Lipartiani Qvevri Dry White Wine, Imereti

Description

Lipartiani Qvevri Dry White Wine is an orange wine from western Georgia. It is a dry white wine made in the traditional Georgian style with skin contact followed by aging in clay amphorae known as Qvevri. 

Lipartiani is one of the oldest wine cellars in Georgia. The focus here is on indigenous grape varieties and traditional Georgian winemaking. The Lipartiani estate covers some 10 hectares across four different wine-growing regions: Kakheti, Imereti, Samegrelo and Racha. There vineyards are planted with indigenous grape varieties as well as a few international varieties including Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The Lipartiani family can trace their origins back to the 15th century and from the 18th century their residence in Salkhino was already quite famous for the production of Ojaleshi grapes. Most recently the family wine-making tradition was revived by three Lipartiani brothers: Tengiz, Vakhtang and Alexander. The aim is to produce high quality wines using  local and foreign varieties and European and Georgian style winemaking, a combination of modern technology and traditional techniques. Their vineyards are extremely well-maintained and grapes are harvested by hand.

As mentioned above, this is an “orange wine”, which is basically a white wine made from white grapes using techniques traditionally used for red winemaking. They are also sometimes called amber wines. Lipartiani Qvevri Dry White Wine is a blend of 60% Krakhuna and 40% Mtsvane from the Imereti wine-growing region of western Georgia. Alongside Kakheti, Imereti is widely recognised as one of the most important wine producing region of the country. The grapes are harvested by hand, crushed then allowed to macerate on the skins and seeds in Qvevri for 6 months. After 6 months the wine is separated from skin and seeds and aged in Qvevri prior to bottling.