Amber Wine Masterclass

The world calls it 'orange wine' and dates it to Slovenia in 2001. Georgia calls it karvisperi ghvino and dates it to 6000 BC. In 2000, Josko Gravner ordered 11 qvevri from Georgia, 9 arrived smashed, and the two survivors launched a global movement from his cellar in Friuli. At Vino Underground in Tbilisi, a 7-wine flight costs 25 GEL. Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, and Kisi — three grapes, three completely different amber wines, all fermented with skins for months in buried clay. Kisi was nearly extinct under Soviet rule. Now it's the natural wine world's obsession.

What to do there

6 things to do

1. 1 Learn Why the World Got the Name Wrong History · Free

   Where: Anywhere in Tbilisi — start this before you even enter a wine bar. Stand on any Old Town street and absorb this: in 2004, a British wine importer named David Harvey tasted this ancient Georgian style and called it 'orange wine.' The name stuck globally. But Georgians had a word for it already: 'karvisperi ghvino' — amber wine. They'd been making it since 6,000 BCE. A Briton named a Georgian tradition that predates his civilization by 7,700 years. Georgia isn't part of the orange wine trend. The orange wine trend is the world finally catching up to Georgia.

   What: The central insight that unlocks every glass you're about to taste. Skin-contact white wine — fermenting white grapes with their skins, seeds, and stems — IS the original white wine. The modern white wine process (separating juice from skins before fermentation, producing that pale clear liquid) was invented LATER. It was a shortcut. For 7,500 of Georgia's 8,000 years of winemaking, all wine looked amber. What the West discovered in the 2000s is what Georgian families drank at every supra for millennia.

   How: Write down three grape names before you taste anything — Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, Kisi. These are the three amber grapes you'll taste. Each one tells a different story. Commit to noticing at least one thing about each.

   Backup: If you prefer to do this reading, Simon Woolf's 'Amber Revolution' (2019, NY Times Best Wine Book of 2018) starts and ends in Georgia and tells the full story.

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2. 2 Taste the Wine Gravner Crossed a Border to Find Wine · Price: low

   Where: Vino Underground, 15 Galaktion Tabidze Street, Tbilisi — a short walk from Freedom Square. It's underground, behind an unmarked door; look for the Georgian script ღvino. Opens around 16:00.

   What: This bar was opened in 2012 by a collective of Georgian natural wine producers — they can often be found inside pouring their own bottles. The wine list is the most serious qvevri selection in the country. Order amber Rkatsiteli first: it's the backbone of Georgian winemaking, possibly 5,000 years old (historians trace it to 3,000 BC), and Georgia's #1 grape out of 525 endemic varieties. In amber form it arrives with dried apricot, walnut skin, orange peel, and a finish of tea tannins — that light drying grip that surprises first-timers expecting white wine. That drying sensation is the tannins extracted from the skins. It's normal. It's the point.

   How: Ask the staff for Rkatsiteli aged at least 6 months in qvevri. Hold the glass up to the light — the color ranges from pale gold to deep copper, never the pale straw of conventional white wine. Smell before you sip. Smell again after your first taste. The nose shifts dramatically once the wine is on your palate. Glass price: 7-13 GEL (~$2.50-$5). The 7-wine tasting flight costs 25 GEL (~$9).

   Backup: If Vino Underground is closed, g.Vino at 6 Erekle II Street in Old Town has a similarly serious amber selection (hours 13:00-01:00).

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3. 3 Compare All Three: Which Amber Grape Are You? Wine · Price: low

   Where: Still at Vino Underground (or g.Vino, 6 Erekle II Street). Now do the comparison that changes how you understand Georgian wine.

   What: Order Mtsvane amber and Kisi amber alongside the Rkatsiteli you already have. Three glasses. Three completely different expressions of the same winemaking method — same process, same vessels, same region, radically different results. Rkatsiteli: the workhorse. Structure, dried apricot, walnut skin, tea tannins. The grandfather. Mtsvane: aromatic lift — pear, baked apple, citrus pith, nougat. More fragrant, lighter-footed. The one that surprises you with its floral delicacy. Kisi: the endangered one. Nearly extinct in the Soviet era (it yields 25-30% less than Rkatsiteli and is vulnerable to disease, so collective farms abandoned it). Now revived by natural wine producers. Amber Kisi delivers ripe pear, marigold, tobacco, walnut — and noticeably MORE tannic grip than the others. The natural wine world's current obsession. Some ampelographers believe Kisi is a natural hybrid of Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane — the child of your other two glasses.

