The Lyon Makes Wine

I don't know how many of you know this, but the earliest evidence of wine making is in Georgia. For all of you lovers of wine who talk big about French and Italian wine there is a lot of history of wine here. I personally like Georgian wine a lot, but I know many people who don't. Wine here is not meant to be sipped lightly either--no it's meant to be jugged and the glasses are supposed to be empty after each toast. So, the wine has a significantly different taste and texture than wine we are used to in bottles.

Another distinct difference that I like is that almost all the wine consumed in homemade. Families in Georgia grow their own grapes, harvest the grapes, then make their own wine that will usually last until the summer and then the process continues. With all this practice families really know what they're doing when it comes to wine-making. I have been really looking forward to this day all year. My host father and I were supposed to make wine last year together (before he became my host father), but I was called away for something Peace Corps related and missed it. I've waited a long time for this, and so we woke up early this morning and got to work making the juice.

We didn't do it like in the movies where pretty girls jump around in grapes in a big pool of grapey goodness. Nope, we aren't making THAT much wine so we just did it by hand and a wooden hammer. Basically it's all done by hand, no machines are involved whatsoever. I think that makes it pretty cool. Nadimi spent a lot of time talking about how to make good wine and teaching me so I can make it when I got back to the USA. Again, this isn't a professional and business deal. This is just the wine we drink at supra's and give as gifts to people like Kelly when they come visit. I'll probably be given about five liters of our wine in Fanta bottles to take home with me when I visit for Christmas. My father and I will have a good time with all this wine. Also, a Georgian man can/will drink 1-3 liters of wine at a supra. So my father better be prepared.

Anyway, we make white wine mainly out here in the west. The seasons aren't really as conducive to good grapes as it is out east in the Kakheti region, which is known for it's delicious black wine. My host father doesn't make a lot of wine, but he takes great pride in it. He is well known in Keda for is wine, but he NEVER sells it.

First we clean all the bowls and equipment thoroughly. Then we sift through the grapes and take out all the ones that are shriveled and bad. Then we put it in a big bowl and smash it with a wooden mallet. Then we put the smashed grapes (that have now collected juice) through a drainer and continue smashing them by hand as well. we take that juice and put it in another glass container where it will sit for a few days to let the solid pieces go to the bottom. Then we siphon it out into other containers. We filter it about 3 times over two months. I don't know the scientific process by which ethanol is created, but Nadimi tells me to make good wine it takes 2 months to one year.

Now all the leftover parts of the grapes are put into a big garbage can where it will collect and be "bad wine". Essentially wine that has sugar and water added. Nadimi hates that time of wine, but he can make a lot of it this way. Here are some cool pictures of today's work. We will have more work ahead of us over the next few months.

I do want to point out that I was basically following Nadimi's instructions and trying to understand as much about the process as I could understand. If I got any of the above information incorrect I apologize. Nonetheless, it was an interesting day.

The first batch of grapes. Our nice early morning start...

My host father going to town on the grapes...

Now the juice is being drained into another container

More grapes...

The trash can with the leftover grapes.

The draining of the grapes, and our first little bit of juice.

Pouring the juice into the container. 

Sifting through to find reject grapes. 

There was a lot of squatting involved.

Mmmmm juice.

Nadimi relieved me of the mallet shortly after

This was actually hard work after the 10th batch.

The completed grape juice.

So Nadimi and I are going to have a little competition. I'll make the batch on the left. He takes the batch on the right and we'll see whose wine is better. His will be better. Definitely. 

As the  solid pieces sink to the bottom we will siphon and filter it out to make it clean. Right now it's just juice.

Reject grapes that would ruin the taste

Anyway, I'm tired now and have some budget to write for my SPA grant. Hope all is well.