Rtveli: The Georgian Wine Harvest
Kakheti, Georgia
POSTCARDS | Aug 25My appreciation for Georgian wine started when I was in high school (don’t worry - there was adult supervision!). To celebrate my high school graduation, my dad opened a bottle of Georgian wine that he had bought previously, having found out that it had a high rating and was supposedly a favorite of Stalin. I remember taking my first sip and falling in love with Georgian wine. For many years I’d associate Georgian wine with that smooth sweet sip (it was a semi-sweet wine) and those happy memories.
When I made my way to Georgia, I knew that I had to take full advantage of traveling in the country where wine was born (no, it was not France or Italy! The oldest evidence of wine was found just outside Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, in 8,000 year old earthernware jars). I luxuriated in being able to drink a glass of good wine almost every day, especially on those hiking days, and sought the opportunity to participate in Georgia’s famous wine harvest.
Rtveli is Georgia’s wine harvest festival that typically takes place in September and October, when the grapes are ready to be harvested, processed, and fermented into wine. Winemarkers then honor the occasion with a supra (feast) to celebrate a job well done. I got to participate in Rtveli in late August, when a winemaker announced that some of his grapes had reached the ideal sugar levels and were already ready to be picked. Take a look through this exciting event!
If you’re in NYC, check out some Georgian restaurants there to try Georgia’s delicious food and wine - you won’t regret it! I’ve only been to Chama Mama, but highly recommend it.
Alaska and I joined Eat This!'s Real Rtveli tour which visited Vakho Oqruashvili Wine Cellar in Velistsikhe, a small town located in the Kakheti. Kakheti is the famous wine region of Georgia. This winery is a very small, family-run producer. Their home serves as their wine tasting venue and has a small on-site vineyard, but they also have a larger acreage located several miles away.
We were enthusiastically welcomed by the winemaker with homemade chacha (Georgian brandy) and Georgian bread and cheese.
We were severed multiple flavors of chacha, including tarragon (green) and rose (red). The rose-infused chacha was absolutely delicious, and I was feeling a bit tipsy after our warm welcome, even though it was hardly 11 in the morning!
Some of the grapes located in the family's home vineyard
Cutting the grapes off the vine
Literal fruits of our group's labor! The grapes featured in the basket are Okroula grapes, which are one of Kakheti's rarest grapes. They were so deliciously sweet thanks to being picked on the perfect day! The winemaker measures the sugar levels of the grapes each day in order to choose the best day for picking.
Because our group was running late on the drive from Tbilisi, we picked grapes from the family's home vineyard rather than their larger commercial property. The winemaker's family went ahead and picked the grapes from the commercial vineyard and drove them over for us to process. This van includes 400 kg of grapes, which makes 200 bottles.
One method of processing the grapes is by feet! We put on rubber boots and stomped on the grapes so the juices would flow to a container at the end of this trough.
Stomping the grapes took real effort! The grapes would suck my boots under so I had to use a lot of effort to pull my legs back up to continue stomping - a great way to build up your quads.
Ta da! Grape juice being collected at the end of the trough where we were stomping the grapes.
The other traditional method of processing the grapes was through a hand crank. We'd pour the grapes into the crank and someone would turn the wheel to crush them.
After the grapes were crushed by the hand crank (pictured here) or via foot stomping, the juices would go into the qveri, a large clay vessel used to store and ferment the wine. You can see the plastic bag that is above the qveri (right below the green machine). It takes four hours to clean the qveri in preparation for the wine! The cleaning is done by hand using only water and and a cherry wood brush, which acts as a natural antiseptic. The Okroula grape, which we harvested and processed, only needs one month in the qveri. A full qveri can hold 2000kg grapes which makes 1000 L of wine or 1200 bottles.
Arguably the best part of Rtveli is the supra! The supra is a traditional Georgian feast to celebrate the harvest. We had the opportunity to make meati khinkali, Georgian dumplings. Our lovely host showed us how to roll out the dough, add the meat filling, and pinch the khinkali shut.
Closing khinkali is a lot harder than closing a dumpling! There's a special twisting that goes on that I didn't quite master.
My favorite dish at the supra was pork mtsvadi, aka pork bbq. Our host prepared a fire made from grape branches in order to add some natural flavor and barbequed the pork skewers on top.
The result was heavenly! The pork was one of the best dishes I've had in Georgia, and all it had was the smokiness from the grape branches with a pinch of salt.
We eagerly anticipated the supra and all the Georgian dishes that would be featured on the table.
Dishes featured at the supra included nigvziani badrijani (eggplant rolls stuffed with walnut sauce), ajapsandali (a veggie stew), Imeruli khachapuri (a round, Georgian cheese-filled bread), homemade bread, fresh tomato and cucumber salad (a classic Georgian appetizer), pork mtsvadi (bbq), and meat khinkali.
While we ate, two musicians serenaded us with traditional Georgian folk songs. Georgians have also perfected the art of toasting, which is heavily featured at the supra. Toasts are made to God, Georgia, family, friends, ancestors, and of course, wine!
Our supra ended with a dancing lesson. The men learned a traditional Georgian folk dance that mimicked a sword fight whereas the women learned some traditional dancing steps.