white grape · regional staple
Rkatsiteli
Kakheti, Georgia
Say it
r·kat·see·teh·lee
The opening 'rk-' consonant cluster is genuine Georgian; the 'ts' is a single phoneme, not two separate sounds — the trickiest part for English speakers.
On the palate
green applequincewhite peachlemonchamomilehoney
How you spot it blind: Persistent high acidity that holds at full ripeness; Georgia's qvevri amber-wine cornerstone
The story
First written down · 1st century AD, Kakheti, Georgia
By 1978 Rkatsiteli accounted for 18% of all Soviet wine production, then Gorbachev's 1985 anti-alcohol campaign triggered mass vine-pulls that erased vast plantings across the USSR in under a decade.
Where it lives
Kakheti (Georgia) · Russia · Bulgaria · Moldova · Ukraine · Finger Lakes (New York)
Shows up as
still whiteorangesweetfortifiedKardenakhi
If you like this, try
Also answers to Rhakatsiteli.
Shop our Rkatsiteli bottles