Areni Co-Founder and Executive Director Pauline Vicard recently visited Georgia and had the opportunity to expore the world of Qvevris. Some takeaways:
Qvevris are an interesting winemaking vessels that have the capacity to build complexity in wine:
- Temperatures are not controlled during winemaking and will vary significantly during the process. This is said to contribute complexity and depth.
- The pointy shape of the qvevris is important: Pips sink to the pointy end and are covered by lees, and stems. Lees protect the pips from being broken down by alcohol, preventing bitterness.
- The large shoulder of the qvevris mean that the cap will be thinner and wider, with skins well distributed
- It’s important to have healthy grapes and ripe stems because there is no intervention from the winemaker during a long and complex process. Imperfections will be amplified.
- It’s also important to have high quality qvevris to advoid oxidation
These interesting vessels can be tricky to get right – but they have the capacity to contribute complexity to a wine. A very insightful experience (and, also: spot the cute dog...)
Wine Director | Sommelier | Restaurant General Manager
12moI recently started a tasting group at my place of employment which has been very gracious in allowing me to utilize the space and encouraging me to go for Advanced Somm Certification. It's been a challenge finding those who are committed to meeting regularly. I've been lucky that there have been 2 servers on my team showing up every week and excited to get into it and that has propelled us forward every week. We're about to have our 7th meeting and are finally getting more interest from other participants and am hopeful that we'll develop at least 6 people attending every week... I've kept it open to anyone at any level and reached out to multiple colleagues at other venues to invite anyone on their teams who would like to attend with only 2 people from other establishments taking part thus far. I'm committed every week though as long as there are at least 2 other people who are showing up. I work in a major market that's densely packed so I have been surprised how long it's taken to find interested participants. I've even invited wine reps and asked them to share with their other accounts the invitation.