Georgia wines Qvevri and more ...

Last week I was invited for a tasting discussion about Georgia Wines, in Melbourne Smith Street, the location was Rockwell and Sons http://www.rockwellandsons.com.au the cool kids on the block...
The wines were tasted in different brackets with discussion about taste profile and understanding of the region and sub zone.

1st bracket
Tsitska was the grape variety, 3 different producer 
Tsitska is a good-quality white Georgian grape variety used in the production of dry, sparkling and fortified wines. Primarily grown in western Georgia, Tsitska is part of the Imereti family of indigenous Georgian vines. It ripens late and is not especially productive, but it is highly regarded by locals. Winesearcher quote. 

1st wine
Makaridze Winery on the left pics 2015, the wine was clean, dry with lovely bitter phenolic on the palate textural with concentration of orchard fruit as quince and red apple skin. Tension with great crush rock and stony minerality. 
The only information I found online about Makardize, this is a pretty new project started in 2009 in the Imereti zone. 

The 2nd wine 
Gotsa was amber in colour with skin contact on the Qvevri vessel (Qvevri are clay amphora which are buried in the ground, the wine fermented and ageing in those vessel with or without skin for quite a long time). I thought the contact with the skin was over a months; the wine had a quite interesting bite on my palate with lovely grip and bitter elements due the phenolic and anthocyanins elements. Oxidative nose, long finish and complexity. 
Beka Gotsadze is the owner of this family winery in the Hills of the Asureti Valley in the Kiketi region 30 kilometre aways from Tbilisi. 
Vineyard and winery  is operated by "Demeter" biodinamic standard and will be certificated on 2018 harvest. The wines are not fined and are free of any additives, they are fermented in wild yeast's. Only burned sulfur are used to clean the vessels (Kvevri's), no sulfur powder is added to the wines.

3rd wine 
Ramaz Nikoladze from the Imereti subzone, this was superbly mineral with flinty elements and almost shellfish characteristic, almost remind me of a Thomas Pico Chablis. 
This dude follow the wild Fukuoka farming around the book One Straw Revolution which consist in non interfere at all to the mother nature so let nature give the crops.  
Colour of the wines. 

2nd bracket 
1st wine 
Imereti region with the Tsolikouri grape, a traditional variety used for a sweet wine production but this was completely dry. The producer is one of the older producer from the Immereti region is Gaioz Sopromadze, this was another oyster shell, flinty mineral wine almost kimmeridgian, bright in colour with great energy ... In this tasting I had the sensation the Immereti got a real good ancient white limestone soil. 

The 2nd wine
 was a blend of Tsitska and Tsolikouri from our Fukuoka fan Ramaz Nikoladze; as well here super energy and great minerality in the tasting one person thought was a German flinty slate riesling from a great site as Ayler Kupp. 


discussion 

From the Meskheti region in the centre of Georgia Iago Bitarishvili, founder of the eponymous “Iago’s Wine“ make wines in a different style only from the Chinuri grapes, an endemic variety from the Meskheti wine region. The stile he makes can be very phenolic tannic wine, for a long time on the Qvevri on skin or the opposite bright and light for a very short maceration.
The one we tasted was from 2014, gold in colour lots of stone fruit and wild fermentative notes as crust brie cheese, walnut and hazelnut reminiscent. Low in alcohol, lots of sour element on the nose and palate like an "Auvregne Chardonnay or Chenin from Anjou". Complexity on Iago wines are very detailed, I have been tasting lots of his wine several time and for me is a great artisan of Georgian Wine scene. 
From the famous Kakheti wine region we taste a Mtsvane an orange wine from Antadze winery, unfortunately this wine was too reductive to go further with the tasting. However this producer is a pretty good one... Pretty disappointing for the fact I was looking forward to enjoy it. 
But then we tasted this Mtsvane from Antadze with less maceration on the skin and it was pretty enjoyable, classic oxidative notes with nut element, dry chamomile and jasmine... Tea tannin on the palate and great length. 
Mtsvane or Mtsvane Kakhuri is a grape variety used to make Georgian wines. It is used to make white wine. It is often blended with Rkatsiteli to which it adds a fruity, aromatic balance. In the Georgian language Mtsvani means new, young and green.
the enjoyment of tasting ...
Last bracket Red wine 
1st wine was my favourite red wine from Georgia.
Marian Iosebidze's she is the youngest wine producer in Georgia, makes less than 1000 bottles a year with Tavkveri grape variety; this is my second time I tasted this wine and I always label as the Kriek Cantillon of Georgia. Sour red fruit, high acidity and sourness.

2nd wine 
Phesant Tears by John Wurdeman perhaps the ambassador of Georgian wine around the world, this man made aware the world about this country. 
Shavkapito 2013 a rich full body red with earthy minerality as wet earth, forest floor and wet leaves. 

3rd wine 
unfortunately very close and reductive. 













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