How We Got Started

Winemaker’s profession isn’t new in Dakishvili Family. Wine knowledge was collected by several generations and kept for their sons and grandsons.

Gogi’s great great grandfather was a priest in the church. He was one of the first in the family who started winemaking because of Christian motives. As we know Orthodox use wine as a blood of Christ during Mesas. However, Gogi’s grandfather was killed because of Christian belief during Soviet times in 1929.

Gogi’s grandfather couldn’t continue family’s winemaking traditions, because he died very young at the age of 27 during Second World War.

However Gogi’s father became Oenologists and graduated winemaking school. Gogi also followed his ancestor’s steps and got proper education in Russia. Wine passion was so strong that he found his love in oenological faculty. Both Gogi and his wife are oenologists.

We should also mention new generation. Gogi has 3 children: Temuri – elder son is winemaker in Teliani valley, and consults several cellars as well.  David , who is only 14 is so interested in wine, that in his age he already assists Gogi during winemaking process. Gogi’s daughter became doctor; however she is a huge fan of wine.

We should also mention that Gogi’s second grandfather from mothers side was famous Qvevri master.

We can say that traditions and century old experience makes Dakishvili wines excellent.

These two wineries own 10 ha vineyard in total and produce wine from only indigenous varieties. White grapes : Rkatsitely, Mtsvane, Qisi and Tsolikouri. Red variety – Saperavi.

We should also mention that Tsolikouri variety is originally from West part of Georgia             (Racha-lechkhumi) and we buy them from wine growers. We have a long term relationship with wine growers and we are sure in grape quality.

We produce 100% Qvevri wine. Total production is 50 000 bottle. Here we have 10 Qvevri each 2000 liter volume, 5 Qvevri with 100 and 200 liters.

In second cellar of Vita Vinea we have 8 Qvevri  each  2000 liter, and 5 qvevri of 100 liters.

You may be also interested in such huge difference of volume of Qvevris. We use big Qvevri for alcoholic fermentation as well keeping wine for ageing. However when alcoholic fermentation is over and several months are passed we separate skin and juice from each other. Wine volume in big Qvevri is reduced. To minimize risk of oxidation we have to fill Qvevri till the top. Small Qvevris help us to keep exact same wine and use it for filling big Qvevris.

We sell our wines almost in every high level restaurant in Tbilisi. Also, is USA, UK, France, Japan, Ukraine, and China. We sell some wines in Russia, but only in Moscow and only in highly qualified restaurants.

The biggest market for us in USA.

Our vineyards are located in neighboring villages Kondoli and Kurdgelauri (15 km from Teleda Orgo)  We have only old grapes and  youngest is 50 years old.

Sometimes our guests ask us if vineyards we own were planted by us from the beginning. But 50 or 60 years ago it was impossible to own something private in Georgia. Because of Soviet Union (1921 -1991) time everything was public and people did not own any land. Only after land Privatization (Process started 1992) it was possible to buy land and start your own agricultural work. Since then Dakishvili family owns vineyards and produces its quality wines.

We often receive questions if we are natural or Bio – dynamic winery. Our philosophy is simple: we produce healthy wines, with minimum amount of sulfur. We care about nature, try to be environmentally friendly and this is the reason how we managed that our vineyards are developed in a sustainable way. We don’t use any prohibited pesticides, only spray materials that are allowed by OIV.

For pruning we use European method of Guio  system.

We have sustainable vineyard but we are not Bio producers. We don’t pollute environment and our employers are important for us. Question why we are not Bio is easy to answer; there are a lot of procedures that requires time and energy. For quality production oriented cellar still no time, however we plan to be certified in our long-term strategy.

Sub soil is caulk that was formed 25 million years ago when on the place of Caucasus mountain range was located sea.

Upper parts of the soil have alluvial character. Clay, sand and limestone was brought by mountainous rivers. That combination of sand and limestone creates good drenage for vineyards. It means that during heavy rain, water goes slowly till the roots and feeds whole plants.

As I already mentioned we make all our wines with traditional technology in Qvevri.

For Orgo Rkatsiketli alcoholic fermentation (lasts 2-3 weeks) is made by wild yeast, what we call Spontaneous fermentation. Malolactic fermentation is already finishes in Qvevri. We use Sulfur 30-40mg/L only once after Malolactic fermentation.

Here we should also mention that even though Rkatsiteli is white grape variety, wine made in Qvevri with white grapes is called Amber wine or Orange wine instead of white wine.

Difference between steel wines and Kakhetian Qvevri wines is obvious. Mainly it is driven by phenolic compounds. If steel wine has approximately 150gr/L phenols, tannins in Qvevri wine reaches 3000. This is the main reason why we differentiate Qvevri Amber wine from steel wines. 

OIV is planning to add new “Amber wine” category for world wines at the end of this year.