Harvesting Rkatsiteli

One of our delightful experiences was harvesting Rkatsiteli grapes. Many of the wineries will allow visitors to take part in the harvest. We arrived at Twins Wine Cellars of Napareuli around mid-morning on a bright warm Sunday. We then went to a vineyard where workers had been harvesting since dawn. In the part of the vineyard where we stopped to help, the harvest was a family affair. Children and adults worked side-by-side picking Rkatsiteli grapes. We stayed near the children since they spoke some English and were happy to answer our questions.

We filled a basket of grapes, and then it was whisked away to a trailer where the grapes were dumped and the basket returned. Many of the Rkatsiteli bunches were several inches long. Some were a light green color while others were more of a bronze color. We did some sorting of the grape bunches, casting off underripe or dried up grapes and MOG (materials other than grapes.) After harvesting grapes for an hour, our hands were sticky and gooey. While it was a sticky experience, it was also a delightful experience. However, many people would find hours of daily harvesting of grapes to be very tiring.

The vineyard reminded us of many of the organic vineyards we visited in Mendocino County, California. There were many different plants/weeds growing between the rows of grapes. We discovered that one of those plants had hitchhikers. We spent time removing the tiny hitchhikers once we finished harvesting grapes.

As we were leaving, two of the youngest children at the vineyard brought us water to wash our syrup-drenched, sticky hands. When we returned to the winery, we began to harvest some Saperavi grapes for a pressing demonstration.

Making a Wine in a Qvevri - Cleaning the Qvevri

One of our goals was to make a wine in a qvevri. We used a small capacity qvevri at Twins Wine Cellars of Napareuli for the grapes we harvested. The winery staff was more than willing to allow us to pitch in and help. Our first experience was washing the qvevri that we would use. A bucket of clean water was dumped into the qvevri. Then, using a special cherry bark brush on the end of a pole, Terry brushed the sides of the qvevri. Then, we had to remove the dirty water from the qvevri.

Our qvevri was too small to crawl into and too big to reach the bottom with our arms. Removing the water in the bottom was a challenge. However, we used an interesting homemade tool to help with this. The tool was made of two poles attached to opposites ends of a bowl’s diameter. If we pulled up on one of the poles, the bowl would turn upside down. Terry then lowered the upside down bowl into the dirty water and pulled up on the other pole. This turned the bowl right side up, scooping up the dirty water. We then lifted the bowl out of the qvevri, and dumped the dirty water into a bucket. It took several tries for us to get the hang of operating the two poles and emptying the water into the qvevri. We repeated this process of cleaning the qvevri several times until the clean water was clear after scrubbing the qvevri sides.

Making a Wine in a Qvevri - Punching Down

There were other winery tasks we and wine tourists could partake in. As grapes ferment, they form a cap on the top of the qvevri. This cap is made of solid particles. During fermentation, winery staff punch down the cap to mix the fermenting juice with the skins, seeds and jacks.

The qvevri narrows at the opening in the top. There is less surface space for the cap to form, so a cap in a qvevri is much thicker, over a foot thick. The first punch down took a lot of effort, pushing the cap down into the fermenting juice. Subsequent punch downs were also difficult, as the cap readily formed again. We needed to work quickly and with force to punch down the entire cap. Along with Tamta, we enjoyed the experience, but we might not enjoy it as much if we had to punch down caps in 20 or more qvevris, four or five times a day.

Harvested Grapes Arrive at the Winery

Terry teamed up with one of the winery workers to take grapes from a bin in the back of a truck and place them into a destemmer. One worker shoveled grapes into a bucket, and Terry lifted the bucket and dumped the grapes into a destemmer. The stems flew out of one end of the destemmer, while the juice, skins, seeds and jacks were pumped into a tank or qvevri. This was another sticky job. The grapes were sticky since some of them broke open and released their high sugar content juice. After several minutes, Terry and the winery staff had emptied the bin of grapes. The workers wanted Terry to stay with them and help for the rest of the day. However, we had more things to do before returning to our hotel.

Placing Grapes into the Qvevri

Eventually, the grapes we helped to harvest arrived at the winery and were destemmed. The juice and chacha (skins, seeds and jacks) were pumped into a large capacity qvevri. Our qvevri was too small to use a pump to pump the grapes into, so we used buckets to remove juice and chacha from the large qvevri and fill our smaller qvevri. It took eight bucket loads as we, with Tamta’s help, filled the qvevri. Each bucket load held at least two gallons of juice and chacha. We placed at least 60 liters of juice and chacha into our qvevri. We did not fill the qvevri to the top since fermentation would cause it to overflow and “boil over.”

Our experiences are not unique. Wine travelers to many wineries in Georgia can participate in harvests, pressing, winery tasks and making qvevri wine. Before you travel, investigate the possible adventures you can have when visiting Georgia.