The story of Georgian wine has been 8,000 years in the making | Wine
France, Italy and Spain purport to be the best-loved classical wine regions, but if you’re in the market for the real old-world deal, look no further than Georgia, which has more than 8,000 years of winemaking prowess,There’s something about this place on the lush intersection of the silk roads between Europe and Asia that gets under the skin,Perhaps it’s the combination of unpolished authenticity paired with profound generosity (guests are considered a gift from God and fed accordingly), all while being gently rocked in a cradle of civilisation, that make Georgian wine so beguiling,(My first visit in August 2023 – a khachapuri-fuelled reconnaissance for my book, Drinking the World: A Wine Odyssey – lingered in my mind long after my flight touched back down on British tarmac,The Guardian’s journalism is independent.
We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.What I find most refreshing is that the country, and its wine, is completely itself, despite being hemmed in by empires with a proclivity for invasion (Persians, Turks, Mongols et al), as well as the decades spent under USSR rule, which between 1922 and 1991 switched the grape-growing focus to yield over quality.Today, you really feel the Georgian delight at flipping that old Soviet diktat on its head.The winemakers I met were laser-focused on nurturing their Georgian-ness, while the country’s 525-plus indigenous grape varieties result in kaleidoscopic left-field flavours.
When John Wurdeman, the American co-founder of Pheasant’s Tears winery, came on to the scene in 2007, he gave Georgian wines a window to the world.Early adopters such as Yotam Ottolenghi helped bring them into the mainstream, and their surging popularity (UK volume sales increased by 72% in 2024) runs in congruence with the rise of natural wine.In fact, you can hold this corner of the Caucasus accountable for the profusion of voguish bars proffering groovy-labelled orange wines, though the fermentation of skin-contact “amber” wine in qvevri (egg-shaped clay vessels buried underground) has been à la mode here since Neolithic times.For a wine enthusiast, Georgia is like tapping into the source code.The sommelier Honey Spencer sees it as “the final frontier”, while nomadic winemaker Darren Smith dubs the country “the holiest of holies”.
Hot, dry Kakheti in the east produces the lion’s share of Georgia’s wines, typically bold reds and ambers, and I was particularly wowed by a qvevri-aged saperavi (an inky-skinned red with heady notes of blackcurrant and leather) made by Orgo’s respected Giorgi Dakishvili.From the country’s west, meanwhile, expect bright, fresh wines.I loved the beautifully structured wines from Oda, set up by literary critic turned winemaker Keto Ninidze, while names to know in Imereti are Archil Guniava and the Abuladze sibling trio behind Baia (where Smith made wines under his The Finest Wines Available to Humanity label), both of which embrace endemic varieties: the vermentino-like tsolikauri, the crisp, late-blooming krakhuna and tsitska’s herbal aromas.Spencer, of Sune restaurant in east London, recently masterminded the excellent wine list at DakaDaka, 2026’s most exciting Georgian opening.“When I was first trying these wines back in 2011, a lot of the reds were incredibly heavy and not really suited to the western palate,” she says.
“That was a Soviet hangover,They have changed, though,There’s a lightness and a deftness of touch in most Georgian wines now,”Pheasant’s Tears Rkatsiteli Bodbiskhevi 2023 £22 Shrine to the Vine, 12,5%.
Made from Georgia’s most-planted white grape, this sprightly, qvevri-aged wine has a lovely, peppery finish.Oda Wines Orbeluri Ojaleshi 2021 £29 Sager and Wine, 12%.Lechkhumi’s limestone soils turn this rare grape into a dark, grown-up rosé with tarragon notes.Gorgeous Georgia Red £10 Waitrose, 11.5%.
A silky saperavi that’s a bit like a blend of primitivo and beaujolais.Perfect for midweek pouring.Bedoba Orange 2022, £17.50 Georgian Wine Shop, 13%.Honeyed orange peel, wild herbs and a captivating texture: this rkatsiteli-kisi blend is fermented in a combination of qvevri and stainless steel.
