Rkatsiteli

Georgia's foremost white grape

Rkatsiteli is Georgia's most widely planted white grape; the name means «red horn» or «red vine», after the colour of its shoots. It is one of the world's oldest cultivated white varieties.

In the European style Rkatsiteli gives fresh, high-acid, clean dry wines (the backbone of Tsinandali, blended with Mtsvane). In qvevri, on the skins, the same grape becomes a rich amber wine with tannin and notes of quince, tea and dried fruit.

Its versatility and frost-hardiness made Rkatsiteli a mass variety in the Soviet era too — sometimes at the cost of quality, but today it yields world-class wines.