The kind of primacy that wine holds in Georgian culture can be derived from the name of one of the two wineries we are presenting today: Oda Family Winery. Located in the Samegrelