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The Republic of Georgia is recognized for the uniqueness of its wine culture, most notably marked by the use of qvevri: underground clay vessels.

The wine trade and consumers alike are increasingly looking for wines with history, tradition and a genuine back story. Well, they don’t get much more authentic than wines from Georgia. It might have been making wines for centuries, but it has only been in the last few years that its unique Qveri-style wines are capturing…

Drive west of Tbilisi for about an hour on the backroad to Gori and you will find yourself in the heart of the Shida Kartli wine region. It is an awesome expanse of plains, rolling hills, jagged ridges and hidden valleys that provide a myriad of terroirs that grow some of Georgia’s most exclusive grapes.…

The Republic of Georgia, that is, where natural wines ferment in underground vessels and the hospitality borders on pathological.

The country of Georgia is, legit, the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen.

Surely, it cannot be a coincidence that some of the most well-known wine-producing nations in the world are also some of the most alluring places to visit on the planet.

That is what happens when the country you’re visiting is the oldest wine region on Earth, surpassing 8,000 vintages — a country with as many as 100,000 micro-wineries, where it’s nearly impossible not to know someone who makes wine, whether a neighbor or friend or family member.

Some 15 years ago, the crumbling 19th-century buildings and huge eucalyptus trees that lined the street were crowded with people hawking everything from wooden utensils to costume jewelry, fresh produce and coffee beans labeled “Nescafé.” It was a congested, lively sidewalk bazaar of sorts that exemplified the Asiatic spirit of Tbilisi.

The country of Georgia, located in the Southern Caucasus, is claimed to be the birthplace of wine, extending back to at least 6000 BCE. Besides this achievement, Georgia may also be the location of the oldest winemaking school in the world, the Ikalto Academy. Although that Academy no longer exists, its memory is being honored through the creation…

Continuing to relate my recent experiences with Georgian wines, I’m providing more reviews of some of the 60 Georgian wines I tasted at the recent Boston Wine Expo. And I’m also going to provide additional history and background on the region of Georgia and its wines, to give better context to these wines.

Long tables are spread out under a stand of old cypress trees, shaded from the glare of the midsummer sun in the middle of a long grass paddock. We’re in Red Hill, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula – but we could be somewhere deep in Georgia, the ancient country wedged between eastern Europe and western Asia.