Victoria Brzezinski is co-author of Drinking the World: A Wine Odyssey, published by Pavilion Books/HarperCollins at £22.To order a copy for £19.80 go to guardianbookshop.com
Colbert on Trump’s Epstein ties: ‘Apparently he does not know the meaning of exonerated’
Stephen Colbert spoke about Donald Trump’s bizarre reaction to more Jeffrey Epstein questions and how Americans are struggling to feel optimism.On the Late Show, the host brought up a new Gallup poll, which shows that Americans are less hopeful than ever, with optimism at a new low.The number has reached into the 50s after previously landing at 69%. “Back then the future looked … nice,” he said.Trump has also seen his approval rating fall to a new second-term low of 36%
‘He invented a style’: war chronicler Robert Capa refashioned himself and revolutionised photography
It is not often that you get to see a war photographer at work. Certainly not one who more or less defines our idea of the profession as it exists today, is widely considered to be its greatest practitioner and has been dead for more than 70 years.But as part of its new retrospective, the Museum of the Liberation of Paris has produced a short but remarkable candid film of Robert Capa on the job. He is largely unaware he is being filmed and the cameramen mostly do not know they are filming him.The researchers started with the 30 contact sheets – 24 rolls of film, about 500 photographs – the Hungarian-born photographer took on 25 and 26 August 1944, when the French capital was freed from four gruelling years of German occupation
Australian screen industry crushed as Universal shutters Matchbox Pictures, with 30 jobs lost
Universal International Studios has confirmed it will close Matchbox Pictures after nearly 20 years of operations, effectively terminating one of Australia’s most stable connections to the global market.From the suburban tension of The Slap to the global Netflix dominance of The Survivors, Matchbox served as a sturdy bridge between distinctive Australian storytelling and the glossy boardrooms of Hollywood.Universal’s withdrawal from an on-the-ground presence in Australia came as a shock to the local screen industry, given the Australian company, co-founded by Tony Ayres and Penny Chapman 18 years ago, had delivered the most successful Australian-made TV drama on Netflix for 2025, with The Survivors achieving a global audience of 28 million.Another two Matchbox productions, Safe Harbour and Nowhere Boys, won international Emmys, and the Cate Blanchett co-production Stateless won a record-breaking 13 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) awards from 18 nominations, including best telefeature or miniseries, best screenplay and best direction in television.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningThe Hollywood studio has removed its permanent overheads – physical offices in Sydney and Melbourne, and a full-time staff of 30 – and moved to a model where it will only invest in a project once it is active
Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton among those to condemn Berlinale’s ‘silence’ on Gaza
More than 80 current and former participants of the Berlinale, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay have signed an open letter condemning the festival’s “silence” on Gaza.It comes after the film festival was swept up in what it called a “media storm” over the alleged sidelining of political discourse at the event.The row was triggered by a remark from the jury president, Wim Wenders, in the opening press conference that film-makers “should stay out of politics” in response to questions related to the Israel-Gaza conflict and the German government’s support for Israel.A backlash, including the withdrawal of Indian author Arundhati Roy from the event, led to festival director, Tricia Tuttle, issuing a statement defending film-makers and actors who were increasingly being pressed on political and societal issues during press conferences.“Artists are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose,” Tuttle said
Colbert on Kristi Noem: ‘Everyone can’t wait to tell a reporter how awful you are’
With Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel off air for the Presidents’ Day holiday, Stephen Colbert focused his monologue on a Kristi Noem scandal and Maha’s new suggested way to enjoy vegetables.On Monday night’s Late Show, Colbert returned after a week off the air to focus on the Wall Street Journal’s recent exposé of Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary. The host described the piece as “the kind of article that gets published only if everyone who works for you can’t wait to tell a reporter just how awful you are”.The Journal exposé claims that Noem is jealous of the border czar, Tom Homan, and monitors her media appearances to make sure that she is on TV more than he is. The article also reports that Noem’s relationship with the Trump aide Corey Lewandowski is more than professional, and the pair are in a romantic relationship despite both being married with children
Pluto: the spinoff that reshapes Astro Boy into a provocative political drama
Astro Boy, first serialised in 1952, remains one of Japan’s national treasures and the defining work of the “father of manga”, Osamu Tezuka. When the renowned manga artist Naoki Urasawa revealed in 2003 that he would reimagine Astro Boy in a new series, expectations were astronomical. Astonishingly, Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka did not just honour its source material; it radically expanded it and became an immediate critical and commercial sensation. While the 2023 anime adaptation doesn’t quite surpass the manga’s cultural impact, it still manages to faithfully capture the philosophical and emotional adeptness of its source material.Over eight hour-long episodes, Pluto does not follow Atom, the spiky-haired protagonist of Astro Boy; instead, it centres on Gesicht, a German detective and one of the world’s most advanced robots
Art and antiques help lift retail sales in Great Britain to biggest monthly rise since 2024
France and Germany agreed to build the fighter jet of the future. Now they can’t agree who is in charge
Skiers stranded by California avalanche used iPhone SOS feature to seek help
US builds website that will allow Europeans to view blocked content
Ireland loves No 10 needle but it’s a Six Nations soap Farrell could do without
Clapping skis to the pulpy thrash of poles: the Winter Olympics are an ASMR wonderland