Back to School: 5 Things Buyers and Sommeliers Need to Know About Georgian Win

02 Sep 2026

September means back to school, so we thought we'd do a little revision of our own. If Georgian wine is already on your shelves or wine list, or you're considering adding it, there's no need to memorise hundreds of grape varieties and 8,000 years of history first.

Here are five things that are useful when buying, listing and selling Georgian wine.

1. Georgia is much bigger than amber wine

Amber wine is an obvious entry point. Interest in Georgian orange/amber wine has been growing strongly in the UK, and Georgia has a genuine historical connection to long skin-contact winemaking.

But don't let amber become the whole Georgian category. Georgia also produces fresh dry whites, rosés, sparkling wines, chillable reds and serious, bold ones too. Some are made in qvevri, some in stainless steel or oak, and many producers work by combining several methods.

For a retailer or restaurant, showing more than one style makes Georgia much easier for customers to explore – particularly those who are curious about the country but aren't looking for skin contact.

2. You don't need to learn 500+ grapes

Georgia's extraordinary grape diversity makes a good headline, but doesn't make an easy staff-training programme.

Start with the names customers are most likely to encounter. Rkatsiteli is the essential white and Saperavi the essential red. Then add Kakhuri Mtsvane and Kisi in Kakheti, Chinuri, Goruli Mtsvane and Shavkapito in Kartli, and Tsolikouri, Tsitska and Krakhuna in western Georgia.

Even this relatively short list opens up very different styles and regions. And make pronunciation a part of staff training: a wine becomes considerably easier to recommend when you're not afraid to say its name.

3. Qvevri and amber are not synonyms

This is probably the Georgian wine distinction most worth learning.

Amber describes a style; qvevri describes a vessel. White grapes can be fermented with their skins in qvevri to make amber wine, but qvevri can also be used for reds and for wines made with shorter or minimal skin contact.

Likewise, not every Georgian wine is made in qvevri. Stainless steel, oak and combinations of different vessels are all part of contemporary Georgian winemaking.

So if a customer asks, “What does qvevri wine taste like?”, the most accurate answer is: it depends on what the winemaker did there.

4. Don't assume you know who the Georgian wine customer is

It's tempting to place Georgian wine automatically in the natural-wine corner: adventurous drinker, funky wine bar, probably already knows what skin contact means.

That audience certainly exists, but Georgian wine can make sense far beyond it. A fresh dry white like Tsinandali or Tsitska can offer an alternative to familiar European varieties; Saperavi can sit comfortably among “serious” reds; and amber wines can appeal to experienced drinkers interested in food pairing, whether or not they identify as natural-wine drinkers.

Rather than asking “Who drinks Georgian wine?”, the more useful question for a buyer or sommelier is “Which Georgian wine works for this customer?”

5. Qvevri wine shouldn't taste like qvevri

Earthy, clay-like flavours are sometimes attributed to qvevri, as though tasting the vessel itself were part of the traditional style. It isn't.

A well-made qvevri wine should taste of its grapes and the choices made during fermentation and maturation – not of clay. The qvevri provides a particular environment for fermentation and ageing, including gradual oxygen exchange through the vessel, but its purpose isn't to add a “clay” flavour.

This distinction matters because unfamiliar flavours can too easily be explained away as “that's just qvevri”. Qvevri wines can be fresh and relatively delicate, aromatic, deeply structured or tannic depending on the grapes and winemaking. A dirty or muddy character shouldn't automatically get a free pass because the wine was made underground.

Qvevri is part of the winemaking method, not a tasting note.

Your September homework? Learn a handful of grapes, get comfortable with the concept of qvevri, taste beyond amber and, above all, keep an open mind!