Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli
ტყუპების საღვინე სახლი
by
Kathy and Terry Sullivan
Summary: Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli is a delightful agritourism winery and vineyard site. The winery is named for the twin brothers who own the winery. Twins Wine Cellar welcomes large groups and provides many activities for visitors.
Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli is owned and operated by the twins Gia and Gela Gamtkitsulashvili. In front of the winery building, visitors will see the only qvevri monument in Georgia. Visitors can walk inside this two-story high qvevri.
In 1994, Gia and Gela opened the first modern Georgian winery to bottle a qvevri wine. Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli opened in a previously built winery. The winery has many qvevris, handmade clay pots inserted in the ground where wines are fermented and aged. A large room has 48 qvevris while another room has 15 qvevris of various sizes. Altogether the winery has 107 qvevris.
Visitor Offerings
In addition to the winery, vineyards and lodging, Twins Wine Cellar has a restaurant that serves authentic Georgian foods. The large dining area is within view of several qvevri circles on the floor. During harvest, the qvevri may be open and visitors can observe how they are cleaned as well as how the winery staff punches down the cap during fermentation.
We spent a great day at Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli. The winery offers a wonderful agritourism experience for visitors. In addition to the wine, Twins Wine Cellar offers experiences in the vineyard and winery during the year. A second floor level porch offers seating and scenic views of the area.
Depending on the time of year, visitors can choose to participate in working in the vineyard, winery or pressing the grapes. Other activities include: touring the winery, making Chacha, attending a Supra, baking bread in a traditional Georgian clay tone, making khinkali, tatara and churchkhela.
Wine Museum
Visitors can also visit the wine museum that was in the process of being built at the time of our September 2013 visit. In addition to the walk-in two-story qvevri, a building will house displays. One wall has several qvevri shapes that can display artifacts. On a lower level, visitors can view three qvevri. Two have a cut-away covered with glass. One can view what it looks like inside the qvevri. One of these had a red wine fermenting in it (pictured). A qvevri oven was also being built. Visitors can see how qvevri are fired.
Vineyards
Twins Cellar has 20 hectares of vineyard with a concentration of Rkatsiteli (pictured). They also purchase grapes. Current production is 300,000 bottles plus some bulk wines. Most of the vineyards are located a few kilometers from the winery but the winery also has a Saperavi vineyard onsite.
We began to harvest some of the Saperavi. The grapes were placed in a wood press. Terry put on boots and climbed into the wood press and began to stomp on the grapes. Juice ran freely and would be fermented and then used to make Chacha.
Winemaking
Special techniques are used when making the qvevri wines including cleaning the qvevri with a white cherry bark brush attached to a pole and burning sulfur inside the qvevri prior to placing grapes in the qvevri. We had an opportunity to help clean a qvevri and add the burning paper releasing sulfur in the qvevri.
We helped to crush Rkatsiteli grapes and before long we added the crushed grapes to a 75-liter qvevri and covered the top. Over the next few days, the staff will punch down the cap. On a return visit to Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli, we hope to open the qvevri and taste the wine we helped to make.
Wines
The wine labels for Twins Wine Cellar note, “God gave us the wines and its tradition. We have to care about the wine and the vineyards because wine is alive. When we open the qvevri it is like the sun rising.”
Qveris Mze 2011 was made in qvevri. The wine was made from Rkatsiteli grapes. The wine was a gold color and fermented in qvevri for two to three weeks. Post fermentation maturation was for 10 days. The qvevris are closed for 6 or 7 months and usually in March the wine is pumped out and bottled. The chacha is removed and distilled to make Chacha. The wine offered floral notes and the finish had mild tannins.
Saperavi 2011 was made the same way the Rkatsiteli was produced. The color was a dark ruby with dark fruits. Blackberry notes were on the finish.
Visitors can lodge at the winery hotel in Napareuli and enjoy a meal at the winery. Be sure to check out the winery website. Napareuli is a small village in Georgia. Currently Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli is one of the only employers in the village.
Visitors to Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli will want to plan to stay for several hours enjoy a lunch and perhaps stay the night in the hotel.
More detailed information about our winemaking experience at Twins Wine Cellar is available on the winemaking.winetrailtraveler.com website.
Twins Wine Cellar in Napareuli
Napareuli, Kakheti, Georgia
