For the Love of Wine: My Odyssey through the World’s Most Ancient Wine Culture

208 Pages·2016·4.67 MB·English

by  Alice Feiring

FOR THE LOVE OF WINE

F O R T H E
LOV E O F
W I N E
MY ODYSSEY THROUGH
THE WORLD’S MOST
ANCIENT WINE CULTURE
ALICE FEIRING
Potomac Books
An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press
© 2016 by the Board of Regents of
the University of Nebraska
All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an
imprint of the University of Nebraska Press.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Library of Congress
Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Feiring, Alice, author.
For the love of wine: my odyssey through the
world’s most ancient wine culture / Alice Feiring.
pages cm
isbn 978- 1- 61234- 764- 6 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 978- 1- 61234- 838- 4 (epub)
isbn 978- 1- 61234- 839- 1 (mobi)
isbn 978- 1- 61234- 840- 7 (pdf)
1. Wine and wine making— Georgia
(Republic)— History. 2. Georgia
(Republic)— Description and travel.
I. Title.
tp559.g2f45 2016
338.4'76632094758— dc23
2015034732
Set in Garamond Premier Pro by L. Auten.
Designed by N. Putens.
For my brother, Dr. Andrew Jonathan Feiring
Th at’s why drinking wine is so important in my fi lms.
It brings people together, helps them to discover
something new — maybe even happiness.
— Otar Iosseliani
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi
1. Jet Lag and the Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
2. Of Prophets and Toasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3. Th e Lost Art of Qvevri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4. Wine and God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5. Th e Dreamers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
6. Stalin’s Last Winemaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7. Yom Kippur and Chinuri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
8. Th e Talented Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
9. Lessons of Lamara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
10. Th e Grape Hunters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
11. Crush Pad Imereti Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
12. Gurian Revival and Being Honored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
13. Polyphony and the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
14. Th e Power of Butchki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169

ILLUSTRATIONS
Map of Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
following page 80
1. Abandoned qvevri
2. Grape decorations are emblazoned on a house gate in Racha
3. Baskets full of gorgeous Caesar mushrooms
4. Traditional winemaking tools are still in use and very eff ective
5. A collection of gourds used as tools in winemaking
6. Wine fermenting in the qvevri
7. John Wurdeman’s painting of a worker punching down wine in
a qvevri at the Pheasant’s Tears winery
8. Ramaz Nikolade taking wine from the qvevri
9. Imeretian winemaker Archil Guriava in an indoor rustic winery
10. Niki Antadze and his winery a year later
11. Didimi Maglakelidze illustrated on his label
12. One of the fi rst of the natural wines to be exported out of
Georgia was this Rkatsiteli from Soliko Tsaishvili and his
friends