Tsitska

Tsitska

Tsitska

Regular price $36.00
/
2023
Imereti, Georgia
Grapes: Tsitska
Golden in color, savory at the edges, humming with subtle tannin and orchard fruit warmth.
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WINE DETAILS

From old vines rooted deep in Imereti clay, Ramaz Nikoladze’s Tsitska shows how much quiet depth this native grape can hold. Fermented naturally in buried qvevri with several months on skins, it’s textural and luminous all at once — golden in color, savory at the edges, humming with subtle tannin and orchard fruit warmth. There’s a gentle grip that gives shape without weight, and the kind of clarity that feels earned, not engineered. A wine that speaks softly but stays with you, grounded in the patience and precision of a grower who’s been tending these same vines for decades.

Tsitska is hand-harvested and directly pressed into a kvevri without any maceration. Aged in kvevri together for 5-6 months, then racked to stainless for another 4-5 months before bottling. 

Ramaz Nikoladze

Ramaz Nikoladze comes from a lineage of growers in Imereti, Western Georgia, but what he does today feels like a fresh reawakening rather than mere preservation. He revived a cellar and vineyard that once belonged to his great-grandfather in Nakhshirgele, and since 2007 has been quietly pushing the boundaries of what natural, qvevri-driven winemaking can mean in his region. 

The vineyards are modest in size — around 1.5 hectares — planted with very old vines (some are decades old) of indigenous white varietals like Tsitska and Tsolikouri. The soils are clay-based, the terrain humid and shaded in parts, and Ramaz works organically, sometimes biodynamically. Everything in the vineyard is done by hand. No herbicides or chemicals that mask flavor. 

In the cellar, tradition and experimentation meet. Grapes are harvested by hand, sometimes foot-pressed or gently pressed, always with spontaneous fermentation. Some wines see skin contact, others are pressed without maceration, and for those that he macerates, it's typically long (4-6 months) in qvevris buried in the earth. There’s no added sulfur, no fining, no filtration. The wines carry the weight of the vineyard and the clarity of Ramaz’s intention. 

What makes Ramaz special is how he works at the edge of what people expect from Imereti. Traditionally the region’s whites are lighter, less skin contact, more transparency. Ramaz borrows from broader Georgian tradition (especially from places like Kakheti) when he wants to, but always brings it back to his local soil, local vines. His wines feel like they belong to a place, not an idea. They are honest, textured, sometimes tense, often beautiful in their restraint.


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