main structuring element in some wines. Yet acidity can also be low, too, in the riper wines, which rely on tannins for structure. If the tannins are soft – and Saperavi can be vinified in that way — then the wine can become toffeed and (if given expansive oak) very ‘New World’ in style: lots of sweetness without structure. I noted that Saperavi seems to absorb oak better on its palate than in its aromatic profile: oaky noses weren’t always followed by excess oak on the palate… but in general seems to me that discreet oaking is much to be preferred for Saperavi. Saperavi is prone to reduction, and the qvevri reds in particular can have strange characters of all sorts. When successful, though, they’re the most profound Saperavi wines of all.

By the end of the competition, my nervousness had gone. The best wines eclipsed my expectations, without any indulgence on my part. I came to realise that the fruit quality of this variety can have intricacy and resonance as well as flamboyance; that its exuberant tannins in youth settle relatively swiftly with age; that it doesn’t necessarily need the help of oak. Because of its characterful, confronting and supremely energetic nature, though, it will take the wine world several decades to learn to ‘read’ the variety — just as lovers of literature need time to learn how to read Joyce, Beckett or Eliot. Eventually we may come to view it as one of the world’s great red varieties, on a par with Nebbiolo, Pinot Noir or the Cabernets.

The tasting

The tasters were divided into two panels, so I had the chance to taste half of the 185 wines in competition. Here is a selection of ten of the best on my score sheets.

The first four wines below are non-Qvevri styles. The next six wines are Qvevri style wines.

Andrew Jefford tastes his way through the latest that Georgia has to offer.

Despite all the attention that Georgia has attracted over the last decade, my guess is that there will still be some readers of this column who have yet to taste their first Georgian wine. What can you expect?

Traditional qvevri wine (wine made in buried clay jars) is Georgia’s headline-grabber, despite the fact that it accounts for less than five per cent of Georgian production. It exists in both red and ‘white’ (deep gold or amber) form.

Red qvevri wines don’t greatly differ from conventionally vinified red wines – since skin-soaking is a part of all red-wine vinification, and since they spend less long with the skins after vinification, often going into oak at around the two-month point.

The gold or amber versions made from white grapes, by contrast, truly constitute a separate genre of wine: they get up to six months’ skin contact (and sometimes stem-contact, too): longer than even the most comprehensively ‘extracted’ red wines.

The result is deeply coloured, more or less tannic, relatively fruitless, low-acid, usually unoaked wine with a fascinating spectrum of other notes and allusions, and with great mealtime aptitude.

The Georgian Wine Association organized an International Qvevri Wine Competition in 2017 and is repeating the exercise this coming May. Georgia’s larger producers, too, have been surprised by the international interest in qvevri wines and are now taking the style very seriously — so the range and consistency of qvevri wines is fast improving. Small-scale and natural wine producers can make outstanding qvevri wines, but they have also marketed hideous failures, too.

The other main hook for Georgian wine is its 525 indigenous grape varieties. It’s a wonderful genetic patrimony – but it’s largely theoretical at present, since one red variety (Saperavi) and three white varieties (Rkatsiteli, Mstvane and Kisi) dominate most of the commercially available wines.

Other white varieties you might see include Goruli Mtsvane (despite the name, a completely different variety grown in Kartli from the ‘ordinary’ Mstvane or Mstvane Kakhuri, grown in Kakheti), Krakhuna, Tsitska and Tsolikouri; Georgia has international varieties aplenty, too, notably Chardonnay and Cabernet. Many classically made white wines are blends of varieties of general ‘Georgian’ style (light, fresh, graceful and vinous, with vegetal as well as fruit notes).

When I was in Georgia earlier this month I did, though, have a chance to visit Georgia’s viticultural research station at Mtskheta and taste a small range of micro-vinified wines from lesser-known varieties with the director, Dr David Chichua. The most interesting of these were three reds, Adanasuri (structured and almost austere, like a Piemontese red), Simonaseuli (juicy and fleshy, but with ample depth and structure too) and Mujuretuli (a grippy yet perfumed variety which lends itself to the semi-sweet red so popular in Russia), suggesting that it is perhaps a shame that Saperavi has such a stranglehold on Georgia’s red-wine scene.

Another aspect of Georgian wine which has yet to make much of an international impact as yet is regional differences. Georgia has eight different wine regions (Kakheti, Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Guria, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Adjara) as well as 18 individual PDOs.

Kakheti, though, is hugely dominant, with around 80% of production, and the palpably different weight and style of wines from the other regions struggles to get a hearing, apart from one or two celebrated properties (like Ch Mukhrani in Kartli, for example). Regionalism in Georgian wine, like the articulate expression of the country’s varietal wealth, remains a project for the future.

The final challenge for consumers are labels. These are improving quickly in Georgia, but Georgian place names and variety names are not easy for non-Georgians to read, and any bilingual label using both Georgian script and English to communicate both the legally required information and a little of the wine’s story inevitably has to resort to tiny point sizes – and, in my case at last, the wielding of a Sherlock-Holmes-sized magnifying glass. The Georgian labeling revolution still has a little way to run.

Is it all worth it? Yes, certainly: the world offers us no other wines like these, and prices remain very competitive for quality and interest of this level. Who would not want to try an example of wine’s sixth genre – the tannic amber ‘white’ based on six months’ skin contact in a buried qvevri? And who would not want to drink wine from what may well be the Eurasian vine’s birthplace, and from a location with an attested 8,000-year history of wine creation?

Tasting Georgia

Wines made in qvevris are noted as such; all the other reviewed wines are classically vinified.

Read more Andrew Jefford columns on Decanter.com

Andrew Jefford returns to Tbilisi and Khakheti.

