Why it tastes like this
Why does Qvevri amber wine taste like that?
White grapes fermented on skins and stems in buried clay vessels — the Georgian tradition from which all modern orange wine descends.
These are the contributors WineHQ can name for Qvevri amber wine as a category. Every one is a tendency, a convention or a mechanism, and each carries a label saying which. None of it describes how a particular producer made a particular bottle — real practice varies enormously, and a causal account that read as a recipe would be false for a great many of the wines it covers.
The grape
What does the variety bring before anyone does anything to it?
Rkatsiteli
TendencyCharacteristically high acidity. Commonly associated with quince, green apple, dried apricot, walnut.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Kisi
TendencyCharacteristically medium-plus acidity and medium-full body. Commonly associated with dried apricot, honey, walnut, tangerine peel.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Mtsvane Kakhuri
TendencyCharacteristically medium-plus acidity. Commonly associated with white peach, jasmine, pear, herbs.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Place and climate
What did the growing season do to the fruit?
Kakheti: continental influence
AssociationA wide day–night temperature range is associated with better acid retention, because cool nights slow the respiration that consumes malic acid while warm days continue to ripen the fruit.
Not claiming: That altitude or continentality guarantees high acidity. Both widen diurnal range on average and neither determines the outcome.
Winemaking
What decisions were taken between the vineyard and the bottle?
Extended skin contact
MechanismFermenting white grapes on their skins extracts phenolics that white winemaking normally removes, giving orange wine measurable tannin and a deeper colour.
Not claiming: That all Georgian wine is made this way, or that skin contact implies a qvevri.
Qvevri and amphora
ConventionFermenting and ageing in buried clay vessels — the Georgian tradition behind orange wine.
Not claiming: That every producer of this style uses this method, or that using it is required.
Age
What changes after the wine is bottled?
Development in bottle
TendencyThe tannin and phenolic structure allow these wines to age for a decade or more.
Not claiming: That a wine of this style will develop these characters. Ageing potential varies by producer, vintage and storage, and most wine is better young.
Follow it up
Style
Qvevri amber wine
The taste profile, food matches, serving guidance and what to try next.
Science
Why wine is like this
The mechanisms behind each contributor above, explained at the scope they have been established.
Myths
What people get wrong
Several of the explanations usually given for wines like this do not survive checking.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) — Julius Kühn-Institut, Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof
- National Wine Agency of Georgia — National Wine Agency, Georgia
- UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology — University of California, Davis
- Wines of Argentina / Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura — Wines of Argentina; INV
- The Australian Wine Research Institute — AWRI
- Ancient Georgian traditional Qvevri wine-making method — UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity — UNESCO
- WSET educational materials and the Systematic Approach to Tasting — Wine & Spirit Education Trust
- Archaeological research on the origins of viticulture and fermented beverages — University of Pennsylvania Museum / peer-reviewed archaeological literature