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Wine region · Georgia

Racha-Lechkhumi

A small mountainous region in north-west Georgia, known for naturally semi-sweet reds.

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What to expect in the glass

Medium-bodied semi-sweet red with red berry fruit and moderate acidity. Unusual and firmly out of current fashion.

About Racha-Lechkhumi

Racha-Lechkhumi is high and cool in the north-west, and its wines are made in small quantity.

Khvanchkara, its best-known wine, is a naturally semi-sweet red from Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli. The sweetness historically came from fermentation stopping in the cold mountain winter before all the sugar was consumed — a natural arrest rather than an addition.

It was reportedly Stalin’s favourite wine, which is repeated on a great many labels and is not a quality claim.

Racha-Lechkhumi is a wine region, not an appellation

No authority delimits this name or attaches rules to it. A country’s major wine division, usually containing appellations or sub-regions beneath it. That does not make it less real or less useful — it means nothing legal follows from it, and you will not generally find it on a label as a controlled designation.

Grapes

Wines from here

sweet

Sweet white

Unambiguously sweet wines, concentrated by noble rot, freezing, drying or arrested fermentation.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

Sweet white

Serve at 6–9°C (well chilled).

Try with fillet steak, salmon or asparagus.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Imereti — Western Georgia, with a qvevri tradition distinct from Kakheti’s — less skin contact, lighter wines.
  • Kakheti — Georgia’s principal wine region, and the heartland of qvevri winemaking.

Sources

Sources consulted