Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/133302
PHOTO: MAX JACOBSON Making tonepuri bread in a traditional Georgian clay oven. On another day, I visit Bagrationi, the country's leading producer of sparkling wines, in a cellar founded in 1882. Production slipped and nearly ground to a halt toward the end of the Soviet era, but today, the winery has been completely modernized with German and Italian equipment and is back at full steam, exporting to nearly a dozen countries. Bagrationi's portfolio includes eleven different labels, a top offering being the Royal Cuvée, which has a nice creaminess and tiny mousse, made with Chinari grapes using the traditional méthode champenoise. Bagrationi Rouge is a semi-sweet wine popular in Russia and Ukraine, made using the Charmat method. Much of Georgia's wine production is in this West Virginia–sized country's far western region of Kakheti, where Pheasant's Tears is located, in the picturesque wine town called Sighnaghi. Most Americans visiting Georgia make a pilgrimage here and stop in at Wurdeman's wine bar, restaurant and souvenir shop. The food is imaginative, but the nibbles usually include a local cheese plate, the Georgian sausage known as kupati and churchkhela, a candy made by dipping a long string of walnuts in grape paste. Other must-see tourist attractions in this region are a visit to Khareba, a winery with an interesting wine museum carved into a tunnel in the Caucasus and a wonderful restaurant with a view of the scenic Telani Valley, and also Ikalto Monastery, a 16thcentury stone monastery and wine academy. A visit to Georgia is fascinating, thanks to remarkably friendly people, a cuisine that is both exotic and sophisticated, and a treasure house of wines that few people in the Bagrationi Royal Cuvée is West get to taste. I'm already made using the traditional hankering to go back. méthode champanoise. Georgian Wine . . . Here and There All of the wines mentioned in the story are available in the United States through one or more of the importers listed below: Georgian Wine House www.georgianwinehouse.com Pacific Wine Marketing Group www.pacificwinemg.com Terrell Wines www.terrellwines.com Williams Corner www.williamscorner.com Wine tours of Georgia can be arranged through Pheasant's Tears & Living Roots, 18 Baratashvili St., Sighnaghi, Georgia. +995 5999534484; www.pheasantstears.com. The best connection to Tbilisi is on Turkish Airlines from Istanbul. TP0613_080-119.indd 97 5/23/13 5:30 PM