Rkatsiteli

Rkatsiteli is one of the world's oldest white wine grapes and the signature variety of Georgia's Kakheti region, in the Caucasus cradle where winemaking began. Its name means "red stem" in Georgian, a reference to the reddish shoots of the vine. High in natural acidity and balanced by ripe fruit, it yields crisp, food-friendly whites of green apple, quince and white peach with a floral, spicy lift. Vinified in the modern way it is fresh, restrained and zesty; fermented the ancient Georgian way in buried clay qvevri, with long contact on the skins, it becomes a tannic, textured amber (orange) wine of dried apricot, honey and walnut. Hardy and once the most-planted white grape across the Soviet sphere, it remains the backbone of Georgian white and amber wine today.