The earliest archaeological findings of where wine making practices began is in
Georgia. I attended a wine tasting hosted by The Georgian Wine
Society a couple of weeks ago and found it a very tasty affair.

Having only tasted a couple of wines at the recently attended International wine fair, I
was excited to attend the tasting. Even for nothing else but to hear
the grape varieties spoken, I’m not saying I could repeat them.

We started the tasting with a sparkling wine from an estate Bagrationi, who are the leading
sparkling wine producer within Georgia. Made in the traditional way
with a blend of 3 grapes, Chinuri, Tsitska and Mtsvane, the Chinuri
gives the wine elegance. It really surprised me with a pleasant
bready nose, refreshing acidity and fruits of peach and honey notes.

The two white wines we tried were totally different, the first being a single grape varietal
wine, Tsolikouri. This was a full bodied wine and Jancis Robinson
quoted “it blew her socks off” This Teliani winery have been
given the  “Super Georgians” name! So watch this space! Move over
Italy with your Super Tuscans.

The following reds were all from their national grape, Saperavi showing different styles,
there are 18 appellation control wine regions. The first red wine is
from the highest regarded wine region called Napareuli. The Teliani
Winery show tasty fruit flavours of damson and plums, with  perfumed
floral notes, it has balanced acidity and good firm tannins.

I found the following wines really interesting, from big meaty smoky wines with lots of
black fruits to a very herbaceous wine with notes of basil.

It was great to try these unusual (to the UK) grapes varieties and it really shows that
Georgian wines are serious winemakers and the standard is award winning, which they have proved by the Teliani winning a silver
medal.

If you get an opportunity to try a Georgian wine I highly recommend taking it.