Source:
http://www.grubstreet.com
By Chris Crowley
The main thing you notice about Mariam Losebidze’s 2014 Tavkveri is
that it tastes like it’s infused with smoked fat. This is wine, albeit
obscure wine, and wine tends not to taste like bacon. But Losebidze is
one of only a handful of female winemakers from the country of Georgia —
the former Soviet republic sandwiched between Russia and Armenia’s
northern border — and her wines are unapologetically bold.
They were
also, until recently, largely only available in her home country. But
now some of America’s most progressive importers and sommeliers have
turned their attention to Georgia, which produces wines that are unlike
anything else.
Just as you might expect, plenty of Georgian wine is a far cry from
grand cru Burgundies or the Pinot Noirs of California. For Western
palates, much of it can seem, frankly, weird. In a lot of ways, the
growing appreciation for Georgian wine is an extension of the continuing
demand for so-called
natural wines, the catchall term that refers to wines made with minimal processing, resulting in unpredictable, rustic wines where the makers — as opposed to the grape or region — are often the focus.
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