Iago Chinuri 2023

Iago Chinuri 2023
13% alcohol, cork, Kartli/Georgia.

This chinuri – made by benchmark Georgian producer Iago Bitarishvili – spent seven months on skins in (buried) qvevri. Iago customarily ages his chinuri on skins for 5-6 months but he deemed that 2023 required longer. It was grown and made organically.

It’s a full amber colour without being dark or cola-like. It’s wild with orange rind, honey, peach, spice and stone characters, and shows some positive reduction. It’s also meaty, peaty, and smoky, though it gets fresher and (the palate extends) longer as it rests in the glass. I tasted this alongside Iago’s no-skin-contact 2024 Chinuri, and if following the script I’d have this amber release from 2023 ahead of that wine. But I didn’t; I preferred the release sans skin contact, courtesy of its sheer intensity of flavour, which I suspect is a vintage thing. That said, I still scribbled 93-94 points beside this wine, so I still think that the quality of this 2023 Iago Chinuri is exemplary.