Orange wines have become trendy over the last 15 years, but they are actually a tribute to wines made in ancient times – thousands of years ago in the birthplace of wine, the fertile valleys of the South Caucasus (present-day Georgia and Armenia), when winemakers used to dump their grapes in a qvevri (a large clay vessel buried in the ground to keep the wine cool), where they were left to ferment, stabilise and clarify naturally.
Many orange wines are considered ‘natural wines’ – because they are made with the yeasts carried on the grape skins and with techniques often described as ‘low intervention’ or ‘zero manipulation’. It means the winemakers make no additions, apart from a little S02 to prevent the wines from oxidising. These ‘natural wines’ are usually bottled without filtration – so you may find some deposits at the bottom of the bottle, as you do with some red wines.
Chris Boiling, wine writer and latterly wine maker, first tasted orange wine made by a long-bearded monk from Georgia. By his own admission, it was disgusting. ‘Natural’ but in a faulty kind of way. However, since then, Chris has tasted many amazing orange wines and this style has become his favourite.
So much so that he went to three very different countries in 2022 to make three different styles of amber wines - his Crazy Experimental range. In the Alazani Valley – in the heart of Georgia’s primary wine-growing region, Kakheti – Chris harvested two rare indigenous grape varieties, Kisi and Khikhvi, and put them together in a qvevri, keeping the skins in contact with the wine for six months. The wine was then racked off the skins and stored in a clean qvevri for a further four months.
This wine is due to be shipped to England on July 5th and you can be the first to taste this exciting style. This is a limited edition wine, never to be repeated, and we know that our small allocation will sell out quickly. Pre-order now for delivery on arrival.
Known as the "cradle of wine", this is where winemaking began over 8000 years ago. Early Georgian winemaking traditions, including the use of a Qvevriare still used today.
Georgia was unscathed by the medieval Crusades and was not in the Ottoman empire (which banned wine consumption), thus this is not only the oldest wine region, but also the region which has consistently produced wine throughout its history.
There has been a winery in the village since the 1800s and to ensure that this long history of winemaking continued, Teliani Valley was established in the 1990s by a group of enthusiastic young winemakers.
The winery was originally a converted car workshop, but with their tremendous vineyards and skill for making quality wines, they have gone from strength to strength and are now one of the biggest producers in Georgia.
Kisi is a highly aromatic indigenous Georgian variety. It makes outstanding orange wines when vinified in qvevri, as well as fragrant European-style whites when crafted in a conventional way.
It comes from the Kakheti region in the south-eastern Georgia and is at least several centuries old, though its exact origin remains unknown. A well-made Kisi wine is gorgeously fragrant, with notes of flowers and stone fruit.
Khikhvi grows widely in Eastern Georgia, thought to originate in Kakheti, but no-one knows where the name originates. Khikhvi vines produce a relatively small number of grapes.
Khikhvi wine is made both in European and Qvevri styles, each having distinctive aroma profiles. The European-style ferment tends to give exotic aromas redolent of the resinous aroma of boxwood; the traditional Georigan Qvevri style tend to have a nose of ripe yellow fruit and apricot.
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