The many facets of Georgian wine

Let's clear up any misunderstandings right away. Georgia isn't what you think it is. Forget Atlanta in the USA and look up Tbilisi, the capital, on an atlas. We'll help you out: the country - not the state - is on the Black Sea, in the Caucasus, wedged between Turkey and Russia. And there you are! Careful, you may never want to leave... Where else have we seen customs officers offering a bottle of wine to tourists just off their plane? It was in 2015 and again in 2019, during a promotional campaign for the country that caused quite a stir. This unusual gift alone sums up this country's generous and overflowing hospitality. Above all, it celebrates its long love affair with wine. In 2017, archaeological digs revealed traces of wine-making dating back 8,000 years, found in ceramic jars 50 kilometers from Tbilisi. The cradle of winegrowing, Georgia is said to have 525 indigenous grape varieties - of which only around forty are cultivated today. All the gold in Colchis pales into insignificance! By way of comparison, France, which is eight times larger, has only 210 authorized grape varieties.

Georgia also boasts a wine-making method that has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2013. Its unpronounceable name, kvevri, is the pride of Georgians. Evoking a jar, this egg-shaped terracotta vessel is handcrafted according to a rigorous art. It is then buried in a marani (winery), where the grape juice (with skins and, sometimes, stalks) is fermented and the wine matured (between three and eight months).

A revival since the 2000s

This method gives the wine a special texture and taste, according to journalist Alice Feiring, the American "papess" of natural wine. Her books have been instrumental in establishing Caucasian vintages among wine shops in Brooklyn and beyond. Thefirst time I tasted a Georgian kvevri wine, it was raw and direct," she recounts. I had an undeniable sense of the past and of 8,000 years of history. I felt all the emotions of the winemaker. Winegrowing here isn't a profession, it's in the blood" In Georgia, natural wines are booming. Wise old-timers and promising youngsters are diving into them. "On my first trip to Georgia, there were 5 or 6 winemakers marketing them. Today, thereare around 180, and women are increasingly present ," enthuses the journalist. This revival of kvevri wine dates back to the 2000s. Perhaps it was time to get back to basics after some chaotic years. Because, let's face it, the "Georgia" label was more often associated with piquette than with great wines. The Communists were to blame, the country having fallen into Soviet hands in 1921. Unattainable production quotas imposed by Moscow led to a preference for quantity over quality. Grape varieties were reduced to two main varieties, rkatsiteli (white) and saperavi (red), cultivated and produced in intense façon (including the addition of sugar, water and other substances) to quench the thirst of the Homo sovieticus of the 15 republics of the USSR. The pinard that came out of the factories was so bad, it's said, that Georgians wouldn't serve it to their guests for fear of being rude! In 1985, the "dry law" imposed by Gorbachev to combat alcoholism led to a drop in production. Then came the fall of communism (1991), the wars against separatist Abkhazia (1992) and Russia (2008), and the "Rose Revolution" (2003). The head (and arms) weren't exactly in the fields...

Martin Bruno

Wine in every family

And yet... Georgia needed more than that to forget wine. If they had trouble marketing it, they at least produced it for themselves. Indeed, every home has its own marani, an almost sacred place. Almost every Georgian is born a winemaker, even in the cities. Every plot is harvested for the family wine. No matter the quality of the grape juice, it flows through the veins and onto the table. It floods the supras, orgiastic banquets punctuated by the toasts of the tamada, the guarantor of a good atmosphere. According to tradition, 3 to 5 liters of wine are served per guest! Unsurprisingly, the vine and its representations are everywhere, even in churches. They are also spreading outwards, as at the Alaverdi monastery in Kakhetia, where Father Davit, assisted by three other priests and an oenologist, has revived ancestral kvevri production.In the liturgy, wine symbolizes the blood of God," he says. It must be as natural as possible, with no additions or sugar." The clergyman takes a keen interest in the subject. He even organized a symposium on natural wine! Wrapped in prayers, his cuvées revive the local tradition - "since 1011", reads the label.

