Georgia The Cradle Of Viticulture

Recipient of the Geoffrey Roberts Award, this book delves head first into the 8,000 year-old wine traditions of the Republic of Georgia. A storied past, this mountainous country on the Black Sea is finally getting recognition for its unique and wonderful wines and grapes including Rkatsiteli, Saperavi, Chinuri, Krakhuna, Kisi, and over 400 more. Made in both the “international method” of barrel and tank aging as well as the ancient method of terracotta pots called “kvevri“, Georgia offers up a wine for everyone and delicious local dishes to accompany them. This is your complete guide to the wines, food, and people of this beautiful land.

- Georgia has a fascinating wine background, claiming to be the birthplace of wine - The historic Georgian qvevri method has seen a rise in popularity due to the currently fashionable natural winemaking movement - Georgia's rich culture puts wine at its center and wine is uniquely important to its people - Lisa Granik is a Master of Wine with long connections with the country, making her ideally placed to comment on its wines Georgia has for the last 25 years been resurrecting its unique winemaking tradition and rediscovering the distinctiveness of its native varieties. A handful of producers in 1997 has now exploded to more than 1,300. Wine is arguably more important to Georgia than to any other country and its people firmly believe their country to be the birthplace of wine. Yet Georgian wines are still largely unknown in the West. Lisa Granik, who began visiting Georgia 30 years ago, starts The Wines of Georgia with a brisk tour through the history of the country and analysis of its complex geology, before moving on to consider Georgian wine culture. She explains not only winemaking methods and viticulture but also the centrality of wine to Georgian culture. Georgia can claim more than 400 native Vitis vinifera varieties; here Granik profiles the most commonly planted grapes, as well as the many 'lost' varieties being revived. The second half of the book details each of the major regions. Of Georgia's 20 PDOs, 15 are in the east, in Kakheti. With a history of wine education dating back 900 years, this prolific winemaking region is home to the qvevri, the conical clay vessel that for many represents Georgian winemaking. Stretching west, the regions become more sparsely populated; some places are still pioneer wine territory, with more amateur and self-taught winemakers. Granik provides details on the most significant producers, along with tips on sites of interest and places to eat and stay, for those visiting the country. This definitive book on Georgian wine is an essential text for anybody studying or making wine today.

Georgia is the new top-ranking destination for adventurous wine lovers. If you are looking for new grape varieties, bold tannic flavours, delicious food and breathtaking natural sceneries you won’t be disappointed. What you’ll discover in these 280 richly illustrated pages: - Georgia's history, culture and the pivotal role wine plays in it; - different wine growing regions and their wine maps; - best terroirs and PDOs; - most popular endogenous grape varieties; - unique 8000-year-old winemaking technology that uses skin-contact fermentation and buried ‘Qvevri’ clay-jars (instead of oak barrels); Whether you’re a wine professional or an enthusiastic amateur, the book will delight you with insights and anecdotes that you can easily share with your customers and friends: - Stories of the main historic Estates provide a glimpse of the complex geo-political trends that have shaped the Southern Caucasus; - Short profiles of the new generation wine makers explain their struggle to shake off Soviet heritage by going back to ancient customs; - The very Georgian tradition of Tamada and Supra that calls to mind the philosophical ‘symposiums’ of the ancient Greeks as seen by French philosopher, Michel Eltchaninoff. A Wheel of Taste to find your favourite Georgian wine Navigating Georgian grape varieties, with sometimes unpronounceable names, can be a challenge. To help you find the best match, Sarah Abbott MW has created a “wheel of taste” that will help you find the Georgian “equivalent” based on your tastes in popular European wines. Last but not least, you will discover all 525 endogenous grapes varieties and learn which one was Stalin’s favourite. The book will prove itself a useful guide to whomever is willing to explore unusual tastes of a country so close and yet so different to Europe.

Georgia, Sakartvelo: the Birthplace of Wine by Terry and Kathy Sullivan reveals a cultural world unknown to many people. The country of Georgia is located to the east of the Black Sea between the Greater Caucasus Mountains and the Lesser Caucasus Mountains. This is a land with a Mediterranean climate where wine, history, food and religion intermix. The people in this region have been making wine continuously for 8,000 years. Discover the qvevri winemaking method that has been used to make natural wine for centuries. Terry and Kathy take readers into Georgia's culture with an emphasis on wine and history.

Who will have the last word on wine, if not Jamie Goode? Over the last decade, Goode has embarked on almost nonstop travel through the world’s vineyards in an effort to understand the beautifully diverse and complicated world of wine. His hard-nosed pursuit of the most interesting stories to tell about wine has led us here, to The Goode Guide to Wine. This book—a sort of manifesto—distills many of the observations, lessons, and opinions that have made Jamie Goode a renowned voice within the wine world. In a series of short, pithy, and often rather blunt chapters, he celebrates what is exciting and interesting about wine, asks how we could do things better, and points out some of the absurdities of wine culture. Jamie Goode has a distinct philosophy when it comes to wine, and he knows you may disagree; if you do, that means it’s working. The Goode Guide to Wine is a book designed to provoke and inspire in equal measure, encouraging the reader to be critical and to see the world of wine through fresh eyes.

This is Feiring's ode to a country, a history, a culture, and the religion that has preserved and continued to shape wine across the centuries. More than that, it's the stories of the people behind the country's wine efforts today, an exploration of the face and heart behind an ancient tradition that is reshaping the contemporary wine scene. --Publisher's description.

A must-have volume for all wine lovers and those who love orange wine. Written by renowned orange wine expert and award winning writer Simon J. Woolf, Amber Revolution is the world's first book to tell the full, forgotten story of this ancient wine (white wine made like a red wine) and its modern struggle to gain acceptance. It is a tale of lost identity, the fight for survival, and pioneering winemakers--from the Caucasus to the Adriatic. White grapes are left in contact with their skins for days, weeks or months during fermentation, creating stunning complexity, unusual aromas and intense flavors. The extended skin contact gives these wines bold amber, russet, or orange tints. The technique is ancient, but the hype is new and fast growing. This book includes profiles of 180 of the best producers from 20 countries worldwide and is crammed full of all the information you need to find the best orange wines worldwide together with tips for how to buy, enjoy, food-match and age them. Beautifully illustrated with over 150 specially commissioned photos, Amber Revolution is an essential reference work for any wine lover, sommelier, retailer or producer who loves orange wine. Written by renowned orange wine expert and award winning writer Simon J. Woolf, Amber Revolution is the world's first book to tell the full, forgotten story of this ancient wine (white wine made like a red wine) and its modern struggle to gain acceptance. It is a tale of lost identity, the fight for survival, and pioneering winemakers--from the Caucasus to the Adriatic. White grapes are left in contact with their skins for days, weeks or months during fermentation, creating stunning complexity, unusual aromas and intense flavors. The extended skin contact gives these wines bold amber, russet, or orange tints. The technique is ancient, but the hype is new and fast growing. This book includes profiles of 180 of the best producers from 20 countries worldwide and is crammed full of all the information you need to find the best orange wines worldwide together with tips for how to buy, enjoy, food-match and age them. Beautifully illustrated with over 150 specially commissioned photos, Amber Revolution is an essential reference work for any wine lover, sommelier, retailer or producer who loves orange wine.