Iago Chinuri 2024

Iago Chinuri 2024
12.5% alcohol, cork, Kartli/Georgia.

This chinuri – made by benchmark Georgian producer Iago Bitarishvili – did not spend time on skins but was of course fermented and matured in (buried) qvevri.

The first thing you notice is the intensity of the fruit itself, which is well above the norm. This gives the wine real presence, and no doubt helps with the wine’s eventual length, which is noteworthy. Normally, when I use the word “layers” I’m referring to flavours; this though is a wine with layers of texture. As this wine breathes the grape flavours themselves markedly but not in a tutti fruity way; indeed nothing like it. This wine had me thinking of crushed rocks, flowers and salts, vanilla pods and brioche. In short it’s a wine of elegance, intensity and mouthfeel, the latter a world in itself.

2024 is an excellent vintage in Kartli, and it’s on display here.