It’s been an eventful five years. My first visit to Georgia, in April 2013, came at a tense but exciting time for the nation’s wine producers. Russia’s 2006 ban on the import of Georgian (and Moldovan) wine had presented Georgian producers with a salutary crisis: they lost 90 per cent of their export market overnight, and had to scramble to find alternative customers. How? In part by storytelling: Georgia’s tale is unique. The world relished it. Over the last half-decade, it’s been hard to find a wine-lover who didn’t dream of heading to Tbilisi.

This wasn’t, after all, ‘just another’ wine-producing country. Present-day Georgia may occupy the land where the vine itself was first domesticated; it’s recently surrendered to archaeological attention the world’s earliest pure-wine residues, dating back some 8,000 years. It has an extraordinary patrimony of indigenous varieties, and unique wine-making techniques, too, unchanged for a millennium or more; these have proved seductively interesting for the natural wine movement worldwide, and for those who perceive modern winemaking as an impasse.

Wine lovers reaching Georgia discovered a country where the tendrils of the vine weave church, state and national culture together in a tapestry without parallel elsewhere.

My first meeting in 2013 was with Metropolitan David of Alaverdi, one of the country’s leading ecclesiastics, who told me that, for Georgians, growing vines and making wine “was always a road back to God”, that the birth of wine inside a maternal qvevri was “like a prayer,” and that history had decreed that Georgia “became the Lord’s vineyard”. None of this sounds strange to Georgian ears.

Earlier this month I met Levan Davitashvili, Georgia’s Minister of Agriculture and Environment – whose former roles, significantly, had included working as the head of Georgia’s National Wine Agency, as well as promoting the German-owned Schuchmann Winery. Until recently, over half the Georgian work force was involved in agriculture, of which viticulture is often the most prominent segment. Even urban Georgians make their own wine, in garages and on balconies; vines leaves and grape bunches beckon everywhere in the national iconography, in wooden carvings, in stone friezes and details; the Georgian toastmaster or tamada is a unique figure unmatched in any other culture, likewise of great antiquity. It was Georgia that Bordeaux’s Cité du Vin chose as its debut ‘Guest Wine Region’ last year.

The Russian ban was lifted in 2013 and the last five years have seen a whirlwind of national development. Russians quickly rediscovered their passion for Georgian wine – while the Ukrainians never lost it, so between them these two countries take most of the country’s exports (Russia alone accounted for 51% of wine exports in 2016). Georgia, though, has managed to negotiate and sign free-trade agreements with both the EU and, more recently, China.

Sales to China doubled in a single year between 2015 and 2016 and continue to grow; Minister Davitashvili told me that it’s now the third largest export destination for Georgian wine. Moreover China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to make Eurasia (under Chinese domination) an economic and trading counterweight to the trans-Atlantic zone (dominated by the USA), looks certain to benefit Georgia further and to increase commercial ties between the two nations.

Any foil to Russian influence is generally welcomed in Georgia (whose initiatives towards the EU were widely seen as the true reason behind Russia’s 2006 wine embargo); the loss of control over Tskhinvali and Abkhasia still smarts in Tibilisi, and Levan Davitashvili pointed out that despite the renaissance of trade with Russia “there are lines that we can’t accept – [like] occupation, and this is something that our Russian colleagues should also understand”.

In terms of tourism and inward investment, too, Georgia has seen an explosion of interest and activity not least from Russians themselves, who relish Georgia’s food and wine — and its openness and intellectual freedom of expression, a contrast to the oppressive, dissent-silencing atmosphere at home. Iranians, Azeris and Middle Eastern tourists, meanwhile, are flocking to Tiblisi’s new casinos and luxury hotels, while Turkish and Chinese entrepreneurs are setting up their own private businesses in Georgia, as are Iranian farming entrepreneurs. Western European hipsters arrive for Georgia’s electronic music scene, regarded as being second only to Berlin in terms of creativity. “We are a small country and we need to be liberal and open,” said Levan Davitashvili. “That is our philosophy.”

The problem for Georgia’s wine producers is that traditional markets like Russia and the Ukraine remain preponderantly low-value, and the China trade could easily slide in the same direction. “Most of Georgia’s existing external wine trade is below US$2 a bottle,” says Zurab Margvelashvili of Tbilvino. “That is not good for Georgia.”

“People have a sympathy for Georgia,” says Dr Philippe Lespy, the former Mouton-Rothschild chef de culture who for the last five years has worked for GWS, the Georgian Wine and Spirits company which, together with Ch Mukhrani, is owned by the Swiss-domiciled Swedish billionaire Frederik Paulsen. “But the good feeling is just a feeling. It’s not enough, when our best competitor is producing wine at just US$1 a bottle. We have fabulous potential, but we will never compete if we carry on doing that. We need a standard level and a cru level, and every company needs to start to aim for 15 per cent at a cru level.” Ukraine, Russia and China are all very well, in other words, but Georgia also needs the high-quality markets of western Europe, the USA and Japan.

Recent books on Georgian wine published by Alice Feiring (For the Love of Wine: my odyssey through the world’s most ancient wine culture), Miquel Hudin and Daria Kholodilina (Georgia: A guide to the Cradle of Wine), Carla Capalbo (Tasting Georgia: a food and wine journey in the Caucasus) and Matthew Horkey and Charine Tan (Uncorking the Caucasus), as well as a forthcoming book by Simon Woolf on amber wines (Amber Revolution), would seem to indicate extensive western interest; there is excellent work here, notably from Capablo. Much of the media attention on Georgia so far has focussed on a small number of artisan wine producers working with natural-wine practices. Alice Feiring, indeed, has couched her work as a kind of combat or campaign against ‘modernization’ in Georgia. Adversarial conceits of this sort don’t necessarily serve either the national interest or the broader community of global wine consumers.

