Try the Amber Wine That Will Be Your Gateway to 8,000 Years of Georgian Tradition
The decade of amber wine is under way. For a style that was virtually unknown in the US until recently, amber (or “orange”) wines—white wines crafted, like reds, with sustained skin contact—have achieved remarkable notoriety in just a few years. Tannic and golden-hued, with characteristic aromas of dried fruit and spring flowers, ambers have caught the eye of an increasingly adventurous wine culture thirsty for both the cutting-edge and the rustic. Introductions to the style have found their way into industry mainstays like Wine Enthusiast and mainstream, high-readership outlets like USA Today, indicative of a surge in interest among connoisseurs and casual drinkers alike. Even Eric Asimov, a wine writer with thoroughly old guard bona fides, ventured into the world of “orange wine” in his New York Times column back in May of 2020. Perhaps surprisingly, given his reputation, Asimov is deeply appreciative of the magic of amber wines and the fierce loyalty of their American devotees, noting that many ambers express not only qualitative excellence, but “nuances of beauty and culture in profound and distinctive ways.”
We had enough demand to triple or quadruple production in 2019, but we decided to take things slowly: the quality of the wine is always paramount for us.
Gogi Dakishvili, Winemaker
It’s impossible to talk about amber wine, much less its deep roots in wine’s history, without talking about Georgia: the oldest wine region in the world and home to at least 8,000 years of winemaking tradition. Georgia is also home to a distinctive and ancient tradition of winemaking in colossal underground vessels called qvevri, the crucible of amber wine. In Georgia, as Asimov rightly notes, “white wine never stopped being made this way, despite formidable political and cultural pressure during the years of Soviet domination to adopt more conventional methods of mass production.” Far from mere novelties, the style and the region are now contending seriously in the same marketplace as products from classic Old World and domestic winemaking regions, with imports increasing around 30% every year for the last 5 years. To top it off, OIV, the International Organisation of Wine and Vine, adopted “white wines with maceration” as a formal categorical definition with an explicit nod to the ancestral viticultural methods of Georgia. This decade is on track to see amber take its place alongside white, red, rosé, and sparkling as wine’s “fifth category,” and Georgia alongside France and Italy as a first class wine region.
And Georgia finally has its flagship product: Wine and Spirits Magazine has included Dila-o Rkatsiteli-Mtsvane Amber 2019, produced by Teleda/Orgo, in their “Top 100” list for 2021. Dila-o’s amber blend, an offering specially-crafted for the American market, stood head-and-shoulders above nearly 15,000 competing products. It perfectly showcases the style as an expression of Georgian identity and demonstrates how a partnership between maverick ingenuity and timeless tradition is plotting the course of the decade. Dila-o’s 2018 vintage was included in Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s own “Top 100 Wines” list of 2019, the first Georgian wine to receive such a distinction, and it’s only natural that the 2019 vintage should follow on its success.
GEORGIAN AMBER WINE RECOGNIZED AS “TOP 100” TWO
Dila-o (pronounced “dee-lah-oh”) Rkatsiteli-Mtsvane Amber, a qvevri wine produced in the eastern wine region of Kakheti, is a pioneer by design. While Kakhetian wines are traditionally aged on the skins for six months, Dila-o takes a middle-ground approach between the region’s robust and tannic style and the fresh and lively style of western Georgia. “As an eastern Georgian I have to say that heavy skin contact wines are in my blood,” says winemaker Gogi Dakishvili, “but as I worked with western Georgian grapes the idea of combining the winemaking styles began to intrigue me.”
Eastern Georgian grapes are thick-skinned and traditionally produce very structured, robust wines intended to supplement heavy comfort foods, rich with meat and cheese. Mr. Dakishvili’s Orgo wines, made from grapes sourced from at least 50-year-old vines and which enjoy a full six months of skin contact, are representative of this style. Western Georgian grapes, on the other hand, are higher in acidity, and western Georgian winemakers traditionally subject them to a shorter period of skin contact. The result is brighter, more linear wines, ideal for pairing with a spicier, vegetable-driven cuisine—a style which has found its own commercial and critical success in the work of star winemakers Baia, Gvantsa, and Giorgi Abuladze of the Baia’s Wine and Gvantsa’s Wine labels.
To combine the traditions of east and west, Dakishvili used the Kakhetian grape varieties Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane in equal proportion, but harvested them early to preserve acidity. The grapes undergo fermentation in qvevri with the skins and wild yeasts for a single month. He then transfers the wine into stainless steel tanks. Due to the transfer, Dakishvili also chooses to inhibit the completion of malolactic fermentation with a small amount of sulphur, totalling around 55mg/l—well below the industry standard, and spot-on for natural wines. The final product balances the brightness and weight of a western Georgian wine with the freshness of an eastern wine, and the aromatics of Mtsvane with the flavors and structure typical of Rkatsiteli.
THE GEORGIAN PERSPECTIVE: KEEP MAKING SUSTAINABLE AMBER WINES
Dila-o’s signature stylistic fusion has been a hit with top sommeliers and wine buyers. Dakishvili reports that the 2018 vintage—all 15,000 bottles of it—sold out in just 6 months. The next year, all 25,000 bottles of the 2019 vintage sold out in 10 months, breaking the record for the single best-selling Georgian wine ever distributed in the US. “We are very grateful for Dila-o’s warm welcome in the US,” says Dakishvili. “The wine is a labor of love and we are excited to see people connecting to it and, through it, to Georgia.”
Though grateful for the surge in demand, Dakishvili has maintained his focus on handcrafting a quality wine. “We had enough demand to triple or quadruple production in 2019, but we decided to take things slowly: the quality of the wine is always paramount for us. We always make wines as the growing season dictates. I need to monitor the quality of each qvevri. We do hope to expand to 50,000-60,000 bottles over the next three years, but we will not do so at the expense of the wine’s quality.” Production was increased to 30,000 bottles for the 2020 vintage, and it continues to sell as vigorously. Dakishvili’s ethic of care and deliberation is already paying off, and it promises an extremely bright future in the US market.
Herein lies the authentic Georgian perspective on wine—an uncompromising commitment to the “long game.” A culture with 8,000 years of tradition knows that nature is a partner, and not an adversary, in the process of creation. By embracing patience and care, Georgia’s natural wine tradition produces enduring beauty and effortlessly accommodates creative reinterpretations. We, too, are being offered an opportunity to learn this ancient lesson.
Dila-o’s 2020 vintage is available online and on shelves now in over a dozen states.
