Georgia Uncorked: 8,000 Years of Wine in the Glass Weds., 8/19, 5-7pm, complimentary.
Wine Wednesday with Lasha Abashidze of Kartveli Wines
Wednesday, August 19 | 5:00–7:00 PM
10% Off All Featured Wines & Brandy During the Tasting
This week, Wine Wednesday takes us to one of the most historically important and fascinating wine countries on Earth: Georgia.
We are thrilled to welcome back Lasha Abashidze of Kartveli Wines. Lasha joined us previously for an incredibly popular tasting, and this time we have selected three entirely new Georgian wines plus a spectacular XO brandy. More importantly, Lasha is a tremendous resource for understanding Georgian grapes, regions, winemaking traditions, and culture. If you have ever been curious about Georgian wine, this is a wonderful opportunity to taste and learn with someone who knows the country intimately.
Georgia: Where the Story of Wine Begins
Georgia’s relationship with wine stretches back approximately 8,000 years, giving it one of the oldest continuous winemaking traditions on the planet. Yet describing Georgian wine as simply “ancient” misses half the story. Today’s producers are combining hundreds of indigenous grape varieties and traditional techniques with thoughtful modern winemaking to create wines that feel simultaneously historic and completely new.
Perhaps Georgia’s greatest contribution to wine culture is the qvevri, the large clay fermentation vessel traditionally buried beneath the ground. Grapes can be fermented and matured in these vessels, sometimes with extended skin contact, creating wines of extraordinary texture and character. Georgian qvevri winemaking is so culturally significant that UNESCO recognizes the traditional method as part of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage.
This week’s lineup also demonstrates that Georgian wine is far more diverse than qvevri or amber wine alone. We’ll taste fresh and aromatic whites, a beautifully distinctive native red, and a world-class aged brandy.
Featured Guest & Importer: Kartveli Wines
Kartveli Wines specializes in bringing Georgia’s remarkable wine culture to American consumers. Rather than producing wine themselves, Kartveli works with Georgian wineries to select and import bottles that showcase the country’s native grapes, distinctive terroirs, and centuries of winemaking heritage.
The name itself is fitting: Kartveli means Georgian, while Sakartvelo is the Georgian name for the country we know as Georgia.
Having Lasha with us makes this tasting particularly special. Georgian wine can initially feel like learning an entirely new language, filled with unfamiliar grapes and regions. Lasha has a gift for making that world accessible, connecting what’s in the glass to Georgia’s history, food, traditions, and people.
Featured Producer: Villa Mosavali
Villa Mosavali works with vineyards across Kartli, Kakheti, and Imereti, giving the winery access to an extraordinary range of indigenous Georgian varieties. Vineyard work and harvesting are performed by hand, while the cellar combines contemporary equipment with traditional Georgian qvevri and French oak maturation.
That combination makes Mosavali particularly interesting for this tasting. Rather than presenting Georgian wine through a single stylistic lens, these three bottles allow us to experience three very different native grapes and the dramatically different regions from which they originate.
Mosavali Tsitska
Imereti | Western Georgia
Tsitska is one of the signature white grapes of Imereti, the greener, wetter region of western Georgia. Imereti’s climate and traditions tend to produce Georgian whites with freshness and delicacy rather than sheer power.
Tsitska naturally retains excellent acidity and traditionally gives flavors of quince, pear, melon, citrus, and subtle honey, sometimes developing delicate herbal complexity with age. Its natural freshness also makes it an important variety for Georgian sparkling wine.
Why We’re Pouring It: This is a terrific introduction to Georgian white wine for anyone accustomed to crisp European whites. Rather than beginning with a deeply structured amber wine, Tsitska offers freshness, subtle aromatics, and an easy path into a grape most customers have probably never tasted.
Mosavali Goruli Mtsvane Reserve
Kartli | Central Georgia
Our second white brings us east to Kartli, one of Georgia’s historic wine regions surrounding the city of Gori and the Mtkvari River.
