Cecilia Amber Zurab Topuridze 2024

Cecilia Amber Zurab Topuridze, natural wine, light orange hue, short skin contact, savoury, hints of pine and quince, lovely sapidity, delicious easy drinking skin contact white.  Cecilia, named after Zurab’s daughter is a fantastically accessible skin contact white wine made from Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane grapes.  There is a golden hue, not too much skin contact so not a full on orange, nice balance, freshness, sapidity, some green fruits, pine, savoury hints, a lot going on and really good with lots of different food.

Zurab has been involved in vineyard farming and making natural wines since his childhood when he used to help his grandad. He was only 13 years old when he made his first natural wine on his own.

Today his winery is in the village of Dablatsikhe (English translation 'Lower Castle'), in the western part of Georgia, bordered by the Black Sea with subtropical coastal lowlands to the west and the mountains to the east. The region is famous for its polyphonic music, humorous people, and used to be well known for its delicious rose-hued wines.

When Zurab got married, he bought a small house in the village and sufficient land for viticulture. He makes natural wines in underground qvevris with a total capacity of around 13 tonnes (22 terracotta vessels in total). The vineyard itself is only four hectares, planted on the terraced slopes of the River Supsa valley, on reddish-brown clay soils with lots of magnesium and iron content.

His wines are absolutely charming.  The red is a very light example of the often hard work Saperavi grape.  The white/skin contact wines are completely drinkable examples of this style, again, lightness of touch characterises the wines.  These are Georgian wines for any occasion with any food and are both interesting and delicious to drink.