Iberieli’s own website leads with this statement: “Back to the basics and restart winemaking.” Slight translation quirk aside, the sentiment is clear: Iberieli wines are made simply, without fuss or modern interventions, just as nature intended. Even the name Iberieli itself (which was chosen by founder/winemaker Zurab Topuridze’s children) is a reference to the ancient people of the Caucasus who made wine in this area and are believed to have invented qvevri winemaking several thousand years ago. Back to the basics, indeed.
Lest any of that might lead you to believe these wines could be clumsily wild or remotely unhewn, rest assured that Zurab and his family are some of the most exacting, fastidious winemakers we’ve come across, and these are some of the most exciting, true-to-their-origin wines we have the pleasure of importing.
Listen to founder and winemaker Zurab Topuridze describe natural wine:
Winemaker
Zurab Topuridze
Zurab Topuridze is a kind, calm, family man with a caricature-like friendly face that matches his warmth on the inside. He is deeply respectful of his large family and small team of workers who loyally mirror his meticulous production methods. Zurab is Iberieli Wine Cellar’s founder and winemaker as well as a cofounder of Georgia’s Natural Wine Association. He is legendary across Georgia and deeply respected as a winemaker around the world, widely considered one of Georgia’s finest natural winemakers, crafting beloved wines that are extensively exported and consistently sell out. His pioneering efforts are also credited with bringing the Guria region’s ancient Chkhaveri variety back from near extinction to the cherished position of prominence and respect it enjoys today.
Vineyards & Varieties
Iberieli Wine Cellar has organically farmed vineyards and wineries in two locations in Georgia. Two hectares are planted in the west Georgian region of Guria, a lush, green, exceptionally scenic semitropical terrain; 5.5 hectares of vines are in the heart of Georgia’s prime eastern winegrowing region, Kakheti, at around 480 meters elevation (~1,600 feet) on gently sloping hillsides of sandy clay loam with river stones.
Iberieli Wine Cellar grows and crafts wines from the native Georgian varieties Saperavi, Rkatsiteli, Khikhvi, Mtsvane, Kisi and Chkhaveri, the last of which Zurab helped usher back to prominence in its home region of Guria.
Sustainability
Zurab co-founded and literally helped write the sustainability criteria for Georgia’s Natural Wine Association; invariably, Iberieli now follows those guidelines to a tee. Those regulations include building and maintaining vineyards in accordance with ecological requirements so as to create a self-sustaining eco-system within the vineyard, prohibiting the use of any methods or means that can essentially alter a wine’s natural organoleptic properties, recognizing the priority role of terroir in the wine product process, and using labels truthfully while fully reflecting the wine’s origin. Iberieli is fully organic, irrigates minimally and only in drought years, ferments with only native yeast, focuses on qvevri winemaking, never fines or filters, and uses absolutely minimal sulfur to ensure product integrity and stability.