Our book “Georgia, Sakartvelo: the Birthplace of Wine” and a bottle of sparkling wine from the country Georgia.

We just received copies of our book Georgia, Sakartvelo: the Birthplace of Wine. Kathy and I began to research winemaking and qvevri making in Georgia last summer. In September we traveled to the country and experienced visiting over 30 wineries, monasteries and churches, harvested grapes, pressed grapes, cleaned and sanitized a qvevri, put our grapes into the qvevri, punched down the cap in different qvevris and visited two qvevri makers. Since we had a driver, we were able to observe the landscape, both in cities and in the country. The outline of our book formed while we were in Georgia. Returning in late September, we began writing. A draft was completed in early December and we spent several weeks editing. By mid-January, we sent our manuscript to our publisher.

This is our third book and the first that we used colored photos rather than black and white photos. The color photos look great. In future books, we will also use color photographs. How do you celebrate the culmination of nine months of work?

We decided to open a sparkling wine from Georgia. The 2010 Bagrationi Finest Brut is a great choice for a celebration. The sparkling wine was made in the traditional method with Chinuri grapes. The light yellow colored sparkling wine had a floral aroma with hints of apple. Tiny bubbles were persistent. The taste reminded me of almonds and apple. It was a perfect celebratory sparkling wine from the country Georgia.

Book’s website.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at the International Wine Tourism Conference, IWINETC, in Tbilisi, Georgia March 29-30.

In the United States books can be ordered from the Wine Trail Traveler bookstore.

Cheers,
Terry