These beverages can be enjoyed in front of the monastery, at Badagoni Home, after a visit to the 11th-century cathedral. For Mamuka Kikvadze, the culture of wine is firmly rooted in Georgia. Born to an Orthodox priest, he grew up in church and was an icon painter before starting, fifteen years ago, to produce his own natural wine, Samtavisi Marani, in kvevri, in the Kartli region. "It wasn't a change of path, but a continuation. Religion and wine are linked and form part of the country's identity. Do you know the legend of Saint Nino? "Of course: after seeing the Virgin Mary in the fourth century, Nino is said to have introduced the Gospel to Georgia and converted the royal family. She is said to have made a cross from a vine stock, split in two, and attached it with a lock of her hair...

Wines of ever-increasing quality

A few kilometers away, Champenois Bastien Warskotte founded Ori Marani ("two cellars") in 2017 with his Georgian wife Nino, a nod to their two production methods, classic and kvevri. "When tasting blends, I always prefer the barrel wine," he explains. Bastien Warskotte buys his grapes from five different regions. "Our harvests are often long. Between two plots 300 kilometers apart as the crow flies, there's sometimes a two-month difference in grape maturity. He blends using the méthode champenoise, replaces sugar with grape juice, and produces 20,000 bottles a year. This pales into insignificance compared with the 350,000 bottles produced annually by Château Mukhrani, owned by Swedish businessman Frederik Paulsen.We export 60% of our wines," says German Patrick Honnef, CEO and technical director of Château Mukhrani. China is a good market, as is Poland. Europe is more timid." On this land swept by winds as strong as the Mistral, saperavi and native grape varieties have been replanted and, at last, organic certification has been obtained.We're aiming for quality and a super-premium market," continues Patrick Honnef. But Georgia is still struggling to position itself on the international market. It concentrates on kvevri wines, which account for just 3% of the country's total production. It's a niche market. What's more, Georgia has remained highly dependent on the former Soviet republics market, which was used to semi-dry or sweet red wines." But what about the Russian embargo on Georgian wines introduced in 2006? "It pushed producers towards higher quality and other markets. Inthe end, it was a good thing," concludes the director of Château Mukhrani. Château Mukhrani is not alone in raising the bar on quality.

In the Kakhetia region - which alone accounts for nearly 95% of commercial wine production - Vazisubani Estate is positioned at the top end of the market. It has it all - even the little English-style "château", completely renovated and transformed into the chicest hotel-restaurant in the area. The same goes for Tsinandali Estate, the former estate of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze (1786-1846), surrounded by vineyards and a cultural mecca. Pushkin, Lermontov and even Alexandre Dumas passed through its salons.The country's first grand piano resonated here," explains George Kharabadze, CEO of Tsinandali Estate. The Prince introduced European viticultural methods and bottled wine for the first time in Georgia." Bottles... The Prince's collection still numbers 16,500, from here and abroad. Among them, a miraculous bottle of Château d'Yquem from 1861! His cellar and home have become a museum, which you can visit before touring the vineyards, enjoying a wine tasting or staying overnight at the Radisson Collection hotel. The estate recently hosted the European Grand Jury symposium. "Recognition for us ," enthuses George Kharabadze. "Georgia produces over 190 million liters of wine a year (not counting family production for personal consumption, which is difficult to estimate).It's not for nothing that some claim the word 'wine' is derived from the Georgian ghivno," writes Christophe Lavelle in his book À la découverte des vins géorgiens (Éd. Apogée, 2023). For some, wine is a nice revenge on life. Born into a very poor family in Ateni, Soso Tsikaridze worked in construction in Russia. When all the villagers uprooted their vines, he planted new ones on land reclaimed from black rock, employing the most destitute. Ateni Terraces wines, grown on terraces and certified organic, are just starting to be marketed. Soso Tsikaridze is a stone's throw from the former factory that produced Stalin's favorite wine, chinuri. Ironically, the site will soon be replaced by the pools of an Aquapark... At Lopota Lake Resort & Spa, water and wine go hand in hand. At the foot of the mountains, around a lake, the hotel is surrounded by the vineyards of Château Buera. Ana Maisuradze, whose French is perfect, has inherited her father's passion and cultivates this wine tourism address with fervor. There's a very special atmosphere here. In the early morning mists, the place is magical, resembling a Japanese etching. Perhaps also because Ana's father rests in peace amidst the vineyards he continues to oversee. In Georgia, more than anywhere else, wine is the cycle of life.