Successful Experiments with Chardonnay

Chardonnay is French white grape vine variety and one of the first foreign grape varieties to be introduced in Georgia in the 19th century. At first, due to its low harvest, it was not widespread, but from the beginning of the 20th century Georgian specialists were showing more interest and by the 1930s we could find Chardonnay in Mtskheta, Kaspi, Kharagauli, Zestaponi, Bagdati, Gori and Aspindza regions.

Chardonnay has been crossbred with Imeretian grape varieties, bred as a hybrid marked by high productivity and early ripeness. Chardonnay is now most commonly grown in Upper Imereti. Chardonnay vine varieties also passed tests in western Georgia to be grown on Digomi and Vatchevi farms and in fact, the regional climate and soil conditions of Kakheti turned out to be the best to get high-quality wine products.

Among the positive sides of Chardonnay, aside from the high dignity of the production is its high ability of endurance to powdery mildew, frost and drought. As researchers have noted, Chardonnay cannot stand phylloxera, so for propagation of the vine it is necessary to graft it with properly selected phylloxera-resistant rootstock. Studies found that in Georgian conditions, Chardonnay was best used as a material for improvement to make high-quality champagne.

Nowadays, wine companies in Kakheti have numerous vineyards planted with Chardonnay and Schuchmann Wine Georgia has planted four hectares of high quality Chardonnay vineyards. From the bulk wine of the Chardonnay vineyard we produce the sparkling wines traditionally used in champagne bottle technology.

Wine production and technologies are developing annually, and as such the customer is always waiting for news. Aiming to create new products, namely to produce fortified dessert Kagor type wine, “Kavkasioni,” from the Chardonnay grape variety, which ideally should be 16% alcohol 16% sugar, we made the following tests.

The major principle lays in the fact that in the production method we used the grape stone, enriching the wine with nutritional and taste qualities. The grape was harvested with 22-23% sugar content and was processed in two different ways.

Option 1: we put the grape in the shaft peeling and pressing machine, after which we heated the crush to 70-80 Celsius over 24 hours, at the same time mixing it. After this we brought the crush to boiling temperature, the grape stones were added to the chilled crush (250 g/l -dal) after which we added yeast to the crush whereby it was heated at 20-22 C0. On the 14th day of fermentation, when the sugar content came down to 18%, we mixed it with alcohol, as a result of which alcohol formation stopped. As soon as formation was stopped, we pressed the crush and the wine-material was placed on a low heat. The sediment was then removed, leaving the content with alcohol and sugar making up 16%.

Option 2: Gross undamaged grapes were placed in a wooden barrel, pure yeast culture was added and locked hermetically, thus the fermentation began under C 2. Over the barrel was placed a C 2 output pipe, for removing C 2, we observed the fermentation from the surveillance tube. As in Option 1, when the residual sugar composition came down to 18% we mixed it with alcohol, as a result of which the fermentation stopped. The crush was pressed and the wine-material placed on a low heat. In both options we used 96% wheat alcohol, that for two weeks was placed and staid on the chardonnay dried grape stone.

In both options, the obtained product is characterized with high nutrition value. The product obtained through the study is a fortified category dessert wine that is distinguished with a dark straw color and taste. Further, in the obtained product the composition of phenolic compounds is high, about ten times the phenolic compounds in white wines produced through the European method.

It is further characterized by a high-extract and moderate content of tannins, is naturally stable and sophisticated, and has a great potential for aging. Our experiment was a success! As a result a high-quality wine has been created that is rich in its physical and chemical characteristics.

In 2016 Schuchmann plans to produce a large amount of such wine and put it into regular production. In the first year we will offer our new product to Georgian customers, and in future we plan to export.

Roland Burdiashvili is a Doctoral Student of the Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University and Production Director of “Schuchmann Wine Georgia” LLC

Roland Burdiashvili