Qvevri Wine: Georgia's 8,000-Year-Old Winemaking Method, Explained

Every wine country has a story about tradition. Georgia's story is different because it's not really a story — it's an unbroken chain of practice stretching back 8,000 years to the Neolithic period. At the center of it all is the qvevri: a large, egg-shaped clay vessel buried in the ground, where grapes go in as fruit and come out as something completely unlike anything you've tasted from a glass bottle at your local wine shop.

If you've heard the term "orange wine" or "amber wine" and wondered what makes it special, the answer usually leads back here — to a clay pot in the ground in eastern Georgia. This guide covers how qvevri winemaking actually works, why it produces wines that taste nothing like their European counterparts, and where you can see it for yourself.

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What Is a Qvevri?

A qvevri (ქვევრი, sometimes spelled kvevri) is a large, egg-shaped earthenware vessel used for fermenting, aging, and storing wine. The word likely comes from kveuri, meaning "that which is buried" — because that's exactly where it goes. A qvevri is buried in the floor of a marani (wine cellar) with only its rim visible at ground level. The constant underground temperature — around 14–15°C year-round — provides natural climate control that modern wineries achieve with stainless steel tanks and cooling systems.

In western Georgia, the same vessel is called a ch'uri (ჭური). The "q" in qvevri comes from the Georgian letter ქ, which maps to Q on a QWERTY-based Georgian keyboard — hence the spelling confusion in English sources.

Qvevri range from 20 liters up to a massive 10,000 liters, though most winemakers consider 1,000–1,200 liters the ideal size for fermentation. The largest ones are big enough for a person to climb inside — which is exactly what happens during cleaning.

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How Qvevri Are Made

Making a qvevri is a slow, physical craft that hasn't fundamentally changed in thousands of years. A handful of families in Kakheti, Imereti, and Guria still make them by hand, passing the skill through generations. A single 1,000-liter qvevri takes about six weeks to build — and the maker typically works on several simultaneously.

The clay matters. Different quarries produce clay with different mineral compositions, which subtly influences the wine. This is one reason Georgian winemakers are particular about where their qvevri come from — it's terroir at the vessel level.

In 2021, qvevri were granted Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status by Georgia's State Register — the first non-food item to receive the designation. Under PGI rules, only raw materials sourced in Georgia can be used to produce a qvevri. This was partly a response to cheap imitations being produced abroad.

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The Winemaking Process

Qvevri winemaking is almost aggressively simple compared to modern winemaking. There are no temperature-controlled tanks, no yeast additions, no oak barrels, no fining agents. The process relies on the vessel, the grapes, and time.

The Basic Steps

1. Harvest and crush: Grapes are picked and crushed, usually by foot in a wooden trough called a satsnakheli.
2. Fill the qvevri: The juice, skins, seeds, and stems (collectively called chacha) go into the qvevri together. How much chacha stays depends on the method (see below).
3. Seal: The qvevri is covered with a stone or wooden lid, sometimes sealed with clay.
4. Ferment: Natural yeasts on the grape skins trigger fermentation. The underground temperature keeps it slow and steady.
5. Macerate: The wine sits on its skins for 5–6 months (sometimes longer), extracting color, tannins, and flavor.
6. Decant: The clear wine is drawn off into a clean qvevri for storage. The remaining chacha is distilled into chacha brandy.
7. Clean: The empty qvevri is washed, sterilized with lime, and re-coated with beeswax for next year.

The whole cycle happens once a year, during the autumn harvest (rtveli). A qvevri that was filled in October won't be opened until March or April at the earliest. Many winemakers age their wine in qvevri for a year or more before bottling.

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Three Regional Methods

Not all qvevri wine is made the same way. The critical variable is how much chacha (pomace — skins, seeds, stems) stays in contact with the juice, and for how long. This single difference produces dramatically different wines.

The Kakhetian method is the most ancient and extreme. Fermenting white grapes with 100% of their skins, seeds, and even stems for half a year produces a wine that has more in common with a light red than a conventional white. It's tannic, structured, and deeply colored — this is what people mean when they say "amber wine."

The Imeretian method is gentler. Using only about 10% of the pomace and skipping stems entirely produces a wine that's lighter in color and softer on the palate — still recognizably qvevri-made, but more approachable to European wine drinkers. Many natural wine producers outside Georgia who experiment with skin-contact whites end up closer to this style.

