Iago Bitarishvili’s Chinuri in Wine List of London’s Ritz

The iconic London Ritz Hotel has recently updated its Le Livre de Vin, or wine list, which now for the first time includes Georgian Orange Wine, the 2013 Iago Bitarishvili Chardakhi Chinuri.

Chinuri is available by the bottle as well as the glass. A 125 ml glass of Chinuri at the Ritz is priced at £14 (around 50 GEL.) The price for a bottle? £65, or around 230 GEL.

After being asked whether the Ritz’s clientele were ready to experience such unconventional wines as the Georgian orange wine, head sommelier Giovanni Ferlito said that he had been impressed by both the knowledge and the open-mindedness among British people about wine.

“For example with orange wine from Georgia, there are some producers in Georgia that do international grapes, but Chinuri is only from there,” Ferlito commented.

Iago’s is a boutique winery founded in 2003 by Iago Bitarishvili. Iago organically farms two hectares of vines which yield only around 2500 bottles per year. All the wine is fermented and aged in kvevri (a traditional Georgian earthenware vat for wine) using Chinuri, a grape variety indigenous to the Kartli region in central Georgia.

Iago's Chinuri was recently placed by American Vogue magazine at the top of Vogue's list of orange wines.

Ritz hotel London, which celebrates its 110th anniversary, has been the benchmark by which other hotels are measured since 1906.