How to make real Georgian wine

I don’t know about you, but I adore Georgian wine!

Saperavi, so tart and rich, dark red, ruby color, with a bright aroma and taste! They say that it is so tasty, because Georgia has some unique wine-making technology. So how is it made? And why is it so expensive?

To answer these questions, I went to the main wine region of Georgia - Kakheti, where I visited one of the modern Georgian wineries.

Now almost all Georgian wineries make wine using modern European technology, although some factories make some wine using classical Georgian technology, but it is too expensive for industrial production, and wine is 3-4 times more expensive than usual. Therefore, classical Georgian winemaking remained only in villages and in small demonstration halls-museums.

What is the classic Georgian winemaking?

Enormous clay pots are buried underground. Usually they are buried under the house or somewhere in the barn so that the roof is on top. The presence of a buried jug is easily determined by such a hatch in the floor. What is the meaning of these underground tanks? But the fact is that in this way the desired temperature and conditions for fermentation and aging of the wine are achieved. It’s cool underground in summer and warm in winter, so that wine ripens under the same conditions all year round.

When the grapes ripen, they simply pour it into these buried jugs, press in the same place and cover with a lid. All! Next is fermentation. First active, during which it must sometimes be mixed. And about a month later, when active fermentation ends, they catch and remove all the popped up pulp and close tightly throughout the winter for passive fermentation. And already in early spring we get ready Georgian wine !!! The whole cake lies at the bottom of the vat, and above is the purest and most delicious wine! He opened the lid, poured a jug and you can drink. Wine in these underground jugs can be stored and not sour for quite some time. When everything is drunk, the jugs are cleaned and washed thoroughly, and then in the fall everything is new)))

If you want to try just such a “homemade” underground wine, buy from village grannies along the road, with a probability of 99% it will come from just such a Georgian cellar!

At the factory, as I already wrote, long ago they switched to industrial production according to European, or more precisely, according to French technologies.

This is what a modern fermentation shop looks like in a Georgian winery. And in the same way it will look in France, and in Greece, and almost everywhere in Europe)

Here, wine does not wander in jugs underground, but in special containers in which vending machines create and maintain optimal conditions for its maturation. Everything is automated and controlled by computers, so you need only 1 employee to look, so as not to break, and wipe the floor.

After the wine is fermented, it is sent to the cellar for "ripening". We get down to this very cellar. Here we see both classic oak barrels and huge metal containers. Why? Everything is simple. In barrels, expensive vintage wines and brandies are ripening, and in metal tanks - ordinary table wine, which we mostly drink.

Here it is, a cellar with vintage wines. Everything is on the shelves, indicating the year of harvest and grape variety. These bottles are much more expensive than usual.

And if ordinary wine is bottled in six months or a year, then these ripen here for 5-10 years, which makes them (probably) tastier and, naturally, more expensive!

Unfortunately, they didn’t let us into the spill shop (everything is too sterile there) and I couldn’t take a picture of it. But there, too, everything is mega-modern. Cool imported devices do everything without human intervention. Wine, bottle, cork, etiquette - and the finished product is already ready !!!

So why is wine so expensive?

The answer was simple and banal: bottles are bought in France, corks from Spain, labels are also printed somewhere in Europe, and the modern bottling conveyor is also imported and is serviced for euros. So it turns out that at a cost of contents of 50 rubles a bottle of wine costs 300 and above.

But it is not all that bad! For those who want to drink wine and not overpay for packaging, in Georgia they found a way out - plastic containers !!! Yes, here wine is bottled in ordinary plastic bottles of 1 liter, 1.5 liter and the most popular are 5-liter bottles, in which we are used to buying water.

Right at the factory, wine is sold both in glass bottles and in large 5-liter plastic bottles. And if a classic bottle of 0.7 costs somewhere around 350 rubles, then a five-liter bottle comes out about a thousand, i.e. 200 rub per liter. So why overpay? Of course, wine will not be stored in plastic for a long time, but no one stores it here in Georgia. Buy and drink! And I will tell you that the wine in glass and plastic is ABSOLUTELY the same. So you will be in Georgia, feel free to buy plastic bottles. They are usually in the wine departments on the lower shelves. And in restaurants, safely take draft home-made wine, it is always there. And before ordering, you can ask to try.

That's all for me. And remember, Georgian wine in large quantities can harm your health! So drink in moderation)