The Kartlian method splits the difference and gets less attention, but wines from the Kartli region can be fascinating — they have the structure of Kakhetian wines without the sometimes overwhelming tannin.

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What Is Amber Wine?

Amber wine — sometimes called orange wine internationally — is white wine that's been fermented with extended skin contact. In conventional white winemaking, the skins are removed immediately after pressing. In qvevri winemaking, they stay in the vessel for weeks or months, giving the wine its distinctive amber-to-deep-gold color.

Georgians prefer the term amber wine (ქარვისფერი ღვინო, qarvisperi ghvino) over "orange wine." The reasoning: the color is amber, not orange, and the term "orange wine" was coined by a British wine writer in 2004 to describe European skin-contact whites that were inspired by Georgian tradition.

What Does It Taste Like?

If you're used to crisp, fruity Sauvignon Blanc or buttery Chardonnay, amber wine will be a shock. The extended skin contact changes everything:

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Key Grapes for Qvevri Wine

Georgia has over 500 indigenous grape varieties, but only a handful are commonly used for qvevri winemaking. Here are the ones you'll encounter most often.

For a deeper look at these varieties and more, see our guide to 15 Georgian grape varieties you need to know.

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The Marani: Where It All Happens

The marani is the Georgian wine cellar — though "cellar" undersells it. In Georgian culture, the marani is a sacred space. Traditionally, it was the one room in the house where guests couldn't enter without the host's permission. Births, deaths, and family decisions were announced here. Some old marani have a cross carved above the entrance.

A marani can be almost anything: a standalone building, the ground floor of a farmhouse, a cave carved into rock, or an open-air structure covered by a vine canopy. What defines it is the qvevri buried in its floor.

Inside, you'll find:

• Qvevri — buried in rows, with only the round openings visible at floor level
• Satsnakheli — a wooden trough for crushing grapes by foot
• Stone or tile floor — sloped slightly so grape juice flows toward the qvevri
• Basic tools — long wooden paddles for stirring, clay or stone lids, beeswax for sealing

If you visit a family winemaker in Kakheti, you'll almost certainly be invited into their marani. Accept. This is where you'll taste wine straight from the qvevri — drawn up with a long-handled dipper — and it tastes completely different from anything in a bottle.

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Qvevri vs. Modern Winemaking

Georgia produces wine both ways — in qvevri and using European-style stainless steel and oak. Here's how they compare.

Qvevri wines tend to be more oxidative, more tannic, and more texturally complex than their modern counterparts. They're also less predictable — vintage variation is real, and two qvevri sitting three meters apart in the same marani can produce noticeably different wine. That's the charm if you're a natural wine enthusiast, and the frustration if you're a consistency-minded commercial buyer.

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Where to Taste Qvevri Wine in Georgia

You can find qvevri wine in Tbilisi wine bars, but the real experience is visiting a marani in the wine country. Here are the best options.

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Buying Qvevri Wine: What to Look For

Qvevri wine has gone from obscure curiosity to international darling, which means there's now a wide range of quality — from transcendent bottles to mass-produced "qvevri-style" marketing exercises. Here's how to navigate it.

Price Ranges in Georgia

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Qvevri's Influence on World Wine

Georgia's qvevri tradition didn't just get a UNESCO inscription and a few appreciative nods. It kicked off a global movement. Natural winemakers in Italy, France, Slovenia, Austria, and the United States have adopted qvevri (or qvevri-inspired clay vessels) as part of a broader push toward minimal-intervention winemaking.

The Italian natural wine scene in Friuli — particularly producers like Josko Gravner and Radikon — was among the first to embrace extended skin-contact whites in the 1990s, directly inspired by Georgian methods. Gravner actually traveled to Georgia, bought qvevri, and shipped them back to Italy. His Ribolla Gialla, fermented in buried Georgian qvevri, became one of the most talked-about wines in the world.

Today, you can find qvevri-made wines from California to Australia. The orange wine category barely existed 20 years ago; now it has its own section in wine shops. Georgia didn't just preserve an ancient method — it accidentally started a modern revolution.

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Common Misconceptions

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Frequently Asked Questions