The cultural appropriation of qvevri wine styles by advocates of natural wine, moreover, is the source of some frustration among Georgian wine producers, especially given the variable success rate of wines produced in this way by any but the very highest standards. Every qvevri is, potentially, a microbiological jungle, a sensorial car crash, a celebration of hideousness – unless the vessel itself has been scrupulously prepared, unless the harvest has been carefully sorted and cleaned, unless the vinification practices have been honed and refined. It’s sometimes said that an element of unpredictability is inherent to the style. I asked Georgia’s most accomplished qvevri wine-maker, Dr Giorgi Dakishvili, if he can be sure how one of his wines will turn out in terms of its broad profile and scope. “I know,” he replied. Accidents should not happen.

Because of its recent problems with deviant natural wines, Georgia has now introduced a requirement for obligatory tasting of any wine destined for export produced in quantities of over 3,000 litres – except, frustratingly, for wines with less than 40 mg/l of sulphur, where caveat emptor must always hold (and for which volumes will always be small).

Sales to developed markets are, though, increasing, and the fact that a UK supermarket like Marks & Spencer has the confidence to sell Tbilvino’s Qvevris (fine value at £8 a bottle) is surely a sign that consumers are ready for what Georgia (and only Georgia) has to offer.

I checked some of the consumer reaction to this wine on Marks & Spencer’s website. “Very nice interesting wine, orange in colour. I would say it is more like a red wine, even though the reviews say it is more like a sherry. I would definitely buy this wine again,” says ‘liksey26’, a 45-54-year-old woman from Stoke-on-Trent; while ‘buauka’ from Birmingham, a woman in the same age group, said “I wanted a different wine and I got it! The colour of the wine is deep yellow compared to other whites available on the market which are pale. It has a wonderful taste of apple in my opinion but is also very complex. It makes it slightly heavy, though. Reviews say that it is good to drink with sea food but I had it with garlicky chicken and was great. I’m definitely buying it again.” Good notes.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the fact that a Georgian sumo wrestler called Levan Gorgadze (known locally as Tochinoshin) won the Emperor’s Cup this January will probably help sales of Georgian wine there more than any amount of journalistic urging.

During this second visit to Georgia, I concentrated on tasting a range of wines from larger companies, those comprising the bulk of the country’s export offer, as well as a range of micro-vinified experimental wines from some of Georgia’s many indigenous varieties made at the country’s viticultural research station at Mtskheta. Tasting notes on some of these wines follow next week.

Read more Andrew Jefford columns on Decanter.com

Anyone with a case of fine Burgundy in the cellar should pay homage to ancient ancestors in Georgia, suggests new research.

Not only does the latest evidence back-up theories that Georgia was the birthplace of modern wine culture, but it also suggests that wine is at least 500 years older than first thought.

A team led by professor Patrick McGovern – known in some circles as the ‘Indiana Jones of ancient wine’ – collected and analysed organic compounds found on ancient pottery shards in Georgia.

Their results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US, ‘provide the earliest biomolecular archaeological evidence for grape wine and viniculture from the Near East, at ca. 6,000–5,800 BC’.

It’s hard to be 100 percent sure that this region was where wine was first produced, but it is believed to be where vitis vinifera was first cultivated by communities.

Vitis vinifera cultivars, from Cabernet Sauvignon to Sangiovese, make up 99.9% of the world’s wine production today.

The team said important next steps would be trying to narrow down exactly where in the general region wines were first produced from cultivated vines.

‘We’ve been working on this project for the last three years,’ McGovern recently told Decanter.com columnist Andrew Jefford after giving a talk in Bordeaux.

‘We’ve re-excavated sites at Shulaveris Gora and Gadachrili Gora, taking much more care with the samples than was formerly possible.’

However, he said that there was still much research to be done elsewhere.

‘There were developments in eastern Turkey; Iran is very poorly explored; the true wild vine still grows in Lebanon but it hasn’t been sampled properly; humans would first have discovered the vine when they came north out of Africa in Palestine and Lebanon.

‘We’re really just trying to work out where the first domestication occurred, and Georgia is right in the centre of it all,’ said McGovern, who is scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.

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The world’s foremost authority on ancient drinking swung through Bordeaux’s handsome Cité du Vin recently, on a mission to tantalize. More of what I learned from him in a moment. First, though, a little background.

Patrick McGovern studied undergrad chemistry at Cornell, but took a minor in English literature, too, and was fascinated with ancient history. This led to a Ph.D in Near Eastern Archaeology and Literature from the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania. Having begun his career studying pottery and glass colorants of the ancient Near East, he next turned to a celebrated organic substance of the Canaanites and Phoenicians: ‘royal purple’ or Tyrian purple (extracted from the murex shell, and once the most expensive dye in the world). That led him to specialise in ‘ancient organics’ more generally, and in particular the residues left inside pottery fragments and shards.

Archeologists formerly were able to do little more than speculate about what the pots they found contained; indeed, they often briskly cleaned away the residues with sulphuric acid. The inventions of gas and liquid chromatography changed that. Now they were able not simply to see and to touch the pot, but to discover what was in it.

Or some of it. Not alcohol, alas: it evaporates and disappears entirely, like some holy ghost, so McGovern’s first big challenge was to find ‘markers’ for different alcoholic beverages. For wine, he settled on the presence of tartaric acid in large quantities and other acids in smaller quantities (by comparison with local soils), while alcoholic drinks made by fermenting honey contain beeswax compounds. Beer is more complicated, in that it can be produced from a wide variety of grains and starches, each of which leaves a different signature.

McGovern’s discoveries during a 40-year career have been fascinating (many of them are summarized in his book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer and other Alcoholic Beverages). Here’s one: the ‘pure’ wine we are used to in the modern world was almost unheard of in the distant past. Wine as such was almost always flavoured with resin, herbs, roots, flowers, even sea water, for medicinal or aesthetic reasons. Not only that, but our distant forbears thought nothing of mixing together different drinks: wine, mead and beer, for example.

