At Shalauri Cellars, the founders share a passion for traditional Georgian wine and traditional Georgian cuisine. Traditional Georgian Qvevri wine is produced by small artisanal wine producers who make fine Qvevri wine using natural farming techniques and a low interference vinification process. While Georgia does produce European-style winesand they are pretty good - it’s the traditional qvevri winemaking process that sets it apart. Qvevri winemaking isn’t the type of thing that can be mass-produced, which makes each wine in this style unique.
Wine occupies a privileged place in Georgia’s national identity on par with food, poetry and hospitality. There is an unbroken 8,000-year-old living tradition of making wine in Qvevri, a uniquely Georgian, huge clay jar, lined with beeswax and buried up to the neck in the ground to allow the wine to ferment in an even, naturally cool condition.
The process includes a long period of skin contact between the wine and grape skins to produce a distinct white wine, instead of using industrial yeast and other additives. The fact that it still used after several thousand years, proves that it is really effective. Recently, Georgia’s traditional Qvevri method of making wine was added to the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Despite the qvevri wine’s growing popularity in the West and Japan it’s still in the baby phases of being appreciated.
The winery is located in Kakheti region of Georgia, near the village of Shalauri, overlooking the Alazani Valley and snow-capped Caucasus Mountains. The terroir there is special with long summer sunlight and evenings cooled by the breeze from the Tsivi Mountain. In 2013, the Shalauri founders constructed wine cellars, a tasting hall, and an open-air display kitchen in the vineyard. They installed forty-three Qvevri in wine cellars with total 60-ton production- -capacity. Shalauri Cellars is a boutique winery and all their wines are produced in Qvevri. Shalauri Cellars produce red and white dry wines from different indigenous varietals like Saperavi, Mtsvane, Kisi, Khikhvi and Rkatsiteli.
Research shows that there are significant chemical and nutritional benefits in Qvevri wine produced by the traditional method. At Shalauri Cellars, the founders are committed to the tradition of making artisanal natural wine in just such Qvevri. This wine is an expression of a new search for ancient values. The wine has primordial character; you get the feeling that it’s part of the earth.
Qvevri wine is a symbol of Georgia: a source of pride, unity and strength. Qvevri wine is what makes Georgia distinctive. It is part of what Georgia owns. Further, the distinctiveness of great varieties of grapes (there are about 540 indigenous grape varieties in Georgia) is very important. There is an increasing number of winemakers in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland etc. who make wine in Qvevri from European grape varieties employing the traditional Georgian winemaking method.
Total production is around 20-25 thousand bottles annually. The Shalauri wines have already developed significant brand recognition among sophisticated Qvevri wine drinkers. One thing that really sets apart Shalauri Cellar winery from almost all, if not all, Qvevri wine producers is that they voluntarily apply a principle often called “a reserve principle” to their wines.
For the red Shalauri Cellar wines to be released to the market, they must be aged for a minimum four years with at least eighteen months in Qvevri. For the white wines to be released to the market they must be aged for a minimum two and ahalf years with at least twelve months in Qvevri.
The founders chose to apply this principle to their wine not because it is demanded of them, but because they can, and it is worth doing.
The wines are sold at the local market and exported to the United States, Japan, Germany, Netherlands, Hong Kong and France. You can find Shalauri wines in well-known restaurants of New-York, Washington DC, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Antibes, Nice and Cannes, including the Michelin-star restaurants in Washington D.C., Cannes and Tokyo.
Shalauri Cellar wines were awarded gold medals at the international wine competitions including the IWC International Wine Competitions in Hong Kong and Tbilisi. The U.S.-based EATER online magazine featured Shalauri Cellar Saperavi 2013 as the best representative sample of Georgian natural wines. Shalauri Cellars Mtsvane 2015 won Gold Medal in the Hong Kong International Wine @ Spirit Competition 2018. Shalauri Cellars Rkatsiteli 2018 qvevri wine was selected by Japan Airlines for its prestigious wine list offered to first class passengers. The end of the year 2019 was quite uplifting to the winery. In December Wine Enthusiast magazine rated Shalauri Cellars Mtsvane 2015 higher than any wine from Georgia and higher than any wine from any central and eastern European country. Shalauri Cellars Saperavi 2017 won Gold Medal in the Hong Kong International Wine @ Spirit Competition 2019. Saperavi 2017 also won Trophy in the Hong Kong competition as Best Wine from Georgia. We consider these developments as recognition of increasing interest and appreciation of Georgian wine and particularly traditional Georgian Qvevri wine in the world.
Explication:
1)Hotel development plan
2)Wine cellar
3)Open kitchen
4)Fruit garden
5)Rkatsiteli (planted 2013) – 0.5 ha
6)Mtsvane (planted 2013) – 0.5 ha
7)Kisi (planted 2013) – 0.5 ha
8)Saperavi (planted 2013) – 0.5 ha
9)Khikhvi (planted 2017) – 0.45 ha
10)Rkatsiteli Rosé (planted 2019) – 0.05 ha
11)Saperavi (planted 2019) – 1.0 ha
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The list of existing plants on the estate:
1) Vineyard - The total area is 3.5 hectares (35,000 square meters). The breakdown of grape varieties planted is as follows:
a) Rkatsiteli - 0.5 hectares b) Saperavi - 1.5 hectares c) Kisi - 0.5 hectares
d) Green Khikhivi - 0.5 hectares
2)Fruit trees - A total of 320 trees have been planted, including:
a) apple - 115 b) walnut - 12 c) peach - 32 d) berry - 1 e) cherry - 39
f) quince - 11 g) pomegranate - 48 h) persimmon - 13 i) Tkemali - 25
j) plum - 5 k) pear - 1 l) cornel- 18
3)Trees and plants - The following trees and plants have been planted:
a) vertical cypress - 245 b) spruce - 5
