Medium amber color; dried stone fruits, apricot, flowers on the nose and palate.
Dry; mild tannins and some acidity. medium body. This is qvevri-made wine from the Alazani Valley of Georgia. The wine is made in clay vessels buried up to near the top. The white wine is in contact with the skins for six months—in most white wines, the contact is only hours or a few days. This produces the distinctive amber color—sometimes called “orange” wine, but many makers now take significant umbrage at that designation. The color is amber, not orange, and the wine is made with grapes, not oranges. 12.5% ABV
This is Twins Wine House’s premium effort. The term “tavankara” means “pure” in Georgia. The wine is 100% filtered for clarity and purity—a step not taken in all qvevri-made amber wines. Twins Wine House in Napareuli is a family-owned business by twin brothers Gia and Gela Gamtkitsulashvili. The brothers rehabilitated the family operation and started commercial production in 1997. The winery is located in the Nafareul village of the Telavi district in the Kakheti region of Georgia. By general consensus today, Georgia is the birthplace of wine production more than 8,000 years ago.
The winery has 135 qvevris. The smallest is just over 13 gallons, while the largest is five tons. The Tavankara wines are the highest level of the Twins Wine House production. They are made in unique qvevris, as the website explains: “The making of Tavankara was made easier by the unique, transparent qvevris of the Twins Wine House, which allows us to examine each stage of wine production well and properly. These qvevris are the product of great knowledge and experience, protected by intellectual property.”
Expect your palate to be challenged. This is much richer and full in your mouth than your usual experience with white wine. Well, this is not white wine. Amber wine is wine made using white grapes using the techniques of red wine. It is made in qvevris—clay jars, not stainless steel, not concrete eggs, not oak barrels. Your reaction easily can be “I’ve never tasted anything quite like this before.” Yep, that is how it goes. It is wine that tastes much closer to the way wine tasted at the beginning of civilization. Well worth finding and trying.
Twins Wine House Tavankara is an amber wine, meaning a white wine made like a red wine with extended skin contact. This is the premier product of a premier maker in Georgia—the country, not the U.S. state. Likely where wine as first made at least 8,000 years ago. Made using the qvevris method, which also dates back thousands of years. So this wine does not track with your normal expectations about a wine. You may enjoy, you may be jolted, you definitely will be taken out of your wine comfort zone. Can be enjoyed as a unique-unusual experience all on its own. Pair with lean fish; chicken; mushrooms; vegetarian fare. Cheese—hard and semi-hard cheeses; manchego, gruyère, parmesan, comté, grilled halloumi, feta, raw milk cheeses, double-cream cheeses. $15