“The University of Pennsylvania had investigated what was called the Midas Tumulus in Anatolia in the 1950s,” recalled McGovern. “It was either the burial place of King Midas or of his father Gordias. It contained the largest iron-age drinking set ever found, and inside that were the residues of the funerary feast; they’d been brought back to the University of Pennsylvania in bags. Thirty years later, I was able to examine them. We found out that it was a very complicated mixture of grape, barley beer and honey mead.” This excavation was dated to 740-700 BC – but the story was a similar one at a much, much older Chinese site, that of Jiahu in Henan Province (7,000 BC – 6,600 BC), where rice beer had been mixed with fermented honey, grape must and hawthorn. “It seems that mostly in ancient times human beings did mix together different sugar sources to get higher alcohol.”

Inadvertently, McGovern’s work on recreating some of these ancient brews with Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware helped spark the ‘extreme beverage’ movement in the USA, where flavourings and fusions are the norm and where no combination is ever too outlandish. British drinkers knocking back ‘Black Velvet’ (Guinness with Champagne) are truer to our drinking roots than those who sniff at the very idea.

The reason for McGovern’s recent trip to the Cité du Vin was that it had chosen to feature Georgia for its first ever Guest Wine Region, precisely because of the astonishing antiquity and complexity of its wine culture. The centre is currently displaying an impressive exhibition of items, some of which had left Georgia for the first time – and one of the major projects in which McGovern has been recently involved has been in Georgia.

Globally speaking, the key zone for early wine research is the land which lies between the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean: two of McGovern’s previous grape wine finds, for example, had come from the excavations at Godin Tepe (in the Zagros mountains in north-western Iran – 3,400 BC to 3,000 BC) and at Hajji Firuz Tepe (further north in Iran, close to Lake Urmia — 5,400-5,000 BC). The latest Georgian project will, it is hoped, set the clock back further and more precisely. But how far? And will the analysis of Georgia’s ‘ancient organics’ reveal a location where, for once, the local drinkers weren’t busy mixing and fermenting anything and everything they could get their hands on, but were content to make and to drink pure grape wine alone?

The professor, frustratingly for those of us present at his lecture, turned sphinx-like at this point. The rigour imposed by imminent publication of the project’s results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA meant that he couldn’t yet reveal the results, and especially not to the prattling press. I did, though, notice that the Georgians present were looking chipper. Watch out for news in due course.

Afterwards, I asked McGovern for a little more context. “We’ve been working on this project for the last three years. Georgia obviously has a very long tradition, and the project has been multi-disciplinary, with an excavation aspect to it. We’ve re-excavated sites at Shulaveris Gora and Gadachrili Gora, taking much more care with the samples than was formerly possible. The result is some of the earliest pottery in the world; it comes from the right area; it has all the right climatic conditions; it’s the world centre of the grape vine; it’s positioned very well to have some of the earliest winemaking. But you also have to consider the surrounding areas. There were developments in eastern Turkey; Iran is very poorly explored; the true wild vine still grows in Lebanon but it hasn’t been sampled properly; humans would first have discovered the vine when they came north out of Africa in Palestine and Lebanon. We’re really just trying to work out where the first domestication occurred, and Georgia is right in the centre of it all.”

Come on, Patrick: will be we ever be able to say that somewhere (somewhere like Georgia, say) truly was ‘the birthplace of wine’? “Maybe. Especially if DNA analysis becomes more exacting. If we could locate material containing genes for sex, colour, amount of sugar, thinness of skin and so on, and back it up by radiocarbon dating, then that really would be a strong argument for domestication in just that one place.”

Two final perspectives. Every archaeologist knows that only that which has been found can be analysed – and the key finds may as yet be unfound, so no account is ever definitive. In this respect, McGovern is at pains to stress the unique antiquity of Chinese culture. “Maybe archeological investigation will eventually show that China did domesticate at a much earlier date, because they are earlier in many other areas. Much of the pottery from the Middle East is around 6,000 BC; in China it’s 16,000 BC. So they have a 10,000-year edge on the Middle East, which is supposedly ‘the cradle of civilisation’. That was a great shock to me when I first went to China.”

McGovern also points out how rare it is to investigate ‘ancient organics’ and not find traces of alcohol. Only the native American and Australian peoples seem not to have used alcohol at all – but, thinks McGovern, they must have stumbled on it via fermented honey or squashed fruits at some point; wild fermentation is hard to avoid. “Maybe there was some sort of mini-prohibition movement; maybe the gods told them to leave it alone. Native Americans had tobacco, so perhaps they decided that was sufficient.”

These, he stresses, are the exceptions. “I think there is a really strong argument to be made that alcoholic beverages have always been important to humans. You need food to exist. But if you want to have a good time, if you want to have something safer than water to drink, if you want to have something to take medicine in and so live longer, if you want social lubrication, if you want a nice sleep, if you want to up your sexual relations and produce more children, then alcoholic beverages help. Then you get into the mind-altering effect, more or less having a mystery of sorts in that there seems to be some supernatural force at work both in fermentation and in your brain. You can relate that to some meaning in the universe, and that’s why alcoholic beverages are usually incorporated right at the centre of all religions.” Rather than being some sort of cultural exclusivity of ‘the western world’, look far enough back and the tender use of alcohol to ease the bitterness of life may be what unites us all.

More Andrew Jefford columns on Decanter.com:

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A school and cultural center dedicated to preserving the ancient craft of producing qvevri has been built in Georgia's main wine region, Kakheti.

New qvevri school to open in Georgia

The Qvevri School and Academy, located in the town of Ikalto, 110 km east of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is set to open in mid-2017.

Qvevri are the clay, amphora-like vessels used for the fermentation and ageing of Georgian wine.

In addition to classes and workshops by local artisans, the school and academy will comprise of departments for research and tourism for Georgian wine regions.

