“Amber wines from the country of Georgia have been a ‘new’ trend (ironic to hear the word new referencing one of the oldest wine making regions in the world anyway!), but the fad has recently grown into an established consumer category,” says Chris Struck, Beverage Director at ilili Restaurants. “Now, they’re not just curious, they’re ready to revisit it with gusto. Skin contact white wines are displacing some rosé sales — we’re seeing the once-unbridled enthusiasm for the pink shade disrupted by consumers clamoring for a darker hue and wines with a more tannic tug.”

A star has emerged, or shall we say re-emerged in the wine world and it shows no signs of dimming. The country of Georgia has a rich history in viticulture and has been producing exquisite wine in the heart of the Caucasus region for over 8,000 years. It was even given the moniker, “cradle of wine.” Recently there’s been a surge in popularity for these wines, particularly those made from the region’s white grapes. According to the National Wine Agency, in 2022 Georgian wine exports to the U.S. increased by 28% and 15% overall in key global markets.

“A good tamada can improvise to respond to the developments at the table. If there are conversations happening on certain subjects that don’t fit their toast, the tamada will come up with a good toast about that,”

The small country of Georgia has been producing wine for 8,000 years, longer than anywhere else in the world, and they are now seeing a boom in popularity. Chris Livesay met with a winemaker who still uses generations-old techniques and natural fermentation.

The country of Georgia is widely recognized as the oldest winemaking region in the world; evidence of wine production in the country dates all the way back to 6000 B.C. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Georgia has over 500 different types of native grapes, many of which aren’t grown anywhere else in the world.

From the desert of Peru and sunny countryside of Texas to the sandy shores of Croatia and rolling green hills of Georgia, this list will help you get off the beaten path and try something new. Here are our top 10 wine destinations for 2023.

Georgian wine is best known for the qvevri clay pots used by some of its most celebrated producers. But the array of fascinating, utterly distinctive indigenous Georgian grape varieties also deserve much wider renown

Georgia, with its 8,000 years of winemaking history, arguably has a better handle on the issue of service temperature for orange wines than other wine-drinking cultures. That’s because many of its wines, including its qvevris—wines fermented and aged below ground in traditional enormous clay vessels known as qvevri—come with recommended cellar and service temperatures written on the back label. That’s especially true for qvevri amber wines, the preferred Georgian term for “orange” wines.

As the world’s oldest continuously producing wine region, one might expect Georgia to be more ubiquitous—but there’s a reason it still feels unknown. “The Republic was under Soviet rule for decades, and wine culture was greatly impacted. Only four grape varieties (out of over 500) were allowed in production; the others were kept alive in secret,” natural wine journalist and author Rachel Signer says. “With Georgia’s independence, they rediscovered their wine culture and began sharing it with the broader world.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, there’s a reason orange wine is resonating with us, and it goes beyond the “it” factor. The drink is rooted in history, inspired by ancient winemaking techniques in Georgia. And those techniques, which often rely on minimal intervention, get you as close to “wine” as can be.