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Green and Georgian Grape

Mtsvane is a Georgian wine grape, which is often blended with Rkatsiteli, the most famous grape from Georgia.  The name “Mtsvane” (or Mtsvani) means “green,” “young,” new” or “Green from Kakheti” in the Georgian language, named after the yellow-ish green coloring of its ripe berries.

Giant clay pots

The wines made with Mtsvane are often made with extended time sitting with the juice on the skin and even with grape seeds and the ripest stems.  This produces higher alcohol levels and a natural preservative so no need for additional preservatives.  The wines with Mtsvane are then typically made in the traditional Georgian style with the giant clay pots called “qvevri,” which range from 50 liters up to 3.5 tons.  Especially as it gets hot during the summer months in Kakheti and other eastern parts of Georgia (30+ degrees on average in July, the hottest month), the giant clay pots are kept in the ground where the wine can ferment in a cooler environment. 

Orange wine vs Amber wine

This production technique of extended contact between skin and juice makes what has become known as “orange wine,” which is basically making white wine in the same way that you make red wine (keeping contact with the grape skin and the juice after you crush the juice out of the grapes).  But “orange wine” as a term is not favored in Georgia.  Georgian winemakers prefer the term “amber wine.” In the fascinating Georgian language (which includes 3 different alphabets), the color “amber” translates to “qarva” (ქარვა). Peri – means color in Georgian so the amber-colored wines are called “Qarvisperi” (ქარვისფერი).

Georgian winemakers reportedly believe that “amber wine” is more true to the amber color of the wine itself (I tend to agree) and stays truer to the long and distinguished wine-making history of Georgia, which only recently came into the Anglo wine world’s consciousness, in significant part due to the interest and passion about “orange wine” in recent years. 

First coined in 2004 by UK importer David Harvey, the interest in Georgian and Italian white wines with color has now becoming relatively accessible, even appearing on many high-end restaurant menus and accessible in many wine shops globally. 

Taste

Smells like an orange wine with oxidized sense; tastes like a rusty acidic sauvignon blanc; longer finish with lots of green herbs playing together like in an aperol

Random Googles:

  • Mtsvane is considered to be one of the oldest wine varieties in the world, dating back 6,000 years
  • The Georgian language is not the only fascinating thing about Georgia.  In addition to numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites throughout the small country (it’s the size of the state of Florida in the US), UNESCO has recognized 4 cultural “elements” for inclusion
    • the Georgian language
    • the qvevri used in wine-making
    • a unique communal wrestling match set to music called Chidaoba that most men in Georgia practice, and
    • polyphonic signing (think Georgian choir chants which uses singing from your mouth and your throat at the same time).
  • Foods described as pairing well with Mtsvane by this wine enthusiast are apple sauce and potato pancake.  Haven’t tried but makes sense to me. 
  • Tsinandali Palace is an exceptional place to visit in Georgia, both to explore the beautiful grounds and to drink wine in the cellar

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Malbec is a special grape to me.  It is the grape that opened up the world of wine, the differences of vineyards and brands and lands of grapes.  We lived in Argentina at the time that I tried Malbec and it was so superior to any kind of wine, mixed drink or anything else that I had tried up to that point.  It was also everywhere in Buenos Aires and most came from one place – Mendoza.

On multiple weekends, I made trips from Buenos Aires to Mendoza on overnight buses, spent all weekend biking around the city and province, and then taking an overnight bus back before Monday began.  It was exhausting and glorious, and Mendoza presented itself as a location backdropped with mountains and tons of sun, yet was populated by many warm people who had little of the arrogance and Louis XIV heliocentricity more common in large cities with the national capital coexisting on top.

Over the years, Argentina Malbec has been a mainstay at our home, particularly when grilling and when carb-loading on pastas.  No grape has appeared more often in this wino’s glass than Malbec.  No grape has been so recommended and treasured and re-shared by friends and family members.  No grape is so prevalent in the boxes stuffed around our basement.

