Bedoba Saperavi 2021

Description

Bedoba Saperavi 2021 is my first Georgian wine and was recommended to me by a customer. What a great choice it is too! Saperavi is a native Georgian grape and the vines used to produce this red wine are at least 30 years old and planted on rich black shale both of which help to develop complexity and richness in the wine. The altitude of the vineyards ensures that the grapes have good acidity and soft tannins.

Bedoba Saperavi 2021 is a dark-coloured red wine with intense flavours of juicy black fruits – blackberries, blackcurrants and plums – with notes of herbs, flowers, spices and black pepper. It is complex and its texture is really creamy. Organically and sustainably produced, the wine sees a mix of techniques used in its production. Grapes are hand-harvested and then fermented partly in stainless steel to retain all those lovely fruit flavours and partly in Georgia’s traditional ‘qvevri’ or clay amphoras. The qvevri are underground which keeps the wine cool and allows it to settle and clarify naturally. The wine is aged in stainless steel, qvevri and used oak barrels before being blended. It is then aged a further six months in bottle to ensure a harmonious and balanced wine that has structure which will enable it to be kept a number of years and really soft tannins. If you want to try your first Georgian wine, make it this one!

Georgia has a very long history of wine-making and in the last thirty years, after its independence from the Soviet Union, it has seen significant investment and improvements in its wine industry. Bedoba Saperavi 2021 is produced at one of the oldest wineries, the Kakheti wine company, in a collaboration between Georgian winemaker Nugzar Ksovreli and Swiss winemaker and investor Thierry Fontannaz. The name Bedoba (‘Day of Luck’) comes from the Georgian tradition of wishing luck on the second day of each new year.