Kakheti

Eastern Georgia: the broad valleys of the Alazani and Iori between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus, with vineyards mostly at 400–700 m and some sites climbing towards 800. The Likhi range blocks the moist air coming from the west, so Kakheti is markedly drier than the coast — warm sunny summers, cold winters, rain falling mainly in spring and autumn. Valley soils are humus-carbonate, chernozem and alluvial; higher slopes are cinnamonic and grey forest soils.

About two-thirds of the country's vineyard area sits in Kakheti. The white varieties are Rkatsiteli, Kakhuri Mtsvane, Kisi and Khikhvi; the red one is Saperavi. This is also the home of the Kakhetian qvevri method: the must ferments and ages on skins and stems, which gives amber wines a tannin structure white wine does not normally have. The same zone works in the European way as well, from dry whites to oak-aged Saperavi.

More than two-thirds of Georgia's registered appellations of origin are Kakhetian: Tsinandali, Mukuzani, Napareuli, Gurjaani, Manavi, Vazisubani, Kindzmarauli, Akhasheni and others. On a Kakhetian label the name of a zone usually rests on the register rather than on marketing. The exception is the famous naturally semi-sweet names: demand for them has long outrun the size of their micro-zones, and the authenticity risk is set out on the appellation pages themselves.