Rkatsiteli

Of the several wine producing regions, the Kakheti region boasts approximately 60-70% of wine production, and currently counts over 500 wine producers.
Approximately 120 km northeast of Tbilisi, the fifth generation Chotiashvili family winery is located in the village of Saniore in the Kakheti region at the southern foot of the Caucasus Mountains.
The current head of the family, Kaha, was born in 1980 and is a person with the calmness of a Japanese craftsman.
The whole family, led by Caja, his parents, his younger brother and his family, and Caja's wife and daughter, are making wine.
On the first floor of the old house is a cellar (called a malani) where the qvevri (jars) where wine was made by the previous generations are buried.
I started making wine in my grandfather's time, but at that time we never sold it for home consumption.
Even today, many people still brew their own wine using grapes grown in their gardens, and it is a must-have item for Georgians who love parties.
In 2002, Caja expanded its vineyards and at the same time increased its cepages from 22 varieties to the current 32 varieties.

Georgia is also known as the ``Cradle of Wine,'' and there are 525 indigenous wine varieties!
It is said that the Japanese grape variety Koshu was born as a result of repeated cross-breeding of varieties that originated in Georgia.
Of particular note is the technique of making wine in qvevri made of clay, which has been passed down for 8,000 years.
Highly pure clay is baked at over 1200℃ for about two weeks, and the inside is coated with wax, and if it is not buried in the ground, the outside is sometimes coated with cement.
Wine production in Qvevri was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013.