ORIGIN STORY: Georgia’s wines take you on a wild but enjoyable ride

For a visitor trying to find their way in this fabled South Caucasus vineyard paradise, the first issues are to grapple with the enormous number of local varietals and the unique wine-making methods. There are more than 40 indigenous cultivars being produced commercially across 26 micro-climates, 500 grape varieties and a mix of traditional and modern methods.

You may need to unlearn a bit of what you know about wine to appreciate Georgia’s brand. It is so unique that there are often no easy points of comparison. The wines are distinct, diverse and ancient. And they are definitely not dull. Trying them means being in for a wild, but enjoyable, ride.

The main divide in local wine making is between what Georgians call “European methods”, meaning stainless steel and barrel aging, versus traditional qvevri, or clay pot, wine making. With qvevri wine the grapes are crushed and then put together, with skins, into the giant oval qvevris which are buried underground. The result is deeply structured, dry, earthy, savoury and complex with strong tannins and flavours of dried fruit. They can also be astringent with an intense, chalky, tannic grip and unusual flavours.

Georgia’s ‘orange wine’, or amber

Notable is Georgia’s orange wine, or amber as it is called locally. This is basically white wine grapes used with red wine methods, the skin contact in the qvevri pots imparting an apricot colour. This tends to produce a wine with bold, dry, tea-like tannins and the structure of a red wine. Dried fruit, nuts, minerality and aromatic flavours are common results.

The qvevri reds produce full-bodied wines with deep, bold tastes of dark cherry, dark plum, spice and leather. Colours are intensely dark to the point of ink. All pair beautifully with food, particularly the rich, barbequed meats and strong cheeses associated with Georgian cuisine.

An added bonus of Georgia’s traditional methods is that this produces natural wines with few external inputs, rarely including sulphites. Artisanal methods are applied out of tradition and most often without seeking organic or bio-dynamic certification.

Tastings on the wine estates in Georgia tend to be rustic, but authentic. These are far from the high design and professional, commercial operations of the Cape wine farms. Although some come with an elegant boutique hotel attached, most are home-based operations where you will be invited into farm kitchens and wine cellars and be served by the wine maker or owner themselves.

The Swiss-Georgian winery Vazis Xidi – it means “wine bridge” in Georgian – in the Imereti wine region is one boutique producer that is making a virtue of tradition. It is based on husband and wife team Alex Gabunia and Rahel Zoebeli, who met in Berlin where the indifferent imported wines they drank inspired enough hubristic nerve to try making their own. They seem to know what they are doing as the results led almost immediately to awards at prestigious international wine competitions.

Their qvevri wines draw inspiration from Alex’s grandfather, a home wine maker in Soviet times, who passed on intergenerational knowledge, including full moon harvests and other local quirks. It is important, they say, to be inspired by tradition but not bound by it. Quevri-based wine-making is used but skin contact is much shorter, as is customary in Imereti region, and stainless steel tanks are used for the remainder of the aging process.

European cultivars are being grown and are producing decent results – there are wonderful Georgian Chardonnays, Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignons. But the real fun starts in sampling the local varietals. These are unique. Given that there are more than three dozen of them, a representative, not exhaustive, sampling is a good start. They are also a tad mysterious given pronunciation issues with the Georgian language’s melodic rhythms, stacked consonants and impenetrable spelling. The rewards, however, are very real.

Georgia’s premier red varietal

In reds, Saperavi is Georgia’s premier varietal, grown in nearly all regions and in neighbouring countries, including Ukraine and Moldova, and as far away as Australia. It creates dark fruit – cherry and black berry – acidity and good tannins. 

At the other end of familiarity is Danakharuli, from the Kartli region, an incredibly rare grape variety that is producing beautiful rich dark reds. Previously obscure, it has been revived by new producers, drawing from a national vine library – the National Grape Collection – where researchers and winemakers work to preserve and restore endangered varieties.

The hundreds of grape varieties involved ensures that this treasure trove can be a source of innovation almost indefinitely. Make no mistake that these are rare – some of the commercially produced cultivars may involve only a few hectares.