• Decanter travel guide: Georgia

‘The school will have a scientific research centre for studying how clay from different periods [of history] were used in making different kinds of vessels,’ says Bishop Davit Makharadze of the wine-producing Alaverdi Monastery in Kakheti, and who helped develop the concept for the school.

‘Also, we are also considering to conduct classes in foreign languages as there is a growing interest from foreigners in our heritage.’

The project has been financed by the World Bank Group, costing over $1 million, and is being implemented by the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia under the country’s Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure.

• Concrete eggs in the winery – ask Decanter

Qvevri winemaking

Georgia’s traditional qvevri winemaking method involves pouring crushed grapes with their juice, stalks and pips into the hand-made clay vessels, which are then sealed and buried in the earth for fermentation and ageing to take place.

It dates back several thousands of years in Georgia, which is often called the ‘cradle of wine’ because of its 8000-year wine history.

As there is little, if any, chemical or technological intervention, this method has gained a strong following by natural wine producers throughout the world, including the United States, France, Italy, Croatia and Austria.

• Orange wines: It’s time to get in touch

‘I like the style of wine from a qvevri, because it is so ‘close to the earth’,’ says Manuel Ploder of Weingut Ploder-Rosenberg in Steiermark, Austria.

‘Everything takes its time. There is such a nice expression of the phenols. The flow of energy is so good. In fact, I am looking to buy more Georgian qvevri.’

Only a handful of qvevri artisans still practice the craft in Georgia, mainly the Kakheti and Imereti regions. Production of Georgian qvevri has been listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

24 hours in Georgia

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Ancient wine history, unique grapes and qvevri vessels, plus an exciting food culture make this country a must for the adventurous wine traveller, as Carla Capalbo discovers...

Georgia travel guide

FACT FILE

Planted area 45,000ha

Grape varieties There are hundreds, but the most popular include (red) Saperavi, Tavkveri and Chkhaveri; (white) Rkatsiteli, Chinuri and Mtsvane

Production 1,000,000hl, of which qvevri wines are a fraction

There’s a lot of buzz at the moment about Georgia, the country in the Caucasus mountains at the crossroads between eastern Europe and Asia, where evidence of grapes and traces of wine residue have been found in archaelogical digs from 8,000 years ago.

• Spend a perfect day in Georgia

Ancient too is the Georgian tradition of making wine in very large terracotta pots called qvevri that are buried in the ground. What’s remarkable is that this method has been used uninterruptedly for millennia in Georgia and continues today. In 2013, UNESCO registered the qvevri method on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Essentially, the grapes are crushed and placed in the qvevri and the wine ferments and ages there naturally, at ground temperature. Sediment falls by gravity and amasses in the qvevri’s pointed bottom.

Having great grapes is key. Today the country boasts more than 400 native varieties, though many others are thought to have been lost. The most popular are the lightly perfumed white – and often amber – Rkatsiteli and inky red Saperavi. Other distinctive whites include aromatic Mtsvane, crisp Chinuri, full-bodied Tsolikouri and the recently revived Kisi, which had all but disappeared in Soviet times.

Similarly, many discontinued red grapes are being replanted to complement the ubiquitous Saperavi. These include Tavkveri, Shavkapito, Chkhaveri and Ojaleshi. The wines these reds produce vary enormously depending on their terroirs: when planted in the rich river valleys they produce more body and colour; on higher slopes their perfumes and acidity increase, as do their distinct aromas.

• Georgia: Restaurants, hotels and shops

Qvevri curiosity

Thanks to a few pioneering European winemakers – including Josko Gravner in Italy, who started using Georgian qvevri decades ago – others have become curious about discovering wine’s origins and visiting Georgia. And they love what they find. Georgian hospitality is a matter of national pride, as are the supra: elaborate feasts prepared for guests and other celebrations.

‘It’s been surprising to see how interested international wine enthusiasts are in our qvevri,’ says Ramaz Nikoladze, one of the leaders of the new Georgian winemaking movement, who grows his native grapes – like white Tsolikouri – organically near Kutaisi. ‘Particularly as we’ve always used them. People still live off the land here. Almost every household had vine plants trained among their fruit trees, and a qvevri buried in the cellar or yard to make the family’s wine in.’ (www.facebook.com/rnikoladze).

This growing number of independent wineries – many tiny – produce qvevri wines and are attracting fans and distributors from Australia, to the US and the UK. Nearby at Terjola (+995 551577751), Gogita Makaridze has created a small co-op, making elegant red Otskhanuri Sapere wines in his qvevri cellar.

A small number of potters still exist who produce the qvevri by hand – think giant coil pots – including Zaliko Bodjadze, whose pottery is easy to spot on the road from Tbilisi to Imereti (qvevri.maqatubani@yahoo.com).

Larger-scale viticulture exists too, much of it aimed at the Russian market. Those wines tend instead to follow European models, using steel tanks and wooden barrels. The Russians also favour sweeter – often sweetened – wines.

Georgia’s political history is complex and reflects the country’s desirability both for its strategic position between the Black Sea, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and its natural beauty and almost Mediterranean climate that allows for the success of many crops that can’t be grown further north or south. (It’s best to go in spring or autumn to avoid the very hot summers). This includes grapes grown on the mountains slopes and in the fertile valleys throughout central and eastern Georgia. But winemaking has not always been allowed to continue peacefully.

Unique wine and food

‘Over three centuries of Ottoman rule, the historic vine-terraced valleys of Meskheti, in southwestern Georgia near Turkey, were decimated, and winemaking villages and qvevri razed,’ says Giorgi Natenadze (natenadzeg10@gmail.com) a young winemaker who is ambitiously working to revive that area’s traditional viticulture.

