Georgia

A 2017 study in PNAS (McGovern and colleagues) found tartaric acid and other grape acids in pottery from two Neolithic sites in Kvemo Kartli, Shulaveris Gora and Gadachrili Gora, about 50 km south of Tbilisi, dated to about 6000–5800 BC, with grape pollen and starch; it calls this the earliest biomolecular evidence for grape wine in the Near East. The authors note that it is not known whether these jars were buried, and that the earliest archaeological evidence for qvevri winemaking in Georgia dates from the Iron Age, the 8th–7th centuries BC. The National Wine Agency states that qvevri winemaking "started 8 thousand years ago", which goes beyond what the study shows; it dates the present qvevri shape to the 3rd millennium BC. The agency links modern winemaking in Guria and Samegrelo to two 19th-century foreigners, the Scot Jacob Mar and the Frenchman Achille Murat. The first appellations were registered in 2005, and UNESCO listed the qvevri method in 2013.

The National Wine Agency places Kakheti's best vineyards in the Alazani and Iori basins at 400–700 m, on humus-carbonate, black and alluvial soils. Kartli's vineyards lie in the basins of the Mtkvari and its tributaries the Liakhvi and Ksani, at 450–700 m. Imereti is described as very diverse in climate and soil. Racha–Lechkhumi has few vineyards, mostly on the slopes of the Rioni gorge, with micro-zones such as Khvanchkara and Tvishi. On the Black Sea coast (Guria, Samegrelo, Adjara, Abkhazia) vineyards run from 2–4 m up to 500 m in a humid subtropical climate with a long growing season; harvest could last from November to the end of January, and in Abkhazia vines grow best at 400–800 m. Meskheti, at 900–1,700 m, has terraced vineyards and, the agency says, is probably the highest viticultural region in Georgia and in the world.

The National Wine Agency says Kakhetian wine expresses soil properties more than any other Georgian wine and describes its traditional type as highly extracted, with a high content of phenolic compounds and tannins. It says white wines kept on their chacha (skins and pips) for a long time in qvevri become dark straw, golden or tea-coloured, clear, fruity, moderately tannic and naturally stable. Imeretian qvevri wines, made with less skin, are described as yellow, full and harmonious. Western micro-zones are credited with special effects: in Tvishi, the climate gives Tsolikouri high sugar and acidity for naturally semi-sweet wine.

The agency counts 25 appellation wines registered in Georgia, 19 of them in Kakheti. Its register lists, among others, Akhasheni, Gurjaani and Mukuzani (30 August 2005), Manavi (2006), and Ateni, Vazisubani, Teliani, Kardenakhi, Kakheti, Napareuli, Sviri and Tvishi (10 December 2007). Ateni comes only from Kartli; Sviri from Imereti blends Tsitska, Tsolikouri and Krakhuna; Khvanchkara and Tvishi come from Racha–Lechkhumi. Qvevri wine means fermenting and ageing juice with its chacha in clay vessels, usually holding 1–2 tonnes and in Kakheti up to 6–8 thousand litres; buried qvevri stay at 13–15 °C. In Kakheti all the chacha goes in; in Imereti at most a third. Reds stay on the skins only through fermentation (7–10 days, at most two weeks), whites until spring. Main grapes include Rkatsiteli, Saperavi, Kakhuri Mtsvane, Kisi and Khikhvi in Kakheti, Chinuri and Shavkapito in Kartli, Tsolikouri, Tsitska and Krakhuna in Imereti, and Aleksandrouli and Ojaleshi in the west.