Simon J Woolf & Friends on Wild and Wonderful Wines
Simon takes a look at the extraordinary expansion in traditional qvevri winemaking in Georgia. What does it mean for quality, and how do you know what’s really in the bottle? With some notes about the OIV’s new skin macerated white wine category, which should help Georgia to classify its output more precisely.
Simon reminisces about a special visit to Alaverdi Monastery, and how he finally proved just how well Alaverdi Monastery Kisi 2010 can age.
Claus Preisinger shows that Burgenland’s Grüner Veltliner can really deliver, if it’s macerated for five months in a Georgia qvevri.
Some wines really are unique. Giorgi Natenadze’s are made from wild vines growing in mountain forests, some up to 400 years old. They taste quite otherwordly.
A shorter version of this article was published in Meininger Wine Business International Issue 4, 2017. Georgia’s ancient wine culture is undoubtedly marketing gold, with taglines such as “8,000 vintages”, “The cradle of wine” and “525 indigenous varieties”. Together with Read more
Christmas means different things to everyone but to me it means dodging career talks and getting new pyjamas. It doesn’t stop there – There is much, much more not to like. To pick but a few from the Grinch’s hat: Read more
I’d like to propose a toast to the Georgian grape harvest. To Georgia’s ancient ladies and their pirate knives and three-legged stools, their hair in scarves to deflect the burrs I still find in my socks. To a total Read more
Hannah Fuellenkemper’s adventures in imereti, Georgia include some very unsavoury duties inside a qvevri.
“Sorry, but this is absolutely nuts!”, says one member of our group during a visit to restaurant/apartment/winery Bina 37, and he’s merely stating what everyone else is thinking. We’re talking with Zura Natroshvili, a medical doctor turned traditional winemaker. Well, almost traditional. Most winemakers don’t install their cellars on the 8th floor of a city residential block.
