Vachnadziani Qvevri Otskhanuri Sapere 2024
£20.75
The wine
Otskhanuri Sapere is a western Georgian red grown almost nowhere else, high in tannin and acidity and deeply coloured. Fermented in qvevri, the buried clay vessels Georgians have used for 8,000 years, it gives a wine of real structure with dark fruit, earth and a savoury grip.
Georgia has a fair claim to being the cradle of wine: grape residue in clay vessels there is the earliest evidence of winemaking anywhere, dated to around 6000 BC. Imereti uses smaller qvevri and shorter skin contact than Kakheti in the east, which gives a fresher style.
The producer
Vachnadziani Winery
View all Vachnadziani Winery winesVachnadziani was established in 1953 and is among the oldest wineries in Georgia. The vineyards fell into disrepair through the later Soviet years and have since received considerable investment, with the stated aim of preserving an ancient wine culture while applying modern technology to it.
Georgia has a fair claim to being the cradle of wine. Grape seeds and residue found in clay vessels in the country date back some 8,000 years, making it the earliest known winemaking anywhere, and the tradition never stopped. The qvevri, a large egg-shaped clay vessel buried to the neck in the ground, is still in use, and UNESCO recognised the method as intangible cultural heritage in 2013.
The winery farms over 1,000 hectares across Kakheti in the east, where most Georgian wine is made, and Imereti, Racha and Lechkhumi in the west. The grapes are almost entirely native: Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane for whites, Krakhuna from Imereti, and Saperavi, one of the very few red varieties in the world with red flesh as well as red skin.