With advance notice, he’ll accompany visitors along the dramatic Mtkvari river valley from Akhaltsikhe to the ancient village of Chachkari which provided wine for the cave city of Vardzia (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) in the 12th century.

• Seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites to visit

During the Soviet era, independent wineries were merged into huge co-ops where poor-quality wine was made. Many of those giant vineyards are now being broken up and bought by a new generation of winemakers who see traditional qvevri wines as the best way of spreading the word about Georgia’s native grapes and wines, as well as its exciting food culture.

‘Georgian meals simultaneously offer a range of dishes, from cheesy khachapuri pies and potato dumplings to pickled blossoms, vegetables with walnut pastes, and herbed meat stews. It takes an unusual wine to marry well with each of these sensations, and our so-called orange, skin-macerated white wines do this brilliantly,’ says Iago Bitarishvili, whose wife, Marina Kurtanidze – Georgia’s first female winemaker at Mandili – cooks for visitors to their winery (facebook.com/Iagos-Wine). They are not far from Saguramo, the Georgian national grapevine collection and nursery, where 400 native varieties are grown (saguramoagro@yahoo.com).

Georgia is wedged between the Caucasus mountain ranges. There it is too high to grow grapes, but the spectacular mountain scenery and ancient villages are worth exploring. The main wine regions, from Kakheti in the east and Imereti, Racha and Samegrelo in the west, are within a few hours’ drive from the more central Tbilisi, the handsome capital city.

The country has the same area as Scotland or Ireland, so it’s possible to cover a lot of ground in one week. The best way to travel is by car, ideally with a Georgian driver who is accustomed to navigating the roads – and the cows. Animals roam free in Georgia, a symbol of the independence the Georgians so deeply want to maintain.

How to get there

Georgian is a unique language and few people outside Tbilisi speak English, so the best way to travel or plan a trip is through a local agency. Living Roots specialises in food and wine tours and can help with your transport, itinerary and more. www.travellivingroots.com

Several airlines fly to Tbilisi with a stopover or, depending on your departure airport, you may be lucky to get a direct flight. Don’t be alarmed if you see your flight arriving in the early hours of the morning – most do, and hotels are used to sending cars to pick passengers up at that time as Georgia has no night-fly restrictions.

Carla Capalbo is a food, wine and travel writer. Her book, Tasting Georgia: a food & wine journey in the Caucasus, will be published in 2016.

Spend a perfect day in Georgia, visiting cellars, vineyards and enjoying local cuisine...

24 hours in Georgia

Morning

Drive east from Tbilisi towards Kakheti and make your first stop after about an hour at Niki Antadze’s cellar, near Manavi. Antadze is one of Georgia’s most respected natural winemakers, and works with old vines of Mtsvane Kakhuri and Rkatsiteli for his delicious skin-macerated wines (nikiantadze@gmail.com). From there it’s another hour to Sighnaghi, a stunning hilltop town surrounded by prime wine country. John Okruashvili’s handsome cellar is bang in the centre of town, with qvevris buried below the newly constructed tasting rooms (en-gb.facebook.com/okrojohn).

• Decanter travel guide: Georgia

Lunch

John H Wurdeman V, an American who has lived in Georgia for decades, is one of the key figures in Georgian wine, not only as a winemaker at Pheasant’s Tears but as its enthusiastic ambassador. He and his wife, Keto, a skilled Georgian polyphonic singer, own a restaurant in Sighnaghi serving some of Georgia’s best food. After lunch drive down to see their new cellar and vineyards in the valley (www.pheasantstears.com).

• Georgia: Restaurants, hotels and shops

Afternoon

Drive northwest for 90 minutes to see the 11th-century Alaverdi monastery that still produces qvevri wines (www.since1011.com). From there it’s a short hop to visit Gogi and Temur Dakishvili’s lovely family vineyards outside Telavi where you can taste red Saperavi and white Kisi (www.vitavinea.ge).

Evening

Just outside of Telavi, at Shuamta, is one of Georgia’s best-loved restaurants, Nikala. Chef Niko Kobishvili prepares many local favourites in an eatery composed of several rooms and houses (kobishvililasha@yahoo.com). Marleta B&B in Telavi is one of the most attractive and personal family-run hotels in Georgia, filled with artworks by the owner’s family, and serves lovely informal food (cafemarleta@gmail.com).

Carla Capalbo picks out the best places to eat, drink and shop on your wine holiday in Georgia...

Georgia hotels

Hotel Ghomi 19

In the old part of Tbilisi, this hotel has the best views in the city, is unpretentious and incredibly welcoming. Email for bookings. hotelgomi19@gmail.com

Rooms Hotel

A stylish, designer hotel in central Tbilisi, with a sister hotel in the breathtaking mountains of Kasbegi. Rooms from £131 per night. www.roomshotels.com

Hotel Pirosmani

In Sighnaghi, this is an affordable, attractive hotel in one of the town’s central squares. Rooms from £27 a night. www.rcheuli.ge

Hotel Kabadoni

Sighnaghi’s top hotel, with great views and a spa. Rooms from £56 a night. kabatoni.ge

• Decanter travel guide: Georgia

Georgia restaurants

Vino Underground

The heart of Georgia’s ‘natural’ wine movement, this central Tbilisi wine bar (offering some food) is co-owned by eight winemakers and has all the best qvevri wines to drink there or buy.

