The fermentation of the wine is made in Kvevri, a terracotta vase, buried in the ground, in a dry palce, because moisture can damage the shape of the wine.
The Kvevri has the egg shape because is the symbol of life. This shape is used today in other countries and allows a better movement of the wine.
Georgia has registered 525 native grapes, but only 38 of them have been approved for commercial use in wine. The cepa Takveri is the most popular used to make red and rose wine.
Georgia is next Caucasus mountains bordering the Black Sea, Russia, Turkey Azerbaijão and Armenia, and close to Irã.
In 2019 I went to Georgia with the objective of knowing this country, its people and its method of wine production.
I started researching about Georgia and making contact with local producers one year before the trip. So I knew Levan ho asked me if I was interested in natural wines.
We combine a visit to his winery, located in Navasi, Mtskheta, near Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. The city of Mitskheta was the capital of Georgia in the past.
I was already aware of the kindness to the Georgian people. This was confirmed on the arrival in this country on the first visit i made the winery with Levan and his partner Joseph, coming to pick me up in the hotel.
Arriving at the place, It looked strange because it looked more like a construction. Due to the size of the Kvevri, they do not go through the winery door, so they are buried in the ground even before the winery was built. At the time of the visit the slab of the adega was still supported by scores.
How the georgians are a working people, was already wine in the Kvevri, covered with glass and sand.
I discovered that exists various capacities of Kvevri, and Levan entered in one to show his size and how to clean it. Levan told me that a good Kvevri of 1 ton costs US$675.
Before the harvest, the Kvevri is full of water to wash it. Then, for its cleaning, people pass calx inside, in order to scrape the residues. Then they use citric acid and finish with sulfúrica acid. They finish by washing the vase with a lot of water.
The grapes used to make white wine are the Chinuri and Rkatsiteli and for the red wine the Tavkveri. Natives grapes that better fits in the region.
The grapes are cached by hand and separeted from the stalks, and they go a slow and delicate process. The juice with the skin goes to Kvevri for the open fermentation process.
As wine is natural and therefore not added yest to the juice, fermentation ends alone when the yeasts dies. At this time a glass lid is placed on the Kvevri.
Ater fermentation the grape Rkatsiteli remains around 6 months wis its own skin, what gives an amber color to the wine. For the grape Chinuri it remais for 3 months with the skin. Then the wine is pumped outside and the residue is taken out to make a local brandy called Chacha.
The must of the red grape Tavkveri spends 8 days in contact with the peel.
After that visit we went to the winery of his partner, Joseph Abdushelishvili and his uncle. This winery exists for more time, so it was equipped to receive visitors.
In the cellar there was a picture of Saint Nino, responsible for bringing from Cappadocia Christianity to Georgiain the 400th century. She has in his hands a cross made of twisted vine.
In this visit, the partners prepared a table with snack to accompany the wines. In Georgia in general the name of the wines and wineries are the same of the surname of the family the produce it.
We started with the wines of Levan’s winery:
The white one of the Chinuri grape, with 12% of alcohol, was very agreeable, with good acidity, with flavour of herbs and beautiful apricot and almond aromas and spices. This wine was lighter than the orange wines I have ever tasted.
Of the same producer we tasted, the red Naperi (means Cherished) of the grape Takveri, with 11% of alcohol. It is an easy to drink light wine, with hibiscus and floral notes and red fruits. This grape has a flower with Kvevri’s Shape.
Still on this visit we tasted the great wines from of Abdushelishvili:
From cepa Rkatsiteli we proved an amber wine with 15% alcohol, that was very good, aromatic and persistent. This wine fills the mouth very elegantly. This wine won the silver medal in 2018 Kvevri wine contest.
We were shown a bottle of rose wine of the sepa Tavkvery that had a beautiful color and it was fermented without grape skin to give this color to the wine. This was a new product that there has no label yet.
On the walls of this winery our hosts proudly boasted the prizes won by Joseph Winery.
The visit was extraordinary and Levan still commented that every visitor is an envoy of god, which thrilled me a lot.
We were still invited to lunch at a local restaurant where we tasted typical Georgian dishes.
We were very well treated and we started the visits gloriously.
The generosity of the people of Georgia and the singular quality of their wines will be forever in my memory!
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