SuperNatural Festival (now in Mtatsminda park) is one of the most fun wine events of the year! It’s a real party, and more focused on fun than professional tasting (go to Wine Expo for that) that said, there are lots of great winemakers in attendance, and a lot of wines to try! GT Vinea is a wine industry supplies store in Dighomi, and this was their second event, the selection of winemakers involved was really great!
Over the full day of 2 events I managed to taste 107 wines (including 2 ciders & 3 spirits) from 37 producers.
This was a big day, with 12 hours of wine tasting! I stopped writing notes by about 9:30pm, sorry to those who I tasted but did not get noted down.
The majority of wines were good or ok, mostly these do not get listed here unless some special reason for a mention.
I should be clear, that “good” really is good enough. These are wines you’d enjoy drinking. Getting a higher rating than “good” means producing a wine that stands out against all other wines tasted (above average), with better balance and relevant characteristics. It’s the better than good wines that made it on the list below, but plenty that didn’t are still good to try, but I can’t list everything :-)
Some wines were rated “poor” or “faulty”. These are wines that would not be recommended at all (poor wines) or had suffered from wine faults such as volatile acidity, TCA (cork taint), volatile sulfur compounds, etc. at a level to make the wines unpalatable.
Though we try to be as objective as possible in these assessments, some things should be taken into account:
- Blind tasting was not possible, so small biases may exist inadvertently.
- The tasting environment of a busy indoor and outdoor festival is not ideal and some factors affect the tasting:
- Environmental odors – from people walking around with coffee to strong perfume etc.
- Inconsistent lighting for assessing appearance and color. (This was less of an issue at GT Vinea of course)
- Full rinsing of glasses between every tasting was impractical, though we tried as best as possible.
- I normally say “show me your best wines” and not “I like red” so its normally likely that I get a disproportionate amount of better wines.
We tasted less than half of all vendors on offer.
We did not taste every wine from each vendor.
It should be noted that we mostly skipped wineries which we know to typically be consistently great from prior tastings, or because we already tasted them at previous festivals this year – you can read those reviews here:
Zero Compromise 2024 | New Wine Festival (Mtatsminda) 2024 | Wine Expo 2024
So, we may have missed some excellent wines. But from what we did taste, we hope you will enjoy discovering some of the below which we gave upper category ratings.
Ratings are based on Balance / Length / Intensity / Complexity and Style (ie. how they fit within the category of the style/intention of the wine). A “very good” rating would be made when 3 to 4 of these criteria have been met successfully. Some consideration is given to young wines that have the potential to arrive at this level in an expected timeframe of aging.
There are many more wine festivals coming soon, and we intend to publish our favorites for those too.
GT Vinea (ჯი-თი ვინეა) “Wine Saturday / ღვინის შაბათი” 29th June 2024
This event was a well curated selection of independent producers and the quality was very high! Some new discoveries, but also a lot of great producers who made it into other wine review articles this and last season (Including, not limited to: Agidela, Solomone, Napheri, Zodi, EnoOne etc.) who I did not taste again.
The venue GT Vinea (which is also a wine technology/equipment warehouse/supplier) plans to host a similar event every 2 months, with some variety in which wineries will be represented. I hope to be at the next one too as the selection was great. You can keep track of the events on the GT Vinea FB event page here.
Note my “personal top picks” were based on a more subjective bias of wine styles I love. But everything on the list in general I’ve rated as objectively as possible.
In order of which i did the tastings, not in order of preference. There are wines from some producers that made previous lists and I did not re-taste or re-list them here.
All wines below achieved “very good” or better or were on the cusp from good to very good and also deserved a mention.
- KE (Mukhrani)
- Muscat Pet-Nat Dry 2023 – Personal Top Pick (First wine of the day, first vintage by this winemaker, and really great.)
