Wine shop in Georgia. Tourists shuffle in, look at the list of choices and order.
I’ll have 3 bottles of Saperavi.
One huge foudre in the back. Sales guy goes in the back, pours wine into bottles, seals them with cork and slaps Saperavi labels on bottles.
Another one orders Kakheti.
Sale process repeats itself, sales guy goes in the back, pours wine from SAME huge foudre, seals them with cork and slaps Kakheti labels on bottles. This goes on for a few hours. Then a customer comes in, looks at the list and orders a bottle of Khvanchkara.
Sales guy: Can’t sell you that.
Customer: Why, you ran out of wine?
Sales guy: No, ran out of Khvanchkara labels.
Lots of comments here that don’t at all reconcile with what I actually saw and tasted last week, five days in Tbilisi.
For anyone really interested check out the range at 8000 vintages. I would have spent much longer there but family duty called. I’d suggest anything they stock is of high quality.
However the wines will remain filed under ‘interesting’ for me, I was happy to bring a dozen back.
I have, quite a bit of them. Also have been collecting them for years, whenever I can find them - usually one bottle here, another one there. Starting to have a small collection of them in my cellar now. I’ve also tasted dozens of other Georgian wines as well, most of them pretty much from the natural end of the spectrum.
I’m going to visit Georgia in August and planning on not only visiting some wineries there, but also bringing a handful of Pheasant’s Tears wines back so I can finally have my 100% Pheasant’s Tears tasting later this year.
Fortunately I’ll be going to Kakheti as well, not just Tbilisi. Currently it is in our plans to go to Sighnaghi, where the Pheasant’s Tears winery is located.
So, having a discussion with someone over the state of Russian wine industry. In response to, hmmm, some “sommelier” posting a lengthy diatribe hyping up the quality of Russian wine, and in particular, his statement that Russian producers are producing “serious” competition to Western wines, whereupon he then proceeds to point out that wines produced by the winery he works for are way better than competitors’. But, of course, as if there is any doubt…
When I questioned this entire sales drive one particular wine was presented as “serious effort”. 91 points. By Parker himself (picture of the magazine ad posted as “proof”, including Parker’s signature, loos like Photoshop to me). Score only, no TNs attached/provided, just supposed scores and Parker’s signature. And I just cannot find this particular and supposed review. The wine is 2012 Lefkadia Reserve. Anyone seen Parker’s review of it?
No clue about the picture, but for those in DC who might want to dip a toe in Georgian wines, I ate at Tail Up Goat last night and noticed several Georgian wines on the list.
Well, John Wurdeman is part owner, and he also has business interests in restaurants an wine bars in Tbilisi. I guess he makes more money selling his wine in those places than wholesale to other retail outlets. The wine bar is Gvino Underground and I’m sure you could buy bottles to take away there. In fact I’m pretty sure you can get them from the restaurants too - I did
I think the same applies to quite a few of the natural/qvevri producers you are likely to have heard of in the west - they set up Gvino Underground to get started on a larger stage by selling their wines in Tbilisi - and they hosted influential foreign journalist and sommeliers in Georgia.
8000 Vintages is outside that smallish group, and their qvevri wines are less well-known in the UK (and the US I suspect), but I dare say are still good and interesting.
@GregP, I recognise very little of what you have written about Georgian wines.
I have visited Georgia a couple of times and currently have around 60 bottles of Georgian wine in my cellar of 400. OK - so 40 are for a tasting - but Georgia is still better represented than many countries.
Sure they make some crap wine, but most countries do.
The semi-sweet stuff is mainly for the Russian market. Some Georgian may drink it, but it does not go particularly well with their food, and dry wine is the norm. And remember there are Russians in Georgia too - residents and tourists.
Your allegation about Moldovan wine is pretty serious. I’ve heard something similar, but with one crucial difference: it is the Russians who import Moldovan wine and label it as Georgian.
Steve, since you’ve visited Georgia a few times, I want to ask you if you visited with a local guide / arranged trip or just by yourself/yourselves? I was wondering how well you’ll manage there only with English.
Did you visit Kakheti? We’re going there but it’s still unclear which might be the best way to get there. Also moving around in Kakheti is still a mystery to us. We’ll probably visit Signaghi and Telavi/Tsinandali (at the Schuchmann hotel), but we’re interested in staying on the northeastern (Caucasus mountain range) side of the valley too.
I might try, but I’m not really into writing forum travelogues on forums, so no promises there. Most likely we’re doing lots of other stuff besides wine, so I guess it won’t be that interesting.
We weren’t planning on renting a car after my friend who has visited the country earlier said that taking the local crazy driving culture and the poor condition of the roads into account, one really shouldn’t, unless they know what they are doing.
First trip we went with a UK wine tour operator (Arblaster and Clarke) who obviously sub-contracted the Georgian guiding to the local company Linvng Roots - we were in a group of 10 or so. Second time we sorted out our own flights and got Living Roots to put together a week’s private tour for the two of us, including accommodation and most meals, with private chaffeur/guide. The trips were not really comparable in terms of quality of accommodation and wine-technical information, but the private one worked out significantly cheaper and was just as enjoyable - but in a very different way. On the 2nd trip we noticed quite a few other small groups and individuals with their guides, so this is not at all an unusual thing to do. Living Roots is yet another business of John Wurdeman!
In Tbilisi, Sighnaghi and the Schumann Hotel you should be fine as a tourist. More generally, you’d have problems with older people, but kids now learn English at school. But, hey you’re Finnish, so you could just communicate in Russian (joke). However, it’s not just speaking - you also have to bear in mind that signs might only be in Georgian in the less touristy areas, and the Georgian script can be very disorienting. It’s a lot easier to muddle along in somewhere like Italy, even if you speak no Italian. Hope that gives you some idea.
Yes, we spent most of our time in Kakheti on the first trip. Assuming you will start off in Tbilisi, there are many people who will offer you trips of varying duration to Kakheti. You could book a private guide, or go with a group. There are plenty of people touting for business on the streets of Tbilisi to take tourists on short trips, and Kakheti is quite a common destination. We stayed in Sighnaghi at the relatively up-market Hotel Kabadoni, and on the other side of the valley at Lapoto Lake Resort.
The joke’s on you, I took a Russian course in the high school!
Unfortunately I really don’t remember any Russian anymore, so it’s not that helpful…
We weren’t planning on having guides, just going around on ourselves. We have Schuchmann already booked, but Sighnaghi and the other side of the valley are still undecided. Was that Kabadoni a place worth considering?
I know how it can be in weird places. Last year we visited Japan and no one spoke a single word of English in the countryside. The hotel reception didn’t even know words like “yes” or “no”. Fortunately we knew some Japanese so we could manage somehow!
