Tbilvino Mukuzani 2024

Mukuzani, Georgia’s most esteemed red microzone, where Saperavi speaks alone.

Along the Alazani, Mukuzani knows only one grape: Saperavi, a teinturier with red-fleshed berries that yields some of the darkest wines around. At Tbilvino it is hand-harvested, macerated for several weeks, fermented in stainless steel, taken through malolactic fermentation, then partly aged in barrel. This wine comes in at 14% and stays dry, with 4 g/l residual sugar. Expect black cherry and plum. The palate is juicy, and the tannins make themselves felt without hardening the fruit. Serve slightly cool, around 16–18°C.

Tbilvino was founded in 1962 in Tbilisi to supply one of the Soviet Union’s largest wine cooperatives. In 1999 it moved to Kakheti, intent on reviving Georgian winemaking. The Russian embargo of 2006 hit hard, since Russia then took half the country’s output. Tbilvino regrouped, then renovated its equipment in 2008. Today it is run by two brothers, Zurab and George Margvelashvili, and makes wine in Tbilisi and Kvareli from its own vineyards, notably Vachnadziani (128 hectares in 17 plots) and Shashiani. Its principle is to let Georgia’s thousand-year-old traditions, buried clay jars included, speak with modern technology.