15 Tabidze St. www.vinounderground.ge

Azarphesha

A relaxed, wine-driven restaurant in Tbilisi; popular with many qvevri winemakers. www.azarphesha.com

Shavi Lomi

Chef Meriko Gubeladze is one of the country’s culinary stars, intent on modernising Georgian food without losing its soul. Her bohemian restaurant in Tbilisi has great atmosphere and delicious food. shavilomi@gmail.com

Tekuna Gachechiladze at Culinarium

Popular TV chef Tekuna Gachechiladze brings Georgian flavours into the modern era with flair and a light hand at her Tbilisi restaurant. www.culinarium.ge

Pilpili

At this elegant, country-style restaurant in the cellar of another more popular eatery, cooks prepare traditional Georgian cuisine, changing region every two months. 114 Aghmashenebeli Ave,Tbilisi. Tel: +995 322940855

Restaurant Diaroni

This eatery in Zugdidi, 300km from Tbilisi, has the finest western- Georgian food. diaroni2007@mail.ru

• Spend the perfect day in Georgia

Georgia shops

The Georgian Basket

This well-stocked cheese, wine and food shop in Tbilisi is the perfect place for presents and goods to bring home. 33 Leselidze St.

Prospero’s Books

The best English-language bookshop in Tbilisi, complete with a pretty outdoor café – great for meeting friends. www.prosperosbookshop.com

Georgia's government has agreed to fund a new winery that is set to be one of the country's largest, as part of plans to overhaul the sector and increase exports.

Georgia’s traditional winemaking technique, using earthenware qvevri, got UNESCO World Heritage status in 2013.

Government funding will be provided to build a new winery in the area of Keda, in Adjara, a ministry of agriculture spokesperson told Decanter.com.

Financial details were not disclosed, but the winery is set to have a processing capacity of 12,000 tonnes of grapes per year and this could be increased further in future. More wineries could also be funded in future.

The news comes several months after the European Union ended import tariffs on Georgian wine. Its move appeared partly designed as a political rebuff to Russia, which is traditionally the largest export market for Georgian wine but which has periodically banned imports in recent years, citing safety concerns.

Annual sales of Georgian wine, including both domestic and export, were 300m lari (US$167.5m) last year and are expected to be 330m lari in 2014.

According to Georgia’s National Wine Agency, wine export volumes in 2013 reached 44.6m bottles, up from 23.3m a year earlier. Exports were 42.8m for the first nine months of the current year.

As well as funding winery construction, Georgia’s government plans to extend its policy of offering cut-price loans to farmers.

It is also intends to reform the current vineyard certification system and quality controls on wine.

The ministry spokesperson said officials have already begun to issue maximum crop levels for different regions, while a state tasting commission has been established to better assess wine quality.

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Written by Eugene Gerden

Georgia's traditional winemaking method of fermenting grapes in earthenware, egg-shaped vessels has been added to the world heritage list of the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (UNESCO).

Georgia’s traditional winemaking method of fermenting grapes in earthenware, egg-shaped vessels has been added to the world heritage list of the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (UNESCO).

The UN body said this month that Georgia’s ancient qvevri winemaking method is part of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

It joins a relatively exclusive club of wine-related items recognised by UNESCO, including the areas of Tokaj, St Emilion, the Upper Douro and the island of Hvar.

The large earthenware vessels traditionally used to ferment grapes in Georgia are called qvevri and archaeological evidence of their use goes back 8,000 years.

They are typically buried in the floor of the cellar or Marani, a semi-sacred place to most Georgians and found in almost every house.

The practice has recently spread to other countries, such as Slovenia, Italy, Armenia, Croatia and even the US, alongside current interest in natural and orange wines.

UNESCO said, ‘the tradition plays a vital role in everyday life and celebrations, and forms an inseparable part of the cultural identity of Georgian communities, with wine and vines frequently evoked in Georgian oral traditions and songs.’

Lado Uzunashvili, winemaker at Chateau Mukhrani in Georgia’s Kartli and Orovela in Kakheti, told decanter.com, ‘It will help us to promote the authenticity of our traditional way of winemaking, as well as what has been built on this tradition.’

He added, ‘furthermore, all the attempts to compete with Georgia in claiming the name of oldest and most unique wine country are proved futile after such recognition.’

Written by Caroline Gilby MW

An end to the Russian ban on Georgian wine imports is looking increasingly probable in 2013, according to industry professionals.

Kremlin sources say ban will be lifted

Pavel Titov, chairman of Russia’s oldest sparkling wine producer, Abrau-Durso, told Decanter.com sources in the Kremlin had confirmed that after initial discussions, Russia would ‘most likely’ start importing Georgian wine before the end of the year.

‘We must remember that the ban was not solely political, Georgian wine quality has improved immensely since the initial enactment of the ban. Russia had to protect itself from being flooded with cheap, low quality wine,’ Titov said.

Russia’s ban on all imports of Georgian and Moldovan wine in 2006 was condemned by Georgia as politically motivated, and illegal.

Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary inspector who presided over the ban, told the Russian press on Monday a Russian delegation will visit Georgia this month to discuss resuming the import of Georgian wine.

‘All the indications are that Russia will start importing from Georgia this year, it is unlikely that we will take steps back at this stage,’ Titov added.

Written by James Lawrence

Two developments the past week have stirred hopes for Georgia's wine producers, who have been banned from exporting to Russia for more than six years.

Georgia: ‘exported 89% to Russia’

Russia banned imports of Georgian wine in 2006 after its military conflict with the former Soviet state, citing poor quality as the reason, while Georgia – which until had exported 89% of all its wine to Russia – denounced the ban as politically motivated, and illegal.

Now, following Georgia’s recent government elections, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov last week said, ‘When they tell us Georgia wants to further improve relations, we are ready to discuss resuming imports of Georgian agricultural products as well.’

Lavrov said a meeting with Georgia’s commercial envoy to Russia will occur soon. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that following recent Georgian applications to Russia to resume trading relations, officials are ready to discuss the resumption of Georgian wine imports.

Georgia’s Ministry of Agriculture has appointed Levan Davitashvili, a former director of Schuchmann Wines, one of Georgia’s major wine companies, to direct its National Wine Agency.

Davitashvili’s tasks will focus upon the competitiveness and quality of Georgian wine and developing new markets.

