Samtskhe-Javakheti

Southern Georgia: the gorges of the Mtkvari and its tributaries around Akhaltsikhe, Aspindza and Adigeni. The National Wine Agency calls Meskheti probably the highest-altitude wine region not only in Georgia but anywhere: vineyards stand at 900–1,700 m. The growing season is short, winters are harsh and the soils volcanic — which is why vines were planted for centuries on terraces, each type with its own name (oroko, dariji, bakani, sakve), and trained up apricot trees, a habit that set Meskheti apart from the coastal maglari.

Viticulture here almost died out in the twentieth century and has been coming back over the past twenty years through a handful of enthusiasts and restoration programmes: the local varieties — Meskhuri Mtsvane, Meskhuri Shavi, Tskhenis Dzudzu, Samariobo, Tamaris Vazi — have been propagated afresh from surviving old vines. The scale is still tiny: some thirty-odd hectares under native varieties, more than twenty of them replanted during the programme.

The region has no appellation of origin — an application to register Meskhetian wine is being prepared. What reaches the shelf is small batches from particular estates, and it is the grape and the winemaker's name that matter on the label, not the zone.