Iago Chinuri 2024

Written By Campbell Mattinson

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.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, founder of The Winefront and mattinson, and former chief editor of Halliday.

When you pick up a wine book and see thousands of top-scoring wines, it’s hard to know which wine to choose. Mattinson guides you through this maze, giving you an honest view of the best Australian wines, the best wine stories, the best wine producers, the best value wines and simply, the best tasting wines. Importantly, Mattinson will tell you about the top-rated wines and also about the underrated wines. In short, Mattinson knows Australian wines inside and out.

Mattinson has been a photo-journalist since 1987. For the past 25 years he’s been a voice that you can trust when you’re looking for the best wines. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award, and is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter. He’s not afraid to put a score beside a wine. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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