London hosted Qvevri Wine Festival on the 8th of November. The event was provided by the UK importers of Georgian wine. Guest of the festival had a chance to savor different types of Georgian wine. The wine tasting was accompanied with the show performed by the Georgian dancers.

London Qvevri Wine Festival, Photo courtesy: www.eventbrite.co.uk

The guests were able to purchase their favorite bottles of wine, Georgian delicate dishes, and souvenirs. What is more important, the festival was devoted to the traditional Georgian wine-making method Qvevri. Qvevri and the tradition of wine-making in Qvevri were inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Georgia registry in 2011. In 2013, UNESCO added the traditional Georgian method of making wine in Qvevris to its list of intangible cultural heritage.

Read more: Rituals related to wine-making in old Georgia

Qvevr is a large clay fermentation vessel, used for storing and aging traditional Georgian wine. The vessel is buried in the ground. The process of making wine in Qvevri involves pressing the grapes and then pouring the juice, grape skins, stalks and pips into the Qvevri. Georgia has revived this ancient method of wine-making dating back to the 6th millennium B.C. You can observe Qvevri in large wine cellars of almost every part of Georgia.

Georgian earthenware vessels Qvevris, Photo courtesy: www.cbw.ge

Georgia is the country where the earliest evidence of grape wine-making was found. Telltale chemical signs of wine in the pottery jars, discovered in two Neolithic villages (called Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora about 50km (30 miles) south of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia) dates back 5,980 BC. Previously, the earliest evidence of grape wine-making had been found in the Zagros Mountains of Iran and dated to 5,400-5,000 BC.

First photo courtesy: www.agenda.ge

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