   How: Taste in order: Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, Kisi. Return to each after five minutes. Ask the staff which producer they recommend for each variety. Write one word that separates each glass from the others.

   Backup: If Kisi isn't available by the glass, ask for any Kisi-heavy blend. The Vazisubani Estate '3 Qvevri' (Rkatsiteli + Mtsvane + Kisi blend) lets you taste all three in one bottle.

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4. 4 Touch the Beeswax-Sealed Vessel That Changed Italy History · Free

   Where: Wine Gallery, 39 Mikheili Tsinamdzgvrishvilis Street (Marjanishvili district, near Fabrika creative hub — take the metro to Marjanishvili station). Open until 21:00.

   What: In 2000, Josko Gravner — now considered the father of the global orange wine movement — secured a visa to Georgia after two months of trying, navigated post-Soviet political suspicion, crossed language barriers, and bought 11 qvevri. Nine arrived broken at his Collio winery in northeast Italy. He buried the two survivors in his cellar and fermented his 2001 whites in them. That was the spark that ignited the international skin-contact wine revolution. The Wine Gallery is part bottle shop, part museum — antiques, historical wine equipment, and a cellar. Find a qvevri on display and run your finger along the interior lip. The beeswax lining is what you're feeling — the ancient waterproofing technique that also allows the porous clay to breathe, giving the wine micro-oxygenation over 6-9 months of rest in darkness.

   How: Walk through the ground floor (bottles and antiques), then descend to the cellar degustation space. Ask staff if you can see or touch a qvevri. Free wine tasting is offered with any purchase. Tsinamdzgvrishvilis Street is about a 10-minute walk from Fabrika.

   Backup: If Wine Gallery is closed, the Georgian National Museum on Rustaveli Avenue has archaeological wine vessels and amber wine history displays.

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5. 5 Pair Amber with Chakapuli — 8,000 Years in One Bite Wine · Price: moderate · Optional

   Where: Any traditional Georgian restaurant in Tbilisi (Barbarestan, Keto and Kote, or ask your wine bar staff for their current recommendation). This step is best in spring when chakapuli is seasonal.

   What: Order chakapuli — the spring lamb and tarragon stew that is arguably Georgia's most expressive dish — alongside a glass of amber Rkatsiteli or Kisi. This pairing is not a suggestion. It is a demonstration of why amber wine exists at all. The herbal bitterness of tarragon, the acidity of the white wine in the stew, the lamb fat — amber wine's textural depth (those tea tannins), its acidity, and its savory dried-fruit character were engineered over 8,000 years to cut through exactly this. The wine's light astringency refreshes the palate between bites. The lamb's fat softens the wine's grip. They were designed for each other before France planted its first vine.

   How: Tell the server you want the wine pairing with chakapuli. Most traditional restaurants will know exactly what you mean. Budget €10-20 for the dish + glass pairing. Note: Chakapuli is most authentic March-May when young lamb and fresh tarragon are available. Off-season substitute: lobiani (bean-stuffed bread) + amber Mtsvane.

   Backup: Even a slice of sulguni cheese (the salty, stretchy Georgian staple) with a glass of Kisi amber demonstrates the principle — the wine's walnut and tea notes against the fresh dairy is one of the simplest and best pairings in Georgian gastronomy.

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6. 6 Blind-Guess the Grape — Name What You Taste Wine · Price: low · Optional

   Where: Return to Vino Underground or g.Vino for a final, deliberate glass. This is the test you set for yourself at the start.

   What: Ask the staff to pour you one amber wine without telling you the grape. Taste it. Now apply what you know: Does it have pronounced tannins and walnut grip? That's Kisi. Is it aromatic with pear and floral notes? Mtsvane. Do you taste dried apricot and orange peel with a long mineral finish? Rkatsiteli. You may not get it right — but the act of trying to identify the grape by style is the moment the knowledge becomes yours. This is what the world's sommeliers are only now learning to do. You are tasting wine the way it was drunk for 7,500 years before anyone thought to invent a different kind.

   How: Before asking the answer, describe the wine in one sentence to the person next to you — friend, stranger, or server. Say the sentence out loud. Then ask what you just tasted. The information that follows will stick forever. That's the story you'll tell at 2am for the rest of your life.

   Backup: If you're alone, write your description in your phone's notes before asking. The act of committing the guess to text has the same effect.

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