If Sarah Abbott MW has her way, Saperavi will soon be as familiar a grape as Shiraz. “It makes soulful tasting wines”, she says.  Saperavi is Georgia’s hero grape variety. One of only a handful of grapes world-wide with highly-pigmented red flesh as well as skins, the name translates as ‘to dye’. Saperavi is the perfect flagship grape for a country which has 525 indigenous varieties catalogued.

Jani was very nearly lost to the phylloxera outbreak of the late 19th century. How appropriate that the name ‘Jani’ means ‘powerful’ – because it took great power and determination to bring this grape back from the brink of extinction.

If Rkatsiteli is the white grape of eastern Georgia, then Tsolikouri is the white grape of western Georgia. Pronounced sol-li-kori, Tsolikouri is planted throughout Imereti. The region is packed with small producers producing traditional-Georgian-style wines, with the result that some of the country’s most exciting grape varieties are found in this area – including Tsolikouri.

Chkhaveri is a rare but fascinating grape. It was originally a “maghlari” vine, trained to grow up trees, and was described in Ampelography of Georgia as ‘light and pleasant’. Published in 1960, this book is considered one of the most influential books in Georgian winemaking – though nowadays winemakers think such an interpretation of Chkhaveri is not sufficient.

With short bursts of sunlight in London, thoughts turn to spring/summer- the delicious lighter foods and drinks we can enjoy in the sunshine. Dzelshavi is fondly referred to by many Georgian Wine aficionados as a ‘summer wine’. That’s because the wines produced by this thin-skinned grape are light, fresh and lively.