A gift from Georgian Passport Control: a small bottle of wine
Alaverdi Monastery
It
was certainly a fascinating trip. Fascinating to visit a country where wine
culture is so unreservedly celebrated and enjoyed.
Sadly this is becoming more unusual in other countries, including those like
France with a strong wine tradition.
This
respect for and celebration of wine was immediately apparent when we were each
given a small bottle of wine as we cleared passport control. This very welcome
gesture was introduced in late August. It has encouraged Georgian Passport
Officers to smile at visitors!
Luarsab drinking a toast@Azarpesha
This was further reinforced during our
short stay with four
meals - two lunches and two dinners - featuring a
succession of wine toasts. The Georgians are very proud
of their long 8000+ years' tradition of winemaking being one of the strong
candidates for the place where wine started. They are also proud of the number of
indigenous grape varieties which from recent research suggests are likely to
have been the origin of many of the world’s grape varieties.
Of the wines that we tasted the Qvevri
wines – fermented in amphora – were certainly the most interesting and unique.
I was particularly impressed by the complex and arresting whites with their
oxidative notes, their echoes of the wines of Jerez with some even having a small
touch of the pine aromas I remember from the draft Retsina, which came in tin
jugs, that I drank when I first visited Greece in 1966.
Some Qvevris@Schuchman Wines (above and below)
A Qvevri in place
Given the Georgians' pride in their hundreds
of native grape varieties – over 500 with some 40 in production – it is a little
surprising that only three made up most of the wines we tasted – the often
tannic Saperavi for the reds and Rkatsiteli and Kisi for the
whites. Admittedly we were only in Georgia for a short time and most of our
visits were in Katheti in eastern Georgia, where Rkatsiteli is particularly
popular. Saperavi is a powerful, tannic
grape which I fancy might well be improved by adding a small amount of the
Georgian equivalent of Merlot or Grenache to soften it out.
Of course the Georgian wine
industry is still very much in transition after Russia imposed the ban on
importing their wine in 2006. With a new Prime Minister elected – Bizdina
Ivanishvili – there are now moves to improve relations with Russia and the ban
may be lifted. Will the Russian market once again dominate production in
Georgia? Our brandy guide gave us an indication of what may happen:
“We are selling two million bottles now. It was five million before the ban. We
expect this will rise to six million if commercial relationships with Russia
are improved. Once we just exported to Russia but now the Russian market would
be much less important.”
Highlights
The visit to the Georgian National Museum
where we saw some amazingly intricate jewellery from between 3000-5000 BC
Lunch at Azarpesha with owner Luarsab – very good food and wines plus our introduction to Georgian
toasting and to the traditional polyphonic songs. Video here from Magnus Reuterdahl.
A man passionate about brandy
Sarajishvili, a brandy
producer in Tblishi. Founded in 1884 by David Sarajishvili, who was
a friend of the Camus family in Cognac. The company was state owned between
1921 – 1994. Not only was the brandy quality good but our guide, who has been
with the company since 1983 was memorably passionate. We had a sip of the
wonderfully mellow 1893 from barrel and then tasted the XO with some canapés
including some chocolate truffles, which proved to be very popular.
View of the Caucasus Mountains in the evening light
Schuchman Wines
Schuchman Wines – the mist descends
Schuchmann Wines where we had some
memorable Qvevri wines including the 2011 Rkatsiteli, a 2008 Mtsvane and
a dense and brooding 2009 Saperavi, but with perhaps the softest tannins we
encountered from this butch variety.
Part of Chateau Mere
Gia Piradashvili, owner of Chateau Mere
The fantastical Chateau Mere hotel in Telavi and its
jovial owner.
Father Gerasim, Alaverdi Monastery
Alaverdi Monastery, which is in the process
of being restored after being vandalised and neglected during the Soviet times
with petrol being stored in some of the larger Qvevri. Good to meet Father
Gerasim again – having met him briefly last May in London at The Real
Wine Fair. All three wines tasted stood
out. We started with the 2010 Rkatsiteli with its
slightly orangey hue, oxidative style like a fine very dry sherry, nutty and
wonderfully austere. The 2010 Kisi was very individual with
a pungent
nose, rich dried apricot flavours and very austere finish. A wonderful and very
individual wine that will usually need to be hand sold to people unfamiliar with
Qvevri wines. We finished with a sample of the youthful 2011 Saperavi, which
had rich, deep, dense colour, power, damson fruit and other black fruits. Clear
potential.
Bread baking in 'tandoor'
Lunch at Shumi with bread freshly baked in
a tandoor style oven and a polygot, toastmaster who toasted us
enthusiastically in English, French and, finally, slightly slurred Italian.
Our final dinner, although most of us weren’t hungry, was made by the toasting and wonderful polyphonic singing.
Tsinandali Palace – feast and song
Another toast!
Also visited:
Château
Mukhrani – an ambitious project to revive the property established in 1873 by
the Prince of Mukhrani.
The founder’s son sold the property to Georgian government and it was
abandoned during the Soviet rule. There are three partners in the project with
the majority share held by Swede Frederick Poulson, who has a pharmaceutical business. The
first vines were planted in 2002. The aim is produce 650,000 bottles from 90
hectares of vines.
Reconstructing Château Mukhrani
I
liked the first easy drinking, juicy red 2010 Shavkapito, which is an early
ripening variety but felt with their ‘more important’ reds they were trying a
little too hard. They did, however, have a very good, concentrated and well
balanced Muscat with apricot, fig and dried fruit characters. It is fortified
with Cha Cha, the local grappa.
Disappointments
Sparkling wine producer Bagrationi, which
makes both bottle fermented as well as charmat wines. The bottle-fermented wines
were OK but not exciting. The winery was depressing, looked run down and
needing investment.
Low point
The traditional Georgian dinner at a
tourist restaurant in Tbilsi. Ersatz and souless!
Suggestions
It would have been helpful to have the
names of people we were visiting and their roles as well as a list of wines to
be tasted. Much time was taken up finding out details of the wines we were
tasting. This meant that the same questions were asked again and again.
Some of the visits were allowed to overrun.
Our visit to Château Mukhrani was allowed to meander through the stables until
we eventually left late and this put the whole journey to Kakheri back.
Our thanks to Georgian Wine Association and, in
particular to Tata Jaiani, for organising our memorable trip and looking after us so well.
Tata Jaiani
