DAN'S WINE BLOG- SAPERAVI & MORE

Friday, May 13, 2022

SAPERAVI:  This week I am kicking off by talking about Saperavi – the native Georgian red that has been around for several thousand years and is the mainstay and backbone of Georgian red wines. A variety that I love and have written several articles on.

Here in Australia Saperavi kicked off from around the mid-2000s. I can’t remember whether the first one I tried was from Patritti Wines in Adelaide or Symphonia Wines in the Victorian High Country. In the last fifteen years or so, the number of producers has grown to 30 and there will be more on the way for sure. Most of the Aussie Saperavi that I have tasted have been excellent wines, varying in style from being big Aussie reds through to softer, more elegant (Georgian) in style.

The reason I bring this up is that my Pennsylvanian friend, Richard Rocca, writing as “The Wine Pirate”, has just published an excellent article (see link below) on how the Finger Lakes Region of New York State (the US spiritual home of Saperavi) are promoting their Saperavi with their upcoming Festival. They are combining Saperavi “walkabout” tastings with Georgian food to entice people to come and try this fantastic variety. In my “Saperavi-Sensational” article published back in 2017 in WBM magazine, I tasted a number of excellent Finger Lakes Saperavi from producers, Dr Konstantin Frank Wine, Standing Stone Vineyard and McGregor Vineyards.

The Finger Lakes Saperavi is cool climate wine and therefore tighter and less forward than most of the Aussies which are grown in warmer regions. This includes the world beating, Cirami Estate Saperavi, from the Riverland, whose 2015 vintage won the world’s first international (non-Georgian) Saperavi competition in 2017, beating wines from seven different countries – including all the Aussie Saperavi producers at the time.

As far as promoting the variety here, a few years ago there was a combined tasting of several (8 or 10 from memory) Saperavi producers held in McLaren Vale, but that is about it.

I think it is high time that all the Australian Saperavi producers get together and organise a major tasting (including the Georgian wines which are available here) in conjunction with Georgian food in either Sydney or Melbourne, to show Australian wine drinkers how magnificent this variety is and how divinely it matches the appropriate food.

Given the current events in the Ukraine, and not knowing what that Russian lunatic might do next, some support for the wines of Georgia, especially their Saperavi (they have plenty of other really interesting wines) would be a good thing to do, while promoting our Aussie ones at the same time.

Maybe the event/s could be held at the Georgian Embassy/Consulate to add to the status and atmosphere of event.

So come on, how about it? Surely somebody out there could put such an event together!

Article Link:

https://wpawinepirate.com/2022/04/21/4104/

TALL ORDER:  We hear about “high altitude” vineyards being 800-1,000 metres above sea level which seem pretty high given that most vineyards are within 300 metres above sea level. But the world’s highest vineyard (so far) is in Tibet on the Cai Na Xaing plateau not far from Lhasa at – wait for it! – 3,563 metres above sea level. WOW, holy-carp Batman! – That is 1,335 metres higher than the top of Mount Kosciuszko!! There are no reports so far on the wine quality but they state that they do get the grapes ripe enough to make wine.

Well, have a great week, stay safe and #chooseaustralianwine and when possible try #emergingvarieties. Cheers! Dan T.