Rkatsiteli Juso´s Wine

Thus, the family has revived family’s long-lasting tradition of wine-making and launched production of Qvevri wines named after a grandfather Juso – a wine-maker and wine-expert, who devoted his entire life to the high-quality wine production in the Kakheti region. Brothers from a wine-maker family followed in their grandfather Juso’s footsteps by making natural Qvevri wines, initially just for a personal use. Juso also planted a family vineyard, which spreads across 5000 km² and now counts around 60 years. The vineyard is located on the terroir of Kostaphé, on the banks of Iori and Tvaltkhevi rivers in Sagarejo district (Kakheti region). The junction of Iori and Tvaltkhevi rivers provides a unique microclimate to the Kostaphé terroir for growing Rkatsiteli, Kisi and Mtsvané grape varieties. The family also owns 5 ha of a young vineyard (planted in 2020) in the village Shilda, Kakheti, which creates one of the best climate conditions for growing Saperavi grapes. Juso’s Winery has 17 (seventeen) Qvevris with total capacity of 18 (eighteen) tonnes. These Qvevris were purchased from an artisanal family of qvevri-makers in the Village Tkemlovana (Imereti region) whose traditions of making Georgian clay jars dates back to1850 year. As a member of the Georgian Natural Wine Association and the Biological Farming Association Elkana our winery is committed to making only natural Qvevri wines by using naturally grown grape varieties. So, we utilize only organic pesticides defined by the Biological Farming Association Elkana and Georgian Natural Wine Association. Every kind of work in our vineyards is carried out by hand. Hand-picked grapes are immediately transported to the winery, where the grapes are pressed with skins and pips, without stalks, (so-called chacha) and poured to qvevri vessels for fermentation and maturation. Wines are bottled by hand; manually-corked and -labelled. The Winery produces around 8,000-9,000 bottles per year, out of which 60% is being exported. As Juso’s wine is low intervention, unfiltered wine (it is self-filtered in Qvevri) sediment may occur after certain period of time.