Labara

Labara's founders are two Georgian–Americans, Dato Gagua and Shalva Sikharulidze. They left the USA and moved back to Georgia with the idea to develop a winery in Kolkheti – West Georgia’s forgotten but wine history-rich area, Vartsikhe – the village once famous for its wineries and brandy production for more than 100 years. The goal was to build a winery that would make Vartsikhe a popular destination again for wine enthusiasts, attract more visitors, and create opportunities for locals. The name of the winery was selected accordingly. Labara is the ancient Kolkhetian word that means "sunny, alive area."

Labara produces wine only from grapes harvested in sustainably grown vineyards. The vineyards are in west Georgia, specifically Vartsikhe and Salkhino, where the distinct subtropical climate, mild warm winters, and hot summers, harmonized by the breeze of the Black Sea and Caucasian mountains, create an excellent environment for the grapes to achieve a good balance of sugar and acidity. Tsolikouri, Tsitska, Krakhuna, Ojaleshi, Otskhanuri Saphere, Aladasturi, and Dzelshavi are the native species found in the vineyards. Labara’s wine cellar in Vartsikhe is situated in the heart of the 12-hectare vineyard. It is designed to produce up to 100-thousand bottles of premium-quality wine, using traditional Georgian Qvevri and classic technology. Grapes are always handpicked and transported carefully so that the raw materials are delivered undamaged to the cellar.

TSOLOKOURI has a beautiful golden color, and the nose brims with aromas of ripe pear with a really interesting note of marzipan. So different on the palate - that pear is still there, with apple and quince too, but a lovely saline minerality, keeping this so fresh with an amazing backbone of lip-smacking acidity. Just fab; so complex and interestingly structured, but really delicious and moreish, with an appetizing savory note. TSOLIKOURI is characterized by high quality of wine, yield, and good resistance to fungal diseases, which mainly explains its widespread distribution in the wine-growing regions of Western Georgia. To make high-quality table wine, grapes should be harvested at their full ripeness, when the ratio between sugar and acidity is about 3:1. In order to obtain quality, gentle table wine, the ratio between sugar content and acidity in Tsolikouri grapes should be 21-23% sugar and 6-8% acidity. This ratio is easy to achieve because Tsolikouri maintains relatively high acidity along with high sugar content. The yield of juice from Tsolikouri grapes is 70%, while the yield of grape per hectare is around 100 centners.

OTSKHANURI SAPHERE has a seriously intense inky color, but so gorgeously aromatic on the nose - not at all as brooding as you'd expect! Chock full of ripe cherries and raspberries, almost compote-like, but so fresh, with some herbal notes coming through, adding to the liveliness. A really appetizing sweet and sour note that is so common in Georgian cooking. Fresh and moreish, you can't help but smile when tasting this.

OTSKHANURI SAPERE is a medium-yielding grape variety. Its yield depends greatly on the method of loading and formation. Among the red varieties of Georgia, Otskhanuri Sapere is clearly distinguished by its high quality of wine, with its intense color, fullness, tenderness, harmonious taste, and freshness. It is worth noting that the wine of Otskhanuri Sapere can be well aged, improved during aging, and is characterized by a long lifespan. Otkhanuri Sapere accumulates more sugar and maintains higher acidity. It ripens later than other local varieties. Usually, we rush to harvest it, otherwise its sugar content can freely increase up to 25% with acidity up to 10%.

Vinification:

Grapes were hand-picked and transported carefully so that the raw materials are delivered to the cellar undamaged. The fermentation process took place in a Qvevri, with 45% chacha, grape pomace. Fermentation for white wines lasted 6 months, for red wines - 1 month, all without grape stalks. Yeast (saccharomysescerviciae) was used to control the fermentation process. After the fermentation with grape pomace, the wine was aged in Qvevri for protein and crystal stability, then prepared for bottling. On December 28, 2021, after membrane filtration, wines bottled using modern Italian machinery.

Qvevri Wine Cellar

Ivane is a third-generation winemaker and founded his own estate – ‘The Qvevri Wine Cellar’ in 2015. After honing his craft in Italy, he returned back home to the village of Gurjaani, renowned for its amber wines. From his 3 hectares of land in Kakheti, planted with the local grape varieties, he is making wines in the traditional style (all in the eponymous Qvevri) but with a modern, elegant touch. All are made with minimal intervention, using native yeasts, but he has an eye for purity and quality above all else.

There are many countries in the world vying for the title of the 'cradle of winemaking', but few have as convincing a claim as Georgia. Deeply steeped in tradition extending back over 8,000 years, before viticulture was established elsewhere in Europe, Georgia has a unique style of winemaking.

This is the home of orange wine (or, to be pedantic, this is amber wine), made in the traditional, famous amphora, or 'Qvevri'. Loosely speaking, these are white wines left on the skins for many months, enhancing the phenolics, texture, and color. They have become famous in the UK as the poster children of the natural wine movement. Sadly, this category can all too often produce wines that are beautifully packaged but are not always a delight to drink - funky, cloudy, and sometimes they just lack any real identity of place or grape-variety. The best wines from Georgia, however, are most unlike this - textured and grippy, yes, but mineral, crisp, and clean. They are wines with an added dimension - wines you can't help but drink with real intrigue and joy.

The red Saperavi bowled us over. Clean, pure, and fascinating – like a dark and brooding Syrah on the nose, but then almost like a beautiful cru Beaujolais on the palate – this was one of the most striking wines we had tasted in some time. The whites are phenomenal also – from the quince-laden Rkatsiteli (katsy-telly), to the more savory, Jura-like Khkhvi and Kisi wines, through to the daddy of them all, the Kakhuri Mtsvivani – golden, rich, and tannic, a perfect pairing for a cheese board.

These are wines for wine lovers, drinkers looking for something interesting, diverting, and delicious. There is a ‘back to the future’ feel here – where old traditional practices are making wines in a style that could not be more vital and more current today.