Georgian Wine

Georgia is one of the oldest wine regions in the world. The fertile valleys and protective slopes
of the Transcaucasia were home to grapevine cultivation and neolithic wine production for at
least 8000 years. Due to the many millennia of wine in Georgian history and its prominent
economic role, the traditions of wine are considered entwined with and inseparable from the
national identity.
Among the best-known Georgian wine regions are Kakheti (further divided into the micro-
regions of Telavi and Kvareli), Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo
Svaneti, Adjara and Abkhazia.
In 2013, UNESCO added the ancient traditional Georgian winemaking method using
the Kvevri clay jars to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.

When archaeologists last year found traces of winemaking on 8,000-year-old pottery shards in
Georgia, the tiny former Soviet republic claimed the crown as the world’s oldest wine producer.

It was an affirmation for many long-standing fans of the country and its winemaking tradition,
which is ancient and, at the same time, a grassroots movement. Georgia’s hallmark is white
wines that stay in contact with their skins, stalks and pips for months and further ferment in
huge clay amphorae (qvevri) buried in the ground. It’s a trend that’s caught on elsewhere in the
world, but its deep roots lie in Georgian culture.

“What’s happening now is a revival,” says Alice Feiring, author of For the Love of Wine: My
Odyssey Through the World’s Most Ancient Wine Culture. A natural wine advocate, Feiring has
long traveled in the country, and her 2016 book—a love letter to Georgian people and
traditions—charts the modern (re) discovery of the wine culture and some of the struggles to
remain true to its heritage.

“Almost everyone has a taste for their grandfather’s wine: that is their emotional truth and the
wines they all respond to,” she said. “So even though they’re getting conflicting messages
about what the rest of the world wants—clean wines—it’s really the skin-contact and complex
wines that people crave.”

Noel Brockett, director of sales at the Georgian Wine House in Washington, D.C., who attends
industry events dressed in a chokha, the traditional long woolen coat adorned with ornamental
silver cartridges worn by Georgian men, says wine culture runs deep in the country.

Traditional winemaking in Georgia has always been a home endeavor, infused with history,
religion and mythology, and references dating to the fourth century. An oft-told legend relates
how soldiers wove a piece of grapevine into the chain mail protecting their chests, so when
they died in battle, a vine sprouted not just from their bodies, but their hearts.
“Even where we think a culture like France or Italy is so wine-centric, Georgians just take it to a
whole different level—much deeper than what we’re exposed,” said Taylor Parsons, an Los-
Angeles sommelier, who has visited Georgian wine country three times.

Georgia ranks 2nd (in terms of volume) in grape production in the former Soviet Union behind
Moldova, and Georgian wines have always been the most highly prized and sought after in the
Soviet space. Currently, the wine is produced by thousands of small farmers (using primarily
traditional techniques of wine-making), as well as certain monasteries, and modern wineries.
According to the Minister of Agriculture of Georgia, wine production has increased from 13.8
million 750ml bottles in 2009 to 15.8 million bottles in 2010. In 2009 Georgia exported 10.968
millions bottles of wine to 45 countries. In 2010, Georgia exported wines to: Ukraine - about 7.5
million bottles, Kazakhstan - about 2 million bottles, Belarus - about 1.2 million bottles, Poland -
about 870,000 bottles and Latvia- 590,000 bottles.
Traditional Georgian grape varieties are little known in the World. Now that the wines of
Eastern and Central Europe are coming to international awareness, grapes from this region are
becoming better known. Although there are nearly 400 to choose from, only 38 varieties are
officially grown for commercial viticulture in Georgia.