Traditional Georgian wines are made in qvevri buried underground. Here is a marani (cellar) at Schuchmann Wines.

The country Georgia, about 6,500 airline miles from the east coast of the United States, will celebrate their wines and their 8,000 vintages this October. The country’s National Wine Agency is sponsoring events in the United States. Georgian wine tasting events will take place in:

New York City October 6th
San Francisco October 13th
Washington DCOctober 19th

The free tasting event begins with a seminar followed by a walk around wine tasting. The tasting events are intended for media members and members of the trade including: retailers, importers/distributors, restaurants and bars. Attendees can expect to taste wines made with varieties that are not common in the United States. Many of the wines will be appellation wines while others will be the traditional wines made in buried qvevri. Be on the lookout for qvevri white wines. Many of these wines are fermented and aged on their skins for several months. You can expect amber colored wines with bold to very bold tannins. These may be some of the most unusual wines that you will have an opportunity to taste. You can register for one of the tasting events on the Drink Georgian Wines website.

Soliko Tsaishvili, owner and winemaker at Our Wine is punching down the cap in a qvevri.

Venues

New York City

Date: Tuesday, October 6th 2015
Location: Astor Center 399 Lafayette Street, NYC
Georgian Wine Seminar: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Walk-around Tasting: 2:00pm – 5:00pm

San Francisco

Date: Tuesday, October 13th 2015
Location: SOMA LOUNGE, 1525 Mission Street, SF
Georgian Wine Seminar: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Walk-around Tasting: 2:00pm – 5:00pm

Washington DC

Date: Monday, October 19th 2015
Location: Vidalia Restaurant, 1990 M St. NW Washington, DC 20036
Georgian Wine Seminar: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Walk-around Tasting: 1:00pm – 3:30pm

An amber traditional Georgian wine is a white wine that was fermented and aged for months on the skins.

Producers

There are over 20 producers that will pour wines at the Georgian Wine Tasting events. Many of these producers are from the eastern part of the country in the Kakheti wine region. Other producers are from the central part of the country in the Kartli wine region. In the list, producers that are linked are linked to a Wine Trail Traveler article that we wrote when we visited the producer in Georgia. The current list of Georgian wine producers includes:

Amiran Vepkhvadze
Antadze
Bagrationi
Chateau Mukhrani
Gotsa
Iago’s Wine
Jakeli
Kindzmarauli Marani
Lagvinari
Marani (Telavi Wine Cellars)
Orgo
Our Wine
Pheasant’s Tears
Sarajishvili
Schuchmann
Shaluri
Shalvino
Shavnabada Monastery
Shumi
Teliani Valley Winery
Vinoterra
WineMan

Discover what you are missing if you haven’t tasted wines from the country Georgia!

Cheers,
Terry