WINE OF THE WEEK: Tbilvino Qvevris Kisi 2020, Kakheti, Georgia

£15.99, Waitrose

Every time I recommend an amber or orange wine (same thing) I wonder if I need to explain what it is or whether visitors to this website will all know. Invariably I decide it’s better to explain, while advising those who know to jump to the next section.

I’m now feeling vindicated. Recent research for M&S revealed that less than a third of Britons have heard of orange wine and only just over a third of those who have have actually tried one. On the other hand, searches for orange wine on Ocado increased 99% in the past 12 months. So it may be niche but it’s trendy.

Briefly (skip this if you already know), orange/amber is wine made from white grapes fermented with their skins like red wine, instead of being pressed and the juice alone fermented. The skins give colour, which can be pale amber or quite dark, and they also give tannins, producing a wine with more structure and texture and different flavours – a wine that should be served cool but not chilled like a white wine.

Other recent UK research, conducted by OnePoll for Tbilvino, the producer of Qvevris Kisi and the matching red Qvevris Saperavi, found that only 11% of wine drinkers had ever tried a Georgian wine and only 2% know that Georgia is the birthplace of wine and therefore of amber wine. It all started around 8,000 years BC.

Which brings me to this week’s wine, which is not only amber but fermented in traditional Georgian qvevri. These are clay jars that look a bit like amphorae but differ in two crucial ways: they have pointed bottoms and they are buried in the ground.

Kisi is a grape variety indigenous to Georgia’s Kakheti region. It has a floral aroma which, in this skin-fermented qvevri wine, becomes rose pot pourri, peach, pear and chamomile. On the palate, it’s smoothly chewy, dry and medium bodied with easy tannins, soft acidity and notes of green tea, coriander seed and liquorice. It all adds up to a complete and very satisfying wine.

One of the great attributes of amber/orange wines is their versatility with food. This pairs with steak and lamb (I had it with ribeye steak and with slow-roast lamb marinated in kefir and herbs, served with a spiced carrot salad). It goes well with most vegetables, including roast with spices and miso, with dishes such as pasta e fagioli, chorizo with black and butter beans, and porotos granados (a Chilean stew of borlotti beans, sweetcorn and squash, which I wrote about in The World of Fine Wine recently). 12%. Empty bottle weight: 697g.

Tbilvino Qvevris Kisi 2020, Kakheti, Georgia

£15.99, Waitrose

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