2015 Tsikhelishvili Rkatsiteli Kakheti, Georgia

When Aleksi Tsikhelishvili was a child, he learned to make The Tsikhelishvili wines are both humble and grand; hand wine from his mother. Today, he is the only one responsible for hewn masterpieces with an apparition­like aura and his vineyards and winemaking. The French word for the permanent resonance; wines one drinks to fill the mind more Georgian word "Mevenakhe" is "Vigneron", which Aleksi is in than the body. Aleqsi looks like a simple farmer with modest the true sense. To quote Aleksi: “Our region Kakheti is a means but just a whiff of his work shows his artist’s heart and traditional wine region since almost everyone makes wine. I alchemist's touch. This is best understood through his Jgia make wines because I simply love it. Wine is part of our lives. wine. There is a soul mate quality to the story of Aleqsi and There’s no happy time without wine, no vicissitudes too!” Jgia. For a forgotten grape to end up in the hands of its most sensitive interpreter is a special sort of love story. VINEYARDS Tsikhelishvili wines are exotically fragrant and shapely, more 2009 was Aleksi's first commercial vintage. His family has nuance than force, faceted brilliant gems made to maintained the same vines since the Soviet period. The old commemorate our most treasured moments. vineyards are planted to the classical white Kakhetian varieties NOTES & PAIRINGS Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane and less than 100 vines of Jgia, an almost extinct red variety. From his 2.5 hectares, he produces The winery is an old family estate. It has 1 hectare planted 4,000 to 5,000 bottles annually, about 200 of which are Jgia. with Rkatsiteli in the Khodasheni wine district. In the vineyard Cultivation is organic and all the fruit is estate grown. The vines and cellar, organic and natural winemaking methods are are located in the Zemo Alvani district, on the left bank of the used. The wine is fermented in qvevri. Alazani in the north west of the Kakheti Valley where the river ANALYTICS & PRONUNCIATION roars from the Caucasus. The soils are a mix of sand and clay. Jgia is planted in the Obodziani vineyard, Rkatsiteli and PRODUCER: Tsikhelishvili Mtsvane in Bitaani. To retain soil humidity in the hottest part of APPELLATION: Kakheti the summer, Aleksi does not cut the grass between the vines. VINTAGE: 2015 The only vineyard treatments are copper and sulfur. All the GRAPE COMPOSITION: 100% Rkatsiteli work, from farming to harvest to qvevri, is manual. CLIMATE: moderately humid with hot summers and cold winters WINE MAKING SOILS: mix of sand and clay White and red varieties are vinified basically the same way. MACERATION & AGING: Fermented and aged in qvevri Hand harvested fruit is destemmed and poured into qvevris. ALCOHOL: 13.8% During the natural primary fermentation the must is regularly RESIDUAL SUGAR: 1 g/l punched down. The qvevris are then sealed with clay and the ACIDITY: 5.3 g/l wine rests on the skins for 6 to 7 months. Afer that, the wine is racked off the skins and allowed to settle in qvevris, 6 months for the 2016 Jgia, 18 months for the 2015 Rkatsiteli. All wines complete malolactic fermentation and are bottled without fining or filtration.

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