If you strip away the qvevri orange wine factor, which is not going to appeal to everyone, Georgia’s white cultivars made with European methods will be of most interest. Among the most popular are Rkatsiteli, previously the most commonly produced wine of the ex-Soviet Union, prized for yield, not quality. But in capable hands it is now producing exceptional wine, with medium body, a smooth finish and flavours of green apple, white peach and minerality.

Another, Mtsvane – the Georgian word for green – is crisp and refreshing with light acidity and a smooth finish. It is easy and accessible, with notes of green apple and pear. Tsolikauri, from Imereti wine region in western Georgia, where wines are more fruit-forward, has crisp acidity, medium body, clean finish and notes of lemon, green plum and fresh herbs.

Deep roots

Wine has deep roots in Georgia, part of an at-ease-with-itself culture where wine has a central role in meals, hospitality, family and social life.

Georgians are used to making wine for themselves, first and foremost. But a change in quality to promote outside interest has been under way for some time, raising standards for local and foreign markets as wine makers experiment with traditional and European methods.

Despite the clamour around qvevri and orange wines, they actually account for less than 10% of production, and are primarily for the domestic market. The majority of commercial wine makers are using European methods and targeting export markets. Nearly 80% of national production is sold abroad.

It is here that the hard work is being put in by wine makers who are investing in quality, innovating, and taking the country’s unique wines to world markets.

According to Roland Burdlashvill, chief winemaker at Schumann Winery in Kaheti, the country’s largest wine region, marketing Georgian wine means education and branding in order to build a profile abroad. Given the lack of awareness, the easiest way to get notice is through participation in competitions with blind tests that bring Georgian wine to international buyers and decision makers.

Schumann, a successful exporter, is a regular participant and medal winner at the prestigious International Wine and Spirit Competition, Vinterra, and the Decanter World Wine Awards. They and other wine makers are co-branding for export through their industry association, the Georgian Wine Association, and a government marketing body, the National Wine Agency.

Traditionally wine exports meant the ex-Soviet Union and even now Russia still account for 60% of exports. This is predominantly – but not exclusively – for the price conscious end of the market, involving mostly sweet and semi-sweet wines. 

Wine makers are diversifying away from the Russian market as fast as they can. The two countries’ intertwined history is troubled to say the least. From 2006 to 2013 Russia banned Georgian wine imports altogether. Although devastating, this did have the effect of forcing a restructuring of the wine sector, which had to improve quality and find new markets.

Growth markets currently are the European Union, the UK and US as well as Eastern Europe where Georgian wine has had a traditional presence, including Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states. Asia is a fast-growing destination, particularly China and Japan.

Heavy tannins and unfamiliar flavours

So is Georgian wine, a world unto itself, worth the trouble of investing time to understand better, or just more complicated than interesting? In answering that question a word often used among international wine critics is “polarising”. Heavy tannins and unfamiliar flavours can be interpreted as flaws, not features, particularly for qvevri wines.

Investment in developing quality wines, meanwhile, is a relatively recent phenomenon, the results of which are still landing. One prominent wine importer in Georgia, quoted in the Financial Times recently, dismisses the local wine scene as: “eight thousand years of history, 30 years of experience”.

According to Niko Dogonadze of Wine Vibes wine bar in the Imereti wine region’s very pleasant city of Kutaisi, it does not matter that customers do not have previous experience with Georgian wine, he can find a local wine to match any taste. Standing in front of a wine selection that seems limitless, he advises that people “just need to be curious” and “let go of preconceptions”. The experience that follows is more than worth it. DM

Douglas Mason is a Canadian writer living in Rosendal, Free State. He has a 30-year career at the sharp end of things in central and southern Africa as a UN peace keeper, diplomat, journalist, editor and risk analyst. He arrived in Rosendal on leave from running a boxing club for child soldiers in DRC and never left. His work has appeared in The Economist, the Globe and Mail, Business Day, Financial Mail and Daily Maverick, including assignments in Ukraine, Georgia, Iran and the DRC. In Rosendal he restores heritage buildings and runs the Service Station Wine Bar. He spent the northern summer cycling across Georgia.