Khvanchkara Wine Zone

Khvanchkara is not a grape variety — it is a place. The wine takes its name from a small village downstream of Ambrolauri, and the controlled microzone is a thin strip on the right bank of the Rioni running roughly from Tola to Sadmeli, taking in Bugeuli, Dzirageuli, Abari and Chorjo. The whole appellation covers a few hundred hectares, which makes it one of the smallest wine zones in Georgia.

The wine is a blend of two local red varieties, Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli, usually around two thirds to one third. Both ripen late, and picking often starts towards the end of October, when the nights are already cold. That cold is what makes the wine: fermentation stalls by itself at the natural temperature of the cellar, leaving residual sugar behind. The result is semi-sweet not by any addition but by climate, and this is precisely why it cannot be reproduced elsewhere.

Khvanchkara took shape on the Kipiani family estate at the end of the 19th century and won a medal in Belgium in 1907. Under the Soviet Union it became a scarce, half-mythical bottle, helped along by the story of Stalin's fondness for it. Today the name is used freely, and a great many bottles labelled Khvanchkara have never been anywhere near this valley.

That is the argument for coming. A handful of family marani and two or three larger producers work in the valley, and after the harvest you can follow the whole cycle: vineyards climbing in narrow terraces above the road, qvevri sunk in the cellar floor, hams hanging on the wall for winter. Most cellars work by prior arrangement and few speak much English.

Late September and October are given over entirely to the harvest. From May to July the vines are green and the work quiet, but the cellars still open their doors.