Saperavi etc – from Georgia etc

Here are notes on a handful of current releases tasted last month from a most interesting Georgian winery, Pheasant's Tears, run by American artist Jonathan Wurdeman, whose story was outlined in Georgia undaunted (to the immediate right of the street scene in the middle of the article). I have also added notes on a most impressive non-Georgian Saperavi.

None of these wines have seen oak. Instead, according to Georgia's 8,000-year-old tradition, they are fermented and aged in qvevri, clay amphorae lined with 'organic beeswax' and buried in the ground (the picture shows the wax being applied before installation). See...