Here's a brief review of the basic information and techniques that you will need to create your own natural wine.
Both Rkatsiteli (white) and Saperavi (red) dried grapes can be used for making European style wines and for traditional Georgian Style wines. Our seeded wine raisisns give you the option to choose from the different styles while adding a touch of your own style. There are three basic methods of making wine using our raisins:
European style white wine.
In the case of white wines, the white seeded raisins without stems (Rkatsiteli) are used only for the primary fermentation to extract the desired amount of color. The secondary fermentation without raisins means the wine takes no color from them. The European Rcatciteli is soft and delicate wine which is generally “old world” wine, subtle and refined in flavour. You can add oak to the wine either during fermentation, or bulk aging.
You can also make sweet raisin wines ( Tokay, Vin de Paille, Vin Santo styles) from the Rkatsiteli wine raisins leaving 10-20% of resudial sugar in your wine.
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Saperavi European-Georgian style red wine.
In the case of dry red wines, the red seeded Saperavi wine raisins are used. The Saperavi raisins are made from the unique teinturier type grapes. They produce substatial deep red wines, full-bodied and robust because they extract more color, tannins and other substances than other red varietes during maceration. You can add oak if you wish.
You can also make semisweet wines similar in character to the famous Georgian wines Ahasheni and Kindzmarauli or Italian Amarone (Recioto della Valpolicella ). Such wines are also called the natural semisweet ones due to the fact that their sweetness is accounted for by the availability of natural grape sugar, which remains unfermented.
Rkatsiteli Georgian style orange (amber) dry wine.
The ancient Georgian traditional wine-making method requires the processing of grapes
and alcoholic fermentation of must with hard parts of grape: skin, seeds and stem (called in Georgian "chacha" ) contact in kvevri (earthwork amphora) buried into the ground. The wine ages in kvevri during two - nine months with chacha.
During the fermentation and formation processes Georgian wines (both Kahetian and Imeretian) are enriched with various volatile, aroma-forming and phenolic compounds of hard parts of the grape - skin, stems and seeds, which in turn ensures high antioxidant activity, healing, dietary and nutritional value of the wine.
In order to make the original Kakhetian style orange wine, you need to use Rkatsiteli wine raisins. Although you can use a usual plastic fermenter or carboy for fermentation, the traditional kvevri (qvevri) will be the better choice. If you add the 100% raisins with the stems your will make Kakhetian wine which is characterized by the fruity aroma and flavour, orange or dark-amber colour. If you add only berries detached from the stems, you will make Imeretian (Imeriti and Kakheti provinces in Georgia) wine which bears dark-straw and amber colors. The stirring process is extremely important for the balanced fermentation that usually lasts for twenty days.
A short technological instruction needed to make wine from the Wine Raisins at home you can find here.
Read more about the unique Kvevri winemaking technology here >>>>
