Parentage — Ancient Georgian variety; the name means 'dye'
blackberry
sour plum
black cherry
liquorice
sweet spice
Budbreak
Mid-late
Maturity
Late; end of September into October in Kakheti
Leaf
Medium to large, orbicular, three to five lobes; whitish felted underside
Bunch
Medium, conical, winged, moderately loose
Berry
Medium, oval, blue-black; dark-tinted flesh — a true teinturier
Saperavi is Georgia's great black grape, and its name means "dye": a teinturier, one of the rare varieties whose flesh as well as skin is dark, giving wines of near-opaque colour. It is heir to the world's oldest continuous winemaking tradition — residues on potsherds from Gadachrili Gora date wine in Georgia to some 8,000 years ago.
Its natural vessel is the qvevri, the beeswax-lined clay jar buried to the neck, in which the grapes ferment and rest — a method inscribed by UNESCO in 2013. The wine is black-fruited and firm — blackberry, sour plum, liquorice — with a freshness of acidity unusual in so dark a grape, and it ages magnificently, in Kakheti above all.
In the blend
Share of this grape in a typical blend of each wine