“I was interested in a different profession, I didn’t want to study at faculties that are popular. That’s how I discovered winemaking and I fell in love with it so much that I made it my main profession and one of my sources of income,” says Tamar Khvedelidze, co-founder of Orta.
She recalls with a smile that she had never even seen a Rtveli before she enrolled in winemaking. She had to go to Kakheti on an exchange program from the Agricultural University — students were distributed to different factories to better learn about winemaking. It was here that she first attended a Rtveli and met her future husband.
They got married in August 2016, and in September they had their first joint harvest. She says they had to sell all the grapes and only kept a certain part for their family, so that they could make wine.
“Then we said, we have so much grapes, why are we selling them, why don’t we do something ourselves?! My husband is also a winemaker by profession, and at that time the idea of making our own cellar came up. He had always wanted a small family cellar. The following year, in 2017, we had our first harvest, pressed it, and bottled it.”
At first, they used a few Kvevris left by a grandfather for wine, and gradually, with their own hands, they built a wine cellar, purchased the necessary equipment, made a label, participate in exhibitions, and, in addition to being represented on the local market, have already tried to export wine. Tamar says that in this process, grants from Produce in Georgia and then from GIZ were of great help, with the help of which they purchased cisterns.
“Now we have a separate cellar, with 6 small Kvevris, several cisterns, and we manage to process our entire vineyard ourselves. Some of it goes into Kvevris, but we also do it using classical technology, meaning we remove the Chacha during the pressing process and only ferment the sweet wine. That is why we have both Kvevri wine and classical wines .”
When we asked Tamar to tell us about her day, she jokingly told us that she to take care of two “I’m hungry, I’m hungry-s” when she wakes up. She is now expecting her third child. After breakfast, it’s time for housework — as a rule, village houses are two-story, with 8-10 rooms, and in addition to cleaning them and preparing food, there is a huge yard, vegetable garden, and cellar. Hazelnuts, walnuts, apples, pears, plums, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, herbs — this is a small list of the fruits and vegetables that the family grows for personal consumption.
“It’s like when a mother is asked, ‘why is your child better than others?’… Everyone loves their own wine, everyone thinks their own wine is special, but we really put our whole soul and heart into it.”
At the same time, she works full-time, remotely. She says that a remote job makes her work easier, because she has two children to look after during the day, and if she had to go to the office every day, it would be much harder. Now she can work, take care of the children, and she doesn’t have to take time off from work often.
As she says, at the end of August, the fuss will begin — the preparation for the harvest. This includes washing equipment, sterilizing, etc. Then the grape picking begins. As a rule, the Zhghia ripens first and is the first to be picked, from which rosé is then made. As Tamar explains, Zhghia is one of the rarest varieties and is usually mixed here and there in old vineyards. The husband and wife go out to pick the grapes early in the morning, at 05:00 or 06:00, and, as a rule, they finish the work late at night. Soon after, the green grapes begin to be picked, and finally the Rkatsiteli, which makes up about 70% of their vineyards.
“I probably wouldn’t have been able to do all this alone… We try to do everything together. You should see what happens here in September… There have been cases where my children have gone to bed and then we had other things to do until one or two o’clock in the morning. There’s no other way, you can’t physically keep up. When so many grapes are harvested, processing them, then sorting them into appropriate containers, especially with classical technology, it’s quite difficult to extract the juice separately in family conditions. We don’t have a pneumatic press, which is mainly used by large factories and can easily manage this process. We need time. It’s autumn, it’s still hot, the wines are already starting to ferment the next day, and if everything is not in order, everything here will be full of aphids, which will then directly affect the wine. Therefore, to avoid this, everything has to happen on the same day, which is quite difficult.”
We asked about when she takes a break.
“When we sow, we rest until the harvest comes… we rest, because you have to weed the grass, harrow it, and until that period comes, we rest… 2-3 days,” she ends the sentence with a laugh, then adds that November-December is relatively mild, “when the wines are already fermented, stored, and ready, and we can be at peace until spring, both the wines and us.”
“When I’m curious about something, I think, who should I ask, and of course it’s women… there’s no way that out of 20-30 women, someone won’t know something or recommend something to you, which is quite a power.”
The wine cellar was named Orta for several reasons: first of all, they wanted it to be simple and accessible to both Georgian and foreign consumers. In addition, the name had to have a specific meaning. In the end, they came up with Orta by combining the initials of the husband and wife, which also indicates (in Georgian) that the cellar belongs to two people.
Interested people can find Orta in the village of Shalauri, Telavi Municipality. The cellar can also be found on Google Maps. The cellar offers its customers training and tasting, wine history, introduction to Kvevri, etc. In the future, they plan to add a vodka distillery to this list, and they also want to create a wine cellar where wines can be stored and preserved better.
In parallel with current affairs, they also participate in trainings and exhibitions. As Tamar says, she manages to do this with the help of the association, Women in the Wine Industry.
“Information is exchanged daily. When I’m curious about something, I think, who should I ask, and of course it’s women… there’s no way that out of 20-30 women, someone won’t know something or recommend something to you, which is quite a power.”
We asked Tamar what makes her wine different, to which she replied: “It’s like when a mother is asked, “why is your child better than others?”
“Everyone loves their own wine, everyone thinks their own wine is special, but we really put our whole soul and heart into it. My husband doesn’t set his foot out of the vineyard all year, and then we finish it up here in September, we care for this wine for months.”
“When they see a female winemaker, they shouldn’t be afraid that it will be bad wine. Try it first and then judge us.”
Tamar thinks that wine from small wineries should be exported mostly to the West, because that’s where they pay for quality. Countries that are looking for low-quality, cheap wine are not suitable for small wineries. She also says that the current situation in the country is also affecting the wine industry, and Western grants are of great importance for small wineries.
We also asked about gender stereotypes. She notes that years ago, society was more surprised to see women winemakers, but over the years, attitudes have changed, and now there are so many women winemakers that it’s no longer surprising — “it’s the opposite, when you say you’re a winemaker, they say, ‘wow, that’s cool,’ and not, ‘what do you want there?'” Despite this, she still notices a distrust, which is unpleasant.
“There is still a certain level of distrust towards women, they look at us with a little suspicion. It would be good if others would show us more trust. When they see a female winemaker, they shouldn’t be afraid that the wine will be bad. Try it first and then judge us.”