Georgian and amber wine - 8000 years in a clay jar
Picture a wine the colour of amber, tasting of dried apricot, walnut and tea, with tannin like a red - yet made from white grapes. This is amber wine, and its homeland is Georgia, a small country in the Caucasus that has the right to call itself the cradle of wine itself. Here the vine was domesticated around 8000 years ago, and the method invented back then has survived in almost unchanged form to this day. If you think you know the world of wine, Georgian qvevri will show you that its roots reach far deeper than you imagine.
Georgia - the true cradle of wine
Georgians do not boast without reason that it was they who taught the world to drink wine. Archaeologists have found here traces of winemaking from around 8000 years ago - the oldest documented in the world. Over millennia wine has grown into Georgian identity more deeply than anywhere else: it is part of religion, hospitality, family rituals and the famous hours-long feasts called supra, led by a tamada, the master of toasts. In practically every village home, people make their own wine. This is not a country that imported wine and refined it over time - it is the place where it all began, and where the tradition was never broken.
What a qvevri is
The heart of Georgian winemaking is the qvevri - a large, egg-shaped jar of fired clay, buried up to its neck in the ground. It is in this that wine ferments and matures, sometimes for many months. The earth around the jar acts as a natural thermostat, keeping a steady, cool temperature without electricity or stainless steel. The inside of the qvevri is often coated with beeswax, and after each season the jar must be laboriously cleaned. The method is so culturally important that in 2013 UNESCO inscribed traditional Georgian qvevri winemaking on the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. It is a living technology thousands of years old, not a museum exhibit.
Where amber wines come from
Here happens the thing that is crucial for the flavour. Most white wines are made by separating the juice from the skins right after the grapes are crushed - the clear juice ferments alone. In the qvevri it is different: white grapes ferment together with their skins, pips and sometimes even stems, exactly as red wine is made. This extended contact of juice with skins, lasting weeks or months, draws colour, tannin and a wealth of aroma out of them. The result is a wine of deep, golden-amber colour, which the world has named orange. It is not an additive or a dye - all the colour and character come straight from the skins of white grapes.
Why it is not just white
The difference between amber wine and ordinary white is enormous and immediately noticeable. Skin contact gives amber wine something white does not have at all: real tannin, the same astringent structure you know from red wine and strong tea. That is why amber wine has body, grip and length that you will not find in a light, fresh white. In flavour too it is quite different - instead of citrus freshness you get dried fruit, nuts, honey and oxidative notes. It is a wine closer in character to red than to white, even though it was made from white grapes. We have written separately about the role of tannins.
How the Georgian amber tastes
What exactly to expect in the glass? A classic Georgian amber wine, especially from the rkatsiteli grape, smells and tastes of dried apricot, orange peel, walnut, honey, black tea and dried herbs. It is dry, with high acidity and a clear, slightly bitter tannin that gives a long, almost tea-like finish. It is a full-bodied wine of considerable complexity, which can overwhelm someone used to a light pinot grigio. This is not an easy drink, nor immediately pleasant to everyone - it demands openness, but rewards it with a flavour no other wine in the world can give.
The most important Georgian grapes
Georgia is not one style but a true treasury of vines - hundreds of native varieties grow here that you will not find anywhere else. The most important white is rkatsiteli, giving structured, acidic amber wines of great longevity. The second key white is mtsvane, often blended with rkatsiteli for aroma. Among reds, saperavi reigns - an intense, dark grape whose juice is so deeply coloured that it stains even the flesh, giving powerful, tannic reds. This wealth of native varieties, surviving despite centuries of invasions and Soviet collectivisation, is one of the great treasures of world winemaking. How different grapes shape a wine’s style we explain separately.
Qvevri versus modern steel
It is worth knowing that Georgia today makes wine in two ways that are often confused. Alongside the traditional qvevri method there is also modern winemaking in stainless steel, in the European style - it gives clean, fruity whites and reds of the kind you look for every day. The true Georgian character, the amber and tannic one, comes precisely from the qvevri with its extended maceration on the skins. When buying Georgian wine, look on the label for the word qvevri or the term amber or orange - that is your guarantee of hitting the authentic, ancient style, not an ordinary modern white that happens to be made in Georgia. This distinction decides what you will find in the glass.
Amber is a global trend today
Although the method is 8000 years old, amber wine is right now enjoying a global vogue. In recent years winemakers from Italy (especially Friuli), Slovenia, Austria and even the New World have rediscovered macerated whites, often under the banner of natural wine. It is the result of a search for wines that are more authentic, less technological, made with minimal intervention. Georgia has become the spiritual home and reference point for this movement. Amber wine is now a fashionable drink in hipster bars, but it is worth remembering that for Georgians it is simply how their ancestors have always made wine. Fashion will come and go; the tradition will remain.
What to drink amber wine with
Tannin and full body make amber wine an excellent partner at the table, far more versatile than a delicate white. It copes brilliantly with dishes that flatten ordinary wines: with strong cheeses, with curries and intensely spiced cuisines, with mushrooms, with roast poultry and even with oily fish. Georgian cuisine itself, full of nuts, herbs and spices, is its natural companion. Serve it a little cooler than red but warmer than ordinary white - around 12-14 degrees. Its structure and intensity mean that where a light white disappears, amber wine only begins to bloom.
How to start with Georgian wine
If you want to try it, start consciously, because these are wines of pronounced character. To begin, look for an amber wine from rkatsiteli made in a qvevri - it is the textbook example of the style. Give it a moment in the glass and do not expect lightness; approach it more like a light red than a white. If you prefer a gentler introduction, reach first for a red saperavi, which is more familiar to a palate used to European wines. And then simply taste and note your impressions - it is classic palate calibration on an entirely new category. Georgian wine is a journey to the roots of the civilisation of wine.
Note every Georgian wine in GustoNote - the grape, the qvevri method, the colour and the level of tannin. After a few bottles you will see for yourself how greatly amber wine differs from everything you knew, and whether this ancient style hits your taste.