Racha-Lechkhumi

North-western Georgia, on the slopes of the Rioni gorge in the Greater Caucasus: Racha, centred on Ambrolauri, and Lechkhumi around Tsageri. Vineyards sit at roughly 450–750 m, usually on slopes too steep for machinery, so the work is done by hand. The climate is cool and humid: mild, often cloudy summers and long cold winters with snow and frost risk. Soils are humus-carbonate, loams and hillside deposits. There is little vineyard here — open estimates put it at around 1,500 hectares across both districts — and the varieties are rare: Aleksandrouli, Mujuretuli, Usakhelouri, Orbeluri, Rachuli Dzelshavi, Tsolikouri and Tsulukidze Tetra. Cool air and a late harvest give fruit with high sugar and retained acidity, hence the region's signature style: naturally semi-sweet wines whose sugar is what fermentation left behind, not something added. Three appellations, all of them micro-zones: Khvanchkara (Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli, red), Tvishi (Tsolikouri, white) and Okureshi Usakhelouri. Khvanchkara and Usakhelouri are the textbook case of a tiny zone and a famous name that do not add up to the number of bottles on the shelf: both carry a high authenticity-risk flag in this reference, and the reasoning is on their own pages.