Georgia on my mind

Our quest for #armchairadventures picked out a latitude and longitude at random, that landed us deep in the Caucasus region.  So we #virtualtravel off to Georgia. Georgia lies on the black sea between Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan and Russia.  It has the highest damn in the world, the largest national park in Europe, hot springs, and a fascinating tradition of dance.  What it lacks is direct flights from the UK and that's where armchair travel comes in handy.  
​Known as the birthplace of wine, with over 7000 years of viticultural history, it reputedly also gave us the word wine (from the Georgian word gvino, and the tradition of toasting, which is a key feature of the supra, or Georgian banquet. 

Chateau Mukhrani Saperavi £9.50 13.5% abv from M&S along with our attempt to replicate a Georgian banquet for 2

There are no Georgian grocery stores in the Royal Borough, so we had to improvise our own banquet for 2, with stuffed vine leaves, hummus and unleavened breads, cured meats and cheeses, nuts, barbecued kebabs and whatever else looked remotely suitable from our fridge and larder.  This made for a very fun Wednesday night, but perhaps laid out a challenge for the wine I'd selected. 
Marks and Spencer do have a number of white wines from the region, but you'll find the widest selection at the Georgian Wine Society.  I recommend trying a Kindzmarauli if you like a little residual sweetness in your red. This was not the first time we've tried a Saperavi wine from Georgia.  Our first attempt was on a somewhat rainy night in, and this time was equally wet. 

If you want to learn more about Georgian food and wine culture, you could read this wiki article, or watch this fascinating youtube documentary which was our education for the evening. See if you can keep up with the toasts...

The Chateau Mukhrani Saperavi (£9.50 from Marks and Spencer) has a really spicy nose with black fruits that carries through on the mid to full body.

It's an ancient grape variety, whose name translates as dye, referring to it's deep and dark colouring. Great examples from fine regions can age for up to 50 years. While decent, this is more of a "drink now" style.

Mr Purple Teeth was impressed by how well it matched with a variety of foods. Matching a banquet is not always easy, especially when some dishes have high seasoning.  He described how it coated his mouth with a dark fruited tingle, a peppery spice that creates a long finish of sweeter spice. Maybe a slightly waxy texture?

For me, this was a dark, medium bodied, smooth red.  The mid palate to finish was where all the interest lay. Medium tannin and good juicy acidity meant it felt really well balanced, almost polished. Blackberry  and nutmeg were the key flavours for me. Maybe there was some cumin though this could have been from the hummus.  It went down a treat with the wide range of flavours, and for this price, Mr Purple Teeth would have happily swapped it for several Shiraz wines.  
​
Rating: Buy Again

There is a small amount of sediment in the bottle so stand the bottle for a few hours out of the wine rack and pour the last glass carefully or decant, should you buy some. 

​The trip ago Tbilisi and beyond, from the comfort of our sofa was one of the most enjoyable virtual travel dates so far.  Give Georgian wine a try. It might surprise you.

Cheers!