My last tasting of Georgian wines was about a year ago, and I must say I was quite surprised by those herbal chamomile notes—something I would never have expected from a wine, even a macerated one.
So, the chance to taste Georgian wines again was something I welcomed with great enthusiasm and curiosity. I couldn’t miss this event organized by Riserva Grande with the patronage of the Georgian Embassy.
Fourteen wines on tasting, five producers—whose names, as usual, are almost unpronounceable—as is the name of Tamar Tchitchiboshvili (I manage better since I can write it…), the importer of the wines we tasted.
For many years the “cellar” of the Soviet Union, Georgia has an ancient winemaking tradition. Wine has been produced here for around 8,000 years, and the qvevri—large clay vessels buried underground—is the defining element of a production style that clearly makes Georgia “a world of its own,” both in how wine is made and in what we find in the glass.
It’s a niche. A niche that can deliver extremely pleasant surprises, as well as moments of uncertainty—both on the nose and the palate. But perhaps it is precisely this sense of novelty that makes Georgian wines so intriguing and worth exploring.
Not many grape varieties in tasting: mainly Mtsvane, Rkatsiteli, and Saperavi, almost all aged in amphora. Some very interesting, others less so—but this likely reflects the inevitable transition of a country moving from a traditional, rural approach to something more precise and defined. Hopefully, this evolution won’t turn into industrialization. And hopefully, import challenges won’t drive prices too high—because while these wines are certainly capable of sparking curiosity, an excessive price could easily dampen the desire to explore them.
Gentian, incense, cider… for these rather unusual notes, I turned to Maurizio Valeriani of vinodabere.it, my “desk mate” on this Georgian day. I’ll leave it to him to provide the tasting notes—he’s certainly far more skilled than I am in that regard.
VELLINO Mtsvane 2018
Dried fruit, honey, apple, cider (6 months in amphora and 6 months in steel), smoky, savory, with great roundness and a briny finish. 93/100
VELLINO Rkatsiteli 2018
6 months in amphora, with citrus and apple on the finish and excellent mineral length. Linear but long. 92/100
BROTHERS KHUTSISHVILI Rkatsiteli
Smoky, with great mineral and iodine-driven length. Dried fruit, with a marine and floral finish. 94/100. Character.
ABDUSHELISHVILI Rkatsiteli 2019
Honey, sweet smoky notes. Slightly sweet and volatile. 85/100
ABDUSHELISHVILI Rkatsiteli 2018
Disjointed, small, and bitter. 82/100
8MILLENNIUM Rkatsiteli 2018
Mineral, gentian notes, slightly bitter with a spirit-like finish. 90/100
8MILLENNIUM Rkatsiteli 2017
Ripe fruit—apple and pear. Briny. Slight lack of sapidity. 85/100
NAPHERI Saperavi Qvevri 2019
Apple, cider, with great citrus and dried fruit length. Iodine and marine finish, with a long savory persistence. 95/100
NAPHERI Tsarapi Rkatsiteli Qvevri 2019
Gentian, ripe fruit, slightly sweet. Honey and quince. 85/100
BROTHERS KHUTSISHVILI Kisi 2017
Difficult to evaluate. Possibly corked?
VELLINO Tavkveri 2019
Red fruits—raspberry, blackberry. Simple and easy-drinking.
Reminiscent of a simple Schiava Gentile from Alto Adige. 87/100
BROTHERS KHUTSISHVILI Saperavi 2017
Blood-like notes, incense, ripe fruit. 83/100
VELLINO Saperavi 2018
Reduced, savory, somewhat limited. Olive notes and red fruit on the finish. 84/100
NAPHERI Saperavi Qvevri 2019
Great balsamic length, savory and juicy, with citrus notes. 92/100
8MILLENNIUM Saperavi 2017
Blood-like, vinous, slightly small, with floral hints. 85/10
