Grape Variety: Saperavi

Colour: Red

Saperavi grapes are known for their dark pink flesh and very dark skins, from which they get their name (from the Georgian საფერავი, literally “paint” or “dye"). These grapes are the most important for Georgian wine culture and produce deep red wines which are suitable for extended periods of aging, up to 50 years. There are three main kinds of wine made from saperavi grapes: kindzmarauli, which is aged for two years, mukuzani, aged for three years or more, and a variety aged for only one year, known simply as saperavi.

Saperavi grapes originated in the Kakheti region of Georgia, but are now grown throught the country, with Australian growers recenty trying the variety as well. These grapes are capable of surviving extremely cold winters, and are thus popular in high altitudes and inland regions.

Wines made from saperavi grapes have a strong flavour and texture, which makes them a natural pairing for a variety of Georgian cuisine, including game dishes or hearty winter foods.
Wine is an integral part of Georgian culture and has engendered a lifestyle centred on conviviality, hospitality, a varied Mediterranean-style cuisine and an ancient choral tradition with unique tonal incantations. There is a long history of appreciation of the soil that has generated a rich viticulture, celebrated in the pure lyrical recitative harmonies of the “Orovela” or traditional ploughing song. In times past echoes of the “Orovela” were heard across the land, the solitary voice of a lone ploughman engaged in his work. Today the tradition is maintained largely in concert halls, linking modern-day Georgians with their forefathers.

The Orovela is a grand wine, a sort of 1er cru Saperavi. The palate is tasteful and exuberant bearing black mulberry, blackberry and cherry fruit flavours in abundance. The wine is rich, velvety with a fine tannic structure and the oak influence is balanced by excellent vinosity and the characteristic Saperavi acidity. Worth a punt (and the punt in the bottle is deeper than did ever plummet sound…)

With its biting acidity Saperavi is ideal with the usual, particular Georgian cuisine such as the Kakhetian dish “chakapuli” made of young lamb in a slightly sourish juice of damson, herbs and onion; and roasted small sausages “kupati” stuffed with finely chopped pork, beef and mutton mixed with red pepper and barberries.
There was a moment of hush as Stalin’s barber cleared away the topsoil and scraped off the clay. He paused like a priest about to confer the sacraments. Only the lid remained. He stood and, so as to underline the drama of the occasion, trod deliberately around its circumference. I edged closer and willed him to take the final step.

As the lid came away, a raspberry haze rose from the ground and was swept away on the breeze. A crimson mirror reflected the scudding clouds - 400 litres of fresh young wine.

The barber took his ladle and scooped out the first glass and handed it to me. I raised it to my mouth and drank. It was a moment of magical intensity.  “It’s saperavi,” he said, referring to the grape, which in Georgian means pigment. It was densely red and cool and stained my lips like blood. (Rob Parsons