Terra Georgia Rkatsiteli Qvevri Dry Amber Wine

Description

Terra Georgia Rkatsiteli Qvevri Dry Amber is an orange wine from Georgia. It is made from 100% Rkatsiteli grapes ad is fermented in Qvrevi.

Terra Georgia was co-founded by Archil Chitadze, and some friends from his student days, as a small, artisan wine producer making just two or three different Georgian wines. The company is located in Atskuri near Telavi, the main city and administrative center of Georgia’s eastern province of Kakheti. Quite soon Terra Georgia won an award from the Georgian Rural Development Agency. With the money they were able to scale up production allowing them to process up to 200 tons of grapes and released 11 different wines in 2022. Terra Georgia have vineyards in the Telavi, Mukuzani and Kindzmarauli micro zones and the wines are produced by Winery Bakhrationi.

The emphasis is on producing quality wines. The wines are Qvevri (traditional, clay wine-making vessels) and natural wines using traditional Georgian wine-making techniques whereby only indigenous yeasts are used and both red and white wines are aged on the skins. A variety of red wines is produced including fresh and fruity Saperavi wines through to heavier, richer styles. They also produce a semi-sweet red wine from the Kindzmarauli region. There are fresher styles of white wines and richer “amber” wines, the preferred term for orange wines in Georgia. 

Terra Georgia Rkatsiteli Qvevri Dry Amber Wine is made from Rkatsiteli. Rkatsiteli translates to “red stem” or “red horned” in Georgian and refers to the red-colored shoots of the grapevine. It is considered to be one of the oldest grape varieties in the world. Along with Mtsvane is one of the most important grape varieties in Georgia.

After harvest the grapes including all of the grape skins, stalks and pips (this is also known as “chaca”) are fermented in a Qvevri. The wine is then aged on the skins in the Qvevri for around 5 to 6 month, this is what lends the wine its amber colour.

Only naturally occuring yeasts are used and no animal products are used.