Lechkhumi is a mountainous region in the north west of Georgia and one of the smallest winemaking regions. It has some of the highest rainfall and although summer here can be very warm the nights are generally cool.
Steep 45 degree slope of heavy clay rich in limestone, south facing. 780 meters above sea level, 40 year old vines.
The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed and macerated for 24 hours before basket pressing with the juice transferred to an old Georgian acacia barrel, left untopped. The wine remains on fine lees and under flor for 12 months before bottling. Unfined, unfiltered, with no added sulphur.
The barrels were under a light flor with a small amount of oxygen, so the influence is subtle. Gentle and delicate, soft acidity and subtle salty minerality. Lemon peel with hints of chamomile. Aidan loves this alongside Kalmakhis Mtsvadi, a local Georgian dish of barbecued river trout.
Igavi Wines
Forget about garage wineries — tucked away in the village of Zeindari, in Western Georgia’s Imereti region, sits a cow shed full of kvevri. The traditional Georgian clay vessels huddle alongside 60-year-old acacia barrels, a custom basket press made of old Georgian oak, and gleaming stainless steel tanks in this small but mighty marani, or winery, where Aidan Raftery tends to bubbling fermentations of indigenous grapes like Tsolikouri and Vanis Chkhaveri, names like incantations.
The wines themselves are spell-binding. Raftery, who moved to Georgia from New Zealand in 2019, spent six years remodeling this ancient stone structure into a home for his vibrant, palpably living wines. He helms two labels: Igavi Wines, a grower-focused project with single-vineyards in Imereti and Lechkhumi, and Katsia da Guneba, a field blend from old vines near his winery.
Igavi is the Georgian term for folk tale, a fitting name for a winery with a story to tell. Raftery’s winemaking journey began in 2013 in Melbourne, Australia, when he started with a proper garage winery at home, crafting a house label for his renowned bistro and natural wine bar, Persillade. In 2017, he closed the business and began importing wine, soon finding himself on a trip to wine’s supposed birthplace: Georgia. There, he later met the woman who’d go on to become his wife — Ellie Bukhaidze, whom he describes as “the most wonderful human on the whole planet.” Gushing about her, he adds, “She helps me with everything in the winery, and I’d be lost without her.”
On that first visit — during which time he became so enamored of the country, its people, and its culture that he soon after bought a house and vineyard — he heard a particular fable which left such an impression that it ultimately inspired the name of his winery; The story goes that when young soldiers would head off to battle, they would keep a cutting from their family vineyard right beside their heart, so if they were killed in battle a vineyard would spring up around them. Honoring this tale, each of Igavi’s labels features a different artist’s interpretation of the story.
Igavi Wines are a celebration of the local growers in Western Georgia, focused on old and unique single vineyard sites in Imereti and Lechkhumi, all of which are farmed organically and fermented with indigenous yeast. Here, the soil is primarily dark loam or loamy clay, all studded with limestone, and vines range from 20 to 120-years old.
Imereti is an expansive and diverse wine region in Western Georgia, marked by a subtropical climate that remains warm and humid throughout the year. Lechkhumi is small by comparison, threading through the mountains in the north west of Georgia. There’s ample rain year-round, and while summers are toasty, the nights are typically quite cool.
Raftery works primarily with a bevy of local and ancient grapes: the vineyard near his winery, which is used for the Katsia da Guneba wines, is a field blend of Tsolikouri (a softer white grape with lower acidity), as well as Tsolikouri Bazaleti (a delicate, higher acid white grape), and Vanis Chkhaveri (an aromatic light-red grape).
In Western Georgia, wines tend to shy away from the weeks and months of maceration often seen in the country’s other winemaking regions; here, grapes are typically destemmed and direct-pressed. At the most, Raftery’s white wines will spend one day on the skins, while his reds see up to two weeks of skin contact. Almost all of his wines age for one year on the gross lees in kvevris. The wines are truly minimal intervention — they’re never fined, filtered, or produced with any additional SO2.
We’re thrilled to welcome Igavi Wines and Katsia da Guneba to our growing portfolio of winemakers from Georgia, a region steeped in some 8,000 years of winemaking history.
- Jenny & François Selections