Since the ban, Georgia has found new export markets but Davitashvili said ‘the agency will be working towards the return to the Russian market’, whose potential he said made it the most important by far.

But some find the new developments of mixed value. While a strong supporter of Davitashvili for his ‘extensive wine knowledge and industry experience without any biased connection’, Keith Johnsen of US importer Daqopa Brands expressed concern that the former Russian market would be a ‘gigantic distraction’ which might influence Georgian wineries to tailor their vinification methods to suit it.

They would produce half-sweet reds in keeping with the Russian palate, thereby not exploiting the potential American market, he said.

Georgian wineries won 28 medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2012, inlcuding two silver medals. The majority were the blends of the country’s indigenous red grape, Saperavi.

Written by David Furer

Relics of the earliest known winery have been discovered in a cave located in Armenia's mountainous Yeghegnadzor region.

Dating to 6,100 years ago, the site includes a pressing vat, fermentation jars, a cup, drinking bowls, and the remains of crushed grapes, leaves and vines from Vitis vinifera.

The findings were published in the online edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The site, Areni-1, ‘is distinct because the number and volume of the vessels found suggests wine was produced here in commercial qualities from domesticated grapes,’ according to Dr Boris Gasparian, one of the excavation’s leaders.

The site pre-dates others in neighbouring Georgia, thought to be the world’s oldest for wine production. The cave was discovered in 1997.

University of Pennsylvania professor Patrick McGovern, author of the 2010 book Uncorking the Past, who was not part of the research team told Decanter.com, ‘Areni looks like an extremely important site for early winemaking.’

Another scientist, Stefan K. Estreicher, of Texas Tech University and author of Wine: From Neolithic Times to the 21st Century, told the New York Times the Armenian discovery showed how important wine was to that society, as ‘they spent a lot of time and effort to build a facility to use only once a year’ when grapes were harvested.

It is thought that the wine would have been used for ritual purposes, as other evidence points to the cave being used for rituals by high-status individuals. Burial pits were discovered nearby and scientists suggest the wine would have been drunk to appease the dead, or sprinkled on the bodies during burial.

On a related note, Milan-based fashion designer Zorik Gharibian’s ‘Zorah’ vineyards and winery, 4km away from the site in the village of Rind, harvested its first crop of a wine to be entitled ‘6000’, a reference to its neighbour’s age.

Written by David Furer

A Georgian archbishop has been awarded the Masi International Wine Prize for his services to the country's wine industry.

Archbishop Sergi Chekurishvili of Nekresi joins a long list of illustrious prize winners including UK wine writer Hugh Johnson, Napa legend Robert Mondavi and Emile Peynaud, the most renowned of the great Bordeaux oenologists.

The Masi committee said the unusual choice of the religious leader – whose diocese includes the wine region of Kakheti – was due to his support for the country’s beleagured winemakers.

A spokesperson for Masi told Decanter.com: ‘In the difficult current political situation, where access to traditional markets is under embargo from the Russians, Metropolitan Sergi has acted to educate Georgian wine producers in their own traditions and to find modern technological solutions that will open up new global markets.

‘ This is a welcome boost for the Georgian wine industry after Russia, which accounted for 80% of its wine sales, banned Georgian wine imports in 2006.

Georgia, believed to be the birthplace of winemaking, also played host to the International Organisation for Vine and Wine (OIV) annual conference this year.

The Archbishop will receive the award at a ceremony on 25 September.

Written by Rebecca Gibb

Playlist 20 Videos

Video: Georgian winner at the DWWA 01:28

DWWA 2017 Judging Week video 01:58

DWWA: Find out what our judges have to say... 01:13

DWWA 2013: How the International Trophies are judged 01:49

Video: DWWA 2013 presentation dinner 04:55

Video: DWWA 2012 presentation dinner 04:00

Video: DWWA 2012 tasting at Decanter's Blue Fin Building 02:21

DWWA 2012: The countdown to DWWA results day 02:10

DWWA 2011: How the International Trophies are judged 02:11

DWWA 2011: Video: Jose Alberto Zuccardi 03:43

DWWA 2011: Video: Demei Li 03:06

DWWA 2011: Video: Marco Baldini 03:03

Video: DWWA 2011 presentation dinner 03:36

Video: DWWA Judging week 02:27

Video: DWWA Warehouse: What happens next? 01:42

Video: Comment vous inscrire au Decanter World Wine Awards 04:29

Video: How to enter the DWWA 04:20

Video: DWWA - What the Consumers Say 02:07

Video: DWWA - What the Winners Say 02:12

Video: DWWA tasting at The Sampler 00:50

Liza Bagrationi from the Badagoni wine company talks to Decanter about winning Georgia's first ever Decanter World Wine Awards trophy.

Written by

Playlist 20 Videos

Video: Georgian winner at the DWWA 01:28

DWWA 2017 Judging Week video 01:58

DWWA: Find out what our judges have to say... 01:13

DWWA 2013: How the International Trophies are judged 01:49

Video: DWWA 2013 presentation dinner 04:55

Video: DWWA 2012 presentation dinner 04:00

Video: DWWA 2012 tasting at Decanter's Blue Fin Building 02:21

DWWA 2012: The countdown to DWWA results day 02:10

DWWA 2011: How the International Trophies are judged 02:11

DWWA 2011: Video: Jose Alberto Zuccardi 03:43

DWWA 2011: Video: Demei Li 03:06

DWWA 2011: Video: Marco Baldini 03:03

Video: DWWA 2011 presentation dinner 03:36

Video: DWWA Judging week 02:27

Video: DWWA Warehouse: What happens next? 01:42

Video: Comment vous inscrire au Decanter World Wine Awards 04:29

Video: How to enter the DWWA 04:20

Video: DWWA - What the Consumers Say 02:07

Video: DWWA - What the Winners Say 02:12

Video: DWWA tasting at The Sampler 00:50