Georgia: Cradle of Winemaking

[Craig Camp]

Tucked into the volatile southern Caucasus, it's where viticulture supposedly was born. It's where Georgians still stomp grapes with their bare feet after thousands of years, and every other home proudly ferments its own juice.

[cdh]

Have had caucasian brandy while living in Russia, but never had the chance to try the wine it comes from. The brandy was actually quite nice.

I wonder if the ubiquitous "sovyetskoye shampanskoye" was a Georgian product... I seem to recall it being Ukranian, but maybe that is just my memory being flaky.

Edited January 16, 2004 by cdh (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

Oddly, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles (Torrance, to be exact) there is a German Village which purports to sell German food and ingredients.

What is odd is that while their beer selection is pretty heavily German, their wine selection is predominantly on the Georgian side (they also have an amazing Austrian sparkling that I miss buying).

I tried a few of the Georgian wines (names no longer remembered), but I found them quite bad, truthfully. Not even "just okay" but downright un-drinkably bad. Maybe it was storage and maybe we can get someone in L.A. to re-visit it.