IAGO’S WINERY
Iago Bitarishvili grew up drinking the wine his family made for their own table in Chardakhi, a village in Kartli’s historic Mukhrani Valley. In 1998, he converted the family vineyards to organic farming, and in 2003 began bottling wine under his own name. He was among the first Georgian growers to turn traditional household winemaking into a full-time livelihood, helping bring the country’s small, family-run cellars to a wider audience.
His work centers on Chinuri, Kartli’s native white grape. The family’s two hectares of vines were planted in 1964 on clay and limestone soils and remain the foundation of his small production. Chinuri ripens late and retains its acidity, giving the wines freshness even after extended skin contact.
Iago makes two expressions of Chinuri: a white wine pressed without skin maceration and an amber wine fermented and aged on its skins for several months, depending on the vintage. The amber combines floral aromas, fruit and spice with a distinctive savory, briny character.
Both wines are made in the family’s marani, or traditional Georgian cellar, using buried qvevri ranging from 150 to 3,000 liters, some of which have been in use for centuries. Fermentations begin spontaneously with indigenous yeasts, following the methods Iago learned growing up. He became Georgia’s first certified organic winegrower and helped establish the country’s Natural Wine Association. Despite his influence on the revival of traditional Georgian winemaking, his own work remains firmly rooted in Chinuri and the family vineyard in Chardakhi.
