Five years ago archeologists digging in a Georgian village south of Tbilisi unearthed pottery shards from 6000 BC with residues of wine, making it the oldest known wine producing region in the world. The ancient tradition here for both white and red wines is macerating the juice with the skins and seeds for relatively long periods of time in large clay amphoras called qvevri. For wines made from white grapes, the long maceration lends an amber hue. We call them orange or skin-contact wines, but from Georgia they’re more properly referred to as amber wines. Ocho is named after the pre-christian Georgian spirit of the natural world. Farming is organic. 'Who ru?' is 70% Rkatsiteli and 30% Mtsvane, two popular white Georgian varieties, macerated for six months in qvevri. The wine is (light) amber in the glass. Mature orchard fruits, herbs, and a resinous note on the nose, with noticeable grip (tannin) in the mouth. It’s excellent with Turkish and Persian dishes, including pilafs and smoked eggplant.
