VINE
PONTO
The Spirit of Georgia LLC (the SG Winery) was
incorporated in 2014, with its facility based in Telavi,
Kakheti, the winemaking heart of Georgia. The
company’s mission is to preserve and develop the
traditional methods of Georgian winemaking, to
enrich it with western experience, to promote
Georgia as the Vine Zero Point and to secure its
notable place in the world winemaking.
The company produces a high-quality wine,
expands its production by introducing new varietals
year after year, but also works on various
experiments and plans to offer new unique flavor
combinations to the Georgian and foreign markets.
WINES
As of now the company produces six vine varieties
under the brand name Vine Ponto. These are: Kisi,
Mtsvane, Rkatsiteli, Khikhvi, Saperavi and
Mukuzani. Annual production reaches 50K bottles
of Vine Ponto premium quality wines
PRODUCTION FACILITY AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS
Nowadays the company owns four wine cellars, two of which are Kvevris cellars, the third is for oak barrels and the fourth is for wine aging. 41 Kvevris are placed in cellars with totally capacity of 80 tons. The cellars for barrels and wine aging are placed underground and because of this
naturally cool location wine quality is controlled and matured perfectly.
Wine is made in Kvevri, the traditional Georgian clay vessel buried in the ground. It stays in Kvevri together with its own grapes and skin for six months from September till March. In March the Kvevri is opened, wine is moved to Seguin Moreau oak barrels for further aging, where the maturing process continues for next 9-14 months. As the main purpose is to produce premium class Kvevri wines, Vine Ponto enters the market in
1.5-2 years after harvesting.
It’s worth mentioning that the company totally avoids artificial technological intervention usually applied for accelerating the process of wine maturing. The company just gives the wine the way to mature by it’s own.
Thanks to our approach for production and quality, our wine gained recognition on local as well as international wine competitions. All of our wines received awards and honored certificates.
GEORGIAN WINE MAKING TRADITIONS
At this moment the company operates under one brand name
Vine Ponto. Vine Ponto stems from Vine Zero Point and means
the very start point, the initial place of the wine, as Georgia
represents the birth place of wine-making, also evidenced by
latest archeological and biological researches and is already
recognized worldwide.
Georgian witnessed the first harvest as early as 6000 BC. Since
then Georgians have been nurturing and developing winemaking art and culture. For centuries wine was made in unique clay vessels called Kvevri, buried in the ground, that guaranteed the same temperature throughout the year.
With no analogue in the world, Georgian Kvevri is recognized
by UNESCO as a cultural heritage. Over the years the
viticulture became the roots of Georgian nation and the wine
became the blood, and preserving the vine is now equivalent of
preserving the national dignity of the country Georgia.
VINEYARDS AND SOME TECHNOLOGICAL STEPS
The company believes that at least 70% of wine is
made in vineyard and accordingly lots of energy is spent
to control every step in vineyard. Our grapes comes
from different areas of Kakheti region. Kisi variety is
collected in Maghraani village, Mtsvane comes from
Akhmeta city, Rkatsiteli from Tsinandali microzone,
Saperavi from Napareuli and Mukuzani comes from
Mukuzani village.
In early August every vineyard goes through a so called
“Green Harvest”, a crop thinning method during which
unripe green clusters of grapes are dropped from the
vine to decrease the crop yields and improve the flavor
concentration of the remaining grape bunches. After the
green harvest the quality of the grape improves as
numerous mature flavor compounds develop in the
process.
When every component of grape is fully met and viticulturist approves readiness of collection, the stage of excitement and happiness is reached and the real harvest starts. The grape is collected by hand in a special grape boxes, maximum weight per box is 12-15kg. The grape is transported by the company’s own vehicles. Before pressing, the grape is selected by hand at the grape sorting table. Through the pipe the gently pressed grapes goes to Kvevri for fermentation. As soon as the wine is fully fermented the Kvevri is closed and the wine is kept
there for six months.