- Hamburg Muscat / White Muscat Rosé Semi-Sweet 2023
- Ulevari Valley Winery (Martkopi – Near Tbilisi/Lilo – Saperavi 2022 (Euro)
- Spring Fields
- Rkatsiteli-Muscat (Hybrid) Fortified 2022 – Personal Top Pick
- Rkatsiteli-Muscat Champagne Method (6 months lees) 2022
- Chateau Ateni (There are other wines they did not have open that may have made the list, which I’ve had before)
- Chinuri / Goruli Mtsvane / Budeshuri tetri Pet-Nat 2022
- “Atenuri” Chinuri / Goruli Mtsvane 2018 Dry (Euro)
- Barbales Marani (Tbilisi, not to be confused with Barbale in Bolnisi)
- Mtsvane Manavi Dry 2022 (Euro)
- Krakhuna Dry (Euro)
- Tsinandali 1986
- Cabernet Sauvignon (80%) / Saperavi (20%) Dry 2010 (7 years in old oak barrels) – Personal Top Pick
- Saperavi Carbonic Dry 2022
- Saperavi Dry 2016 (8 months oak)
- Saperavi Rosê Dry 2022
- Kindzmarauli Semi-Sweet 2022
- Solomonishvili (Telavi)
- Mtsvane Dry 2017
- “Thank You” Saperavi Mukhuzani 2020 – Personal Top Pick
- “We” Saperavi Dry 2020
- “1984” Saperavi Dry 2018
- Marbano (Bolnisi)
- Chinuri Qvevri Dry 2022
- Rkatsiteli Qvevri Dry 2019
- Aseretuli Shala Dry 2022 (fermented in oak vats)
- Saperavi Qvevri Dry 2022
- Saperavi “Legend” Dry 2020 (8 month oak)
- Saperavi Qvevri Dry 2018 (1 year oak) – Personal Top Pick
- Chala Briani
- Rkatsiteli / Mtsvane / Kisi / Buera Dry 2023 (Euro)
- Buera Qvevri Dry 2022
- Mukhuzani Wine Cellar
- Alexandrouli Qvevri Dry 2022 (grown in Mukhuzani)
- Pinot Noir Qvevri Dry 2021 (grown in Mukhuzani) – Personal To Pick – Note that this really is not like a typical pinot.
- Anto
- Saperavi Qvevri Dry 2023 (6 month oak)
- “Zakara” Cider. 13 types of apples, from Kartli.
- Khashmi Hills
- Mtsvane (Manavi) Qvevri Dry 2023
- Mtsvane (Manavi) / Rkatsiteli 2022
- Goldsmith – Smoked Chacha (Smoked on tsalami – vine branches – this crazy experiment combines the smokeyness of mezcal with the herbals of chacha. Super interesting.)
34 wines (including 1 cider and 1 spirit), from 13 wineries that made it into the higher category!
SuperNatural Wine Festival 29th June 2024
SuperNatural Wine Festival held at Mtatsminda Ezo Festival Space this year (and in 2023) is a natural wine focused event with a party vibe. Live music stage, lots of food producers, and an artsy maze of a space to explore and find secret wine corners. Definitely a fun event!
You can keep track of future events for 2025 and beyond on the main SuperNatural Facebook page.
In order of which i did the tastings, not in order of preference. There are wines from some producers that made previous lists and I did not re-taste or re-list them here. Note: This was event 2 of the day, and eventually I gave up writing down notes! I tasted maybe another 20 wines after I stopped making notes, so sorry to anyone who I tasted but are not listed here!
Special mention to Lomtadzeebis Marani, and Dzmebis Marani who kept me stocked for the later part of the night :-) And didn’t make the review section as i didn’t make notes, but have been listed and recommended in previous articles.
- K’Home (Kakheti) – Rkatsiteli Qvevri 2022 (more of their wines were tasted at Expo 2024)
- Samtvisi (Shida Kartli) – Goruli Mtsvane Carboni 2023 (more of their wines were tasted at Zero Compromise 2024. But actually not many as both times I had issue getting to taste many)
- Kolagis (Kakheti) – Cherry Liqueur (more of their wines were tasted at Zero Compromise 2024 & ZC 2023.)
- Amali (Zestafoni) – Ojaleshi Dry 2022 (3 days stems/skins)
- Tedzami – Goruli Mtsvane Pet-Nat 2022
- Baia’s Wines – Tsitska Qvevri 2023 (just bottled) (They are basically at most festivals, so I try 1 or 2 new wines each time – see most other past review articles)
- AreWine (Armenia/Areni) – Khazji Mskhati Dry 2022 (50% carbonic)
7 wines from 7 producers made the upper category!
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Thanks to The Amazing Winemakers!
Congratulations to all the amazing wineries that made it into our upper category ratings. As well as all the other amazing winemakers who continue to make the Georgian winemaking one of the most exciting and diverse in the world!
TOTAL: 41 wines from 20 producers made the upper category!
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