These two Malbecs are two of my favorites, and both are similar and elegant.  Both are also relatively affordable and up to the task for Wednesday Wine Night and for gifts to those that you really enjoy and who enjoy a great bottle of wine without the bravado.

  1. El Enemigo is the recent tour de force that shows up big in alcohol and taste, pulls back before its bigness becomes alcohol aggressive, and lingers all afternoon in relaxed longevity.  Hagrid, knocking on the door of the Dursley’s shack and making himself comfortable on the couch for the evening.
  2. Catena Malbec is the classic.  It’s the standard to compare all Malbecs by – and it envelopes you in violet and velvet, letting you know there’s alcohol but pulling you true-center toward fruit and ultimately, balance.  A classic toy gyroscope, when spinning beautifully and smoothly on its axis, permanent in its precision and present in that finite moment.

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Detail Up!

Random Googles:

  • Malbec – in France, it’s grown mostly in Cahors in SW France and is often used in blends
  • Malbec’s one of the 6 grapes permitted in red Bordeaux – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Carmenere are the other five.
  • El Enemigo Malbec is from a joint venture between Adrianna Catena (daughter of Nicolas Catena) and Alejandro Virgil, noted passionate winemaker

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Ice Wine in Canada
Vidal Blanc is the grape responsible for the unique and glorious ice wine Inniskillin, one of the exceptional dessert wines in the world and a wine that makes it impossible to overlook Canada on the list of countries producing terrific wines. Inniskillin is also a short 20 minute drive from Niagara Falls, one of the nicer tourist stops in an area overrun with tchotchkes and establishment hawkers.
Vidal Blanc is the undisputed grape leader of ice wine production in North America, although Riesling is a close second in my book. Other grapes that also make ice wine include Gewurztraminer and Gruner Veltliner, along with some Cabernet Franc in Ontario too.

Ice wine processes
Ice wine is a phrase that tends to cover over a host of wines and at least a couple production methods. At its best, it is grapes picked while frozen (often by hand) and squeezed lightly to extract only the sweetest of the grape juice. Similar to EVOO when considering the light and first press of olives.
More typically, ice wine is made by wineries freezing their grapes and then pressing them while frozen (a process known as cryoextraction). Hard to know which of the two processes is used when buying wine in the US, although the ice wines from Ontario and Germany that I have bought and then googled seem to follow the more natural process than the wines from the colder parts of the US.

Vidal outside the ice box
Vidal rightly gains fame for its ice wine prowess in Canada and some parts of the US. But I actually found the non-ice Vidal Blanc wine in Missouri to be quite refreshing and more nuanced than expected.
August Winery has a whole suite of different hybrid wines (wines that combine American and European grape parents) on their menu, and the Vidal Blanc stood out to me for matching with lighter food and even salads – a decidedly difficult dish to pair wine with.

Taste

Pear and white peach smell
Round mouthfeel like viognier but with more acidity
Acidity more pronounced on long finish that loses a lot of roundness which turns to stickiness similar to the texture your mouth feels after you have eaten a peach on a hot day and are licking your fingers

Eaten with a caesar salad when considering adding anchovy paste on the last night in our house in St Louis before going to our friends’ house for a week of indoor camping in winter

Random Googles
* Vidal is named after Jean Louis Vidal, a French wine grape breeder who combined Italian grape Ugni blanc with a hybrid grape Rayon d’Or (found in limited quantities in Missouri, USA and the Loire Valley in France)
* Missouri Vidal blanc wines apparently have more of full-bodied, buttery mouthfeel than Vidal blanc wines from other parts of North America, which is consistent with our sample size of 1 wine from today’s tasting
* Augusta AVA, site of the Augusta Winery, became the first federally approved American Viticultural Area in the US, followed soon after by the Napa Valley AVA in California

Detail up!
August Winery 2019 Vidal Blanc, Missouri

Crab Shack in Chicago
A crab shack in Chicago might seem an unlikely place to find a happy hour special of Greek wine named Moschofilero, pronounced “mow-sko-FEEL-err-oh.”

As far as places where Greek wine would appear on the menu, Chicago though is about as good a bet in the US as one could make. Chicago has a strong history of Greek immigration dating back to the 1840s and was the US principal destination for Greek migrants until NYC took over that crown after WWII. Even today, Chicago ranks as one of the top Greek cities in the world – opa!

Impressive Greek Madame

If there is one person to thank for that Greek wine appearing on the menu, however, it is Madame Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona (b. 1928). She has dedicated her long life to the categorization, study and veneration of Greek wines, and her bio is ridiculously impressive. PhD in Chemistry, Director of the Wine Institute at the Ministry of Agriculture in Greece, President of many multinational organizations dedicated to the expansion and improvement of vines and grapes, and architect of the Appellation of Origin system that first begin in Greece in the 1970s and now includes a structured system of PDO, PGI and IDO wine classifications.

Living a Full Life

Most impressive of all is her outlook and dedication, which I quote from an interview when she was in her late 80s: “I simply feel like a person who deserves to live, who hasn’t led a wasted life… I was fortunate and happy to see the birth in this country, from scratch, of an entire field of research, application, science, industry, commerce and international relations. If I could be born again, I would wish to live the same life all over again – even its difficult times. This full life, which was dedicated to the service of the wine sector.”

Taste

  • To quote the impressive Madame Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona, this is a wine “to break the boredom of the monotony of aromas and flavors from the immoderate prevalence of some, few globalized cultivars.” 
  • Very light color – almost translucent but then light yellow and light green come through
  • Floral and lemony with a Torrontes-like nose
  • Softer sauvignon blanc taste with more citrus taste of lemon, lime and orange with quite a long zesty finish

Detail up!

2018 Moschofilero by Skouras – made with 100% Moschofilero grapes into a 12% ABV white wine from Arcadia Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) in Peloponnese, Greece

Random Googles:

  • Opa! and its accompanying flaming sagnaki dish ubiquitous in Chicago’s Greektown restaurants was invented in Chicago in the 1960s and has expanded from there
  • Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona was the first woman in Europe to hold a oenologist degree in Europe and prefers the title “Lady of the Vines,” inspired by a poem (or collection of poems) written by fascinating Greek poet Yannis Ritsos
  • Greeks in Melbourne, Australia tell me that Melbourne has the most Greeks of any city in the world outside of Athens.  That seems almost accurate from a review of the diaspora information – perhaps after Thessaloniki too.

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Ancient
Georgia has a solid claim to be the birthplace of wine, a birthright dating back at least 8,000 years. Chkhaveri is one of those Georgian grapes that is described as ancient and indigenous, among other quite positive descriptions. It also makes wine in the white, red and rose varieties, depending on the producer and the region.

Fragile yet worth it
The grape tends to fall flat when faced with fungal diseases and phylloxera so it was quite at risk until recent decades when it now appears to be making something of a comeback even if true Georgian wine converts still have a hard time finding it regularly in the Tbilisi supermarkets.

Taste
Watercolor wine in a style resminiscent of the Monet, Cezanne era. Hard to pin down exact color (is it light red, light orange, aperol?), hard to pin down the exact taste (is that light strawberry, rose on the lips, maybe a smell of a raspberry?) but the lightness and length of the wine shimmer on for a long time and the combination is lovely for a hot afternoon heading into evening.  Ripe for sunsets in hot climes.

Detail up!
Lukasi 2017 Rose 11% wine of the versatile Chkhaveri grape from the mountainous region of Adjara in the west of Georgia
Random Googles
* Chkhaveri is the English writing of the Georgian grape – ჩხავერი – which gives a sense of how different the languages and scripts are from each other.
* Georgian script (all 3 of them to be specific) is one of the three UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages. The other two are wine (from the clay amphora known as qvevri) and polyphonic Georgian singing. All 3 well deserved.
* Government of Georgia provides here a fascinating amount of detail on the origins of Chkhaveri, cultivation, history and future of the grape

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