2022 Pi Winery, Saperavi, Kakheti, Republic of Georgia.
Georgia is he oldest wine growing region in the world, dating back some 8,000 years, but In modern times there’s a lot to be excited about too and I am looking forward to exploring Georgian wines in the future, and was especially thrilled to taste with rising star Teko “Teona” Omarashvili, of Pi Winery. She is one of Georgia’s new generation who is mixing tradition with innovative ideas to craft a more elegant and refined line of small production natural wines, like this brilliant 100% Saperavi. Her award winning Saperavi is deeply hued with an opaque purple/garnet color in the glass with a nose that reminds me of Northern Rhône Syrah as it gives dark berries and violets, while the palate is full bodied, ripe, delicately earthy, spicy and firmly tannic. Saperavi, as Lisa Granik MW notes is the ancient varietal here, is an acidic, teinturier-type grape variety, with red flesh and red juice, and is the main red grape native to the Republic of Georgia, and interesting, she adds has now more than 17 distinct clonal mutations. Omarashvili’s grapes, from a small vineyard set on complex mixed top soils over limestone in the Kakheti region, is small berried and very dark in pigment. This vintage delivers boysenberry, blueberry and black currants in the mouth, adding a range of florals, tobacco leaf, dried herbs, Summer mint, a hint of anise and woodsy loam and is structured to go with robust cuisine, like lamb or or meaty dishes. At time of this writing, Pi Winery doesn’t have a US importer, but the wines are available in select European countries, but as good as these wines are, I’m sure they will find a way to get here. Also, I tried the Akura white, made from Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane in classic Qvervi, which is buried in the earth, and will review it soon.
The Pi Winery, based in Tbilisi, is really new on the scene starting with the 2019 vintage, but Omarashvili is already waking waves and her tiny production is in demand, so it was great to taste her set of wines and hear her story of getting started. Her family had been farming vines for generations and she has taken over a few plots and created her label, looking to craft natural, terroir, single vineyard wines, which she has done to good effect with her Saperavi. The winery is small with mainly stainless steel tanks, though she’s doing some traditional Qvervi fermented and aged whites too, which are excellent as well. The Saperavi is 100% de-stemmed and crushed into the stainless steel tanks, where it sees about 15 to 20 days of maceration with spontaneous (natural) yeast and daily punch downs and pump overs. She does something to soften the tannic attack, by removing some of the must as she goes and filling the tank with juice, which with the intensity of pigments and extraction of the grape helps achieve a remarkable sense of elegance. The wine is gentle racked back into tank, seeing no oak, to mature for a period decided by Omarashvili before bottling, after which the wine rests in the bottle about a year. She really pay attention in the vineyard and severely limits the yields to achieve full phenolic ripeness, with a green harvest done if the vintage demands. The sugars need to be pretty high in Saperavi to soften the rustic and fierce nature of the grape and Pi Winery sees around 14.5% or more natural alcohol, making for a rich and powerful wine, as this wonderful 2022, which I highly recommend, shows. A big thank you to Teko “Teona” Omarashvili and her husband George for sharing their wines with me and a small group of wine enthusiasts.
($N/A) 94 Points, grapelive