Saperavi
Kakheti, Georgia
Georgia's leading red grape: a teinturier, so red-fleshed and inky, with very high acid and firm tannins.
Sensory profile
Characteristics
Flavor & aroma
At a glance
Production facts
Prevalence
Niche
Climate
Moderate climate
Ripening
Late season
Wine styles
Still
Where it's grown
Geography
Shaded areas are the state, province or département(s) containing each region, so they run wider than the appellations themselves.
Georgia
Background
Origin & History
Saperavi means "dye" in Georgian. It is a teinturier, a grape with red flesh as well as skin, and makes some of the darkest wines in the world, with high acidity and firm tannins that let it age for decades. Most of it grows in Kakheti, in eastern Georgia.
Georgia has one of the oldest wine traditions known, and much of its wine is still fermented and aged in buried clay vessels called qvevri, a method inscribed by UNESCO in 2013.
Lineage
Family tree
Parentage not recorded — Saperavi is an old variety of unknown origin.
No crossings involving Saperavi are documented in the collection yet.