Organic

If you've happened to fall in love with Georgian wine and you would like to treat yourself to one of the truest expressions - you should definitely give Shota's wines a try. Not for the faint of heart, both his Rkatisteli and Mtsvane see 6 months on skins and a whole year in qvevri. This means lots of structure and complexity, but there is also a gentleness and elegance behind the seemingly thundrous first impression. Shota is just 26 years old, but he cares deeply about the Georgian landscape, traditions and especially the agricultural side of things.

On any given day, you can see Louis-Clément and his mother tending the family vineyards.

The good news is that you can do this all day if you like, since the domaine also serves as a lovely bed-and-breakfast!

But Clément didn't set out to be a winemaker; he studied commerce and engineering (and sold sliced bread?!) before realizing that the vineyards at his family's house were his true calling. The domaine, including the 4 hectares of vineyards, was bought by his grandfather after having sold off their land in Algeria by the end of the independence war.

David got tired of being a jounalist in Paris, and decided to make a life-changing move to Saumur in Loire to begin making wine. Being more or less empty-handed, he is leasing parcels of vines from recently retired Phillipe Gourdon of Chateau Tour Grise, which means that David has top-quality, biodynamically grown grapes at his disposal! His first vintage, 2014, was vinified at Domaine Melaric, but he now has his own restored cellar to work in. Right from his first vintage David has made low-intervention, pure wines that are still true to their heritage and terroir.

Mariam's interest for wine started when she was working for a tourism company called Living Roots. Her work involved traveling all around Georgia visiting natural wine cellars and gaining knowledge from the producers themselves. During that time she also worked at the newly opened Gvino Underground, the first natural wine bar i Tbilisi, together with Ramaz Nikoladze, John Wurdeman and Niki Antadze (all outstanding natural winemakers!). The passion and inspiration from these people inspired Mariam herself to dream about one day making her own wine.

Sylvain produces very easy-drinking wine in the south-west of France. The 2,5 hectares are planted with Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. Sylvain works organically in the vineyards and without adding or taking anything away from the wine in the winery.

In in the heart of Cornouaille lies a little cidrerie, Melenig, owned by Christian Toullec and Christian Saccardy.

Toullec created Melenig in 2000 after a long career in agro-engineering, specializing in agronomy and pedology.

He was already passionate about cider thanks to his grandfather, who was an amateur producer. Combined with his growing fascination for the apple trees he encountered as an agronomist, he liked the thought of a career change.

Christian Saccardy also dreamed of a return to argiculture after 13 years in the chemical industry.

In the mid-90's Mathieu Coste went to South America to work on a scientific study in the rainforests of French-Gyuana. In charge was the french botanist and biologist Francis Hallé, and the expereince was eye-opening for Mathieu's way of thinking about plants and plant life.
As a young man Mathieu studied agronomy, and later biology in Tours. One of his firsts jobs was at the Coop of Pouilly-sur-Loire, where Mathieu was in charge of the vinification. Alot of people sold grapes to the Coop, and one of them was vignerons Alain Paulat, who only sold parts of his harvest. 

No one ever showed Aleqsi how to make wine. Although Aleqsi's father had made wine, he died when Aleqsi was a child, and so he had to teach himself.
Aleqsi wanted to produce wine and in 1996 he got 2ha land from the government. In 2010 he started selling his wines abroad.
Today Aleqsi owns 7 big Qvevri in which he produces 3 different cuvées from 3 different grapes: Jghia, Mtsvane and Rkatseteli.
He produces all of his wine completly organically and from old Georgian traditions, only using bordeaux- and nettle solutions

When Jasper Button was just 10 years old, he helped his parents plant twelve acres of vines on the family farm.
The whole family pitched in to help, though the sloped hills of Adelaide made the job difficult.
For many years Jasper's parents worked in the vineyards, selling their grapes to local wineries. Primarily Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Around the world demand for Australian wine was big, so grapes were easy to sell. But tastes change, and so did the demand for oaky Australian Chardonnay.

The words from the producer himself

Giorgi Kipiani -27 years old.

My winery location is in the west part of Georgia, “Racha” region, specifically village “Khvanchkara” which was very famous in the Soviet Union period whith his wines, especially red semi-sweet wine Khvanchkara.