rosha
Rosha began in 2015 as a small “wine lab” in a family cellar in Akura, a village in Kakheti’s Alazani Valley. What started as an experiment gradually found an audience, and in 2017 the founders established Rosha as a winery.
That same year, winemaker Tengo joined the project. Raised in nearby Kvareli, he studied winemaking in Tbilisi before working at several established Kakhetian wineries. He also spent time studying and working in France, Italy and Spain, gaining experience with different approaches to viticulture and winemaking.
Rather than owning vineyards, Rosha works with growers across Kakheti, sourcing grapes from Manavi, Akura, Kvareli and Napareuli. Among these sites are Rkatsiteli vines planted in 1974 in Kvareli, at 650 meters elevation, on well-drained, stony alluvial soils. Vineyard management includes returning prunings and other organic matter to the soil, growing cover crops between the rows and harvesting by hand.
In the cellar, the wines are fermented and aged in traditional qvevri, with skin contact for the whites ranging from several weeks to months. Although Rosha has grown beyond its early experiments, it remains rooted in the same hands-on approach: working closely with local growers, exploring the character of Kakheti’s native grapes and allowing each fermentation to develop at its own pace.