Goruli Mtsvane, meaning roughly “Green of Gori,” should not be confused with the better-known Mtsvane Kakhuri of Kakheti. It is an indigenous Kartli grape valued for its delicate perfume, lively acidity, and flavors of lime, white flowers, orchard fruit, and subtle honey. It is traditionally grown along the Mtkvari River and in the Ateni Valley.
The Reserve bottling gives us a more substantial interpretation of the variety, adding depth and texture while retaining the grape’s natural aromatic lift.
Why We’re Pouring It: Goruli Mtsvane illustrates how remarkably diverse Georgian white varieties can be. Look for greater texture and complexity than the Tsitska, but still with the freshness that makes these native Georgian grapes so compelling at the table.
Mosavali Shavkapito
Kartli | Central Georgia
Then things get especially interesting.
Shavkapito is a rare indigenous red grape originating in Kartli. Its name translates approximately as “vine with a black cane.” Unlike the powerful, deeply colored Saperavi that many customers associate with Georgia, Shavkapito tends toward a lighter ruby color with red berry fruit, herbs, spice, and a more delicate structure. Its expression can vary considerably according to vineyard site, with hillside vineyards tending toward greater perfume and finesse.
Mosavali’s fruit comes from vineyards in Akhalubani, where the grapes are harvested by hand. The wine receives aging in French oak, adding another layer of complexity without losing Shavkapito’s naturally fresh personality.
Why We’re Pouring It: Think less about powerful Georgian red wine and more about the aromatic, savory appeal of Pinot Noir, Cru Beaujolais, or lighter Northern Rhône Syrah. Shavkapito is a beautiful reminder that Georgia’s native red grapes can produce wines of finesse as well as strength.
Featured Producer: Sarajishvili
XO Georgian Brandy | Tbilisi
Our final selection takes Georgian grape growing in an entirely different direction.
Sarajishvili is a historic name in Georgian spirits. In 1884, David Sarajishvili established classical wine-brandy production in Georgia, and the company produced its first brandy in 1887. Its brandies subsequently earned international recognition at exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, and Chicago. Remarkably, the company’s historic reserves still include spirits distilled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Sarajishvili XO Brandy
The XO is composed of brandy spirits distilled from Georgian grape varieties and matured in oak barrels. The resulting spirit is dark amber, silky, and complex, with aromas and flavors of vanilla, toasted almond, chocolate, seasoned oak, and leather.
Why We’re Pouring It: France may dominate the conversation around fine grape brandy, but Georgia possesses its own remarkable distilling heritage. Sarajishvili XO provides a fascinating conclusion to the evening and a chance to taste another dimension of Georgia’s extraordinary relationship with the grape.
Featured Tasting
Featured Selection Region Style
Mosavali Tsitska Imereti Dry White
Mosavali Goruli Mtsvane Reserve Kartli Dry White
Mosavali Shavkapito Kartli Dry Red
Sarajishvili XO Brandy Georgia Aged Brandy
All featured wines and brandy are 10% off during the tasting.
Why You Shouldn’t Miss This One
Georgia can be one of the most exciting wine countries to discover because so little of it feels familiar. The grapes are different. The language is different. The winemaking traditions stretch back thousands of years. And yet, once the wines are in the glass, they become wonderfully approachable.
This week’s tasting travels from Tsitska in western Imereti to Goruli Mtsvane and Shavkapito in central Kartli, before finishing with the extraordinary brandy tradition represented by Sarajishvili.
Best of all, we’ll have Lasha of Kartveli Wines here to tell the stories behind them.
Wine Wednesday
Wednesday, August 19
5:00–7:00 PM
Three artisan Georgian wines. One spectacular XO brandy. 8,000 years of wine history.
Explore. Taste. Learn. Gaumarjos!
Gaumarjos is the traditional Georgian toast: “Victory!” or “Cheers!”