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Georgian Wine Guide: Qvevri, Amber Wine and 8,000 Vintages

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every wine country claims history; Georgia has receipts. Residue on clay vessels from the South Caucasus puts winemaking here at roughly 8,000 years, which makes this small country between the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains the oldest wine culture we know of. And the remarkable part is that its signature method never went away: it is now the hottest ticket in wine bars from London to Tokyo.

The Qvevri: Winemaking, Buried

The heart of Georgian tradition is the qvevri, a huge egg-shaped clay vessel, beeswax-lined, buried to its neck in the earth. Grapes go in, often with skins, stems and all, ferment on their wild yeasts, and stay there for months while the earth holds the temperature steady. No tanks, no barrels, no thermostats: the technique is so distinct that UNESCO added it to its intangible cultural heritage list. If how wine is made is the modern textbook, the qvevri is the original manuscript.

Skin-Contact Wine: What It Is and Why It's Trending

Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You have probably seen it on restaurant menus, spotted it in the hands of someone impossibly stylish, or noticed that amber-coloured glass catching the light across the room. Skin-contact wine is having a serious moment, and for good reason. But what exactly is it?

What Is Skin-Contact Wine?

Skin-contact wine is made from white or rosé grapes that are fermented with their skins left in contact with the juice, rather than being pressed off immediately as in conventional white winemaking. That extended skin contact is what gives the wine its characteristic amber or golden-orange hue, which is why it is commonly called orange wine: the name refers to the colour, not the fruit.

Orange Wine Guide: What It Is, How It Tastes, and Where to Start

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Orange wine is one of the most misunderstood categories in the wine world. It is not made from oranges. It is not rose by another name. And despite its frequent association with natural wine bars and hipster bottle shops, it is actually the oldest style of winemaking on Earth, predating the reds and whites we consider conventional by several thousand years.

Here is what orange wine actually is, why it tastes the way it does, and how to start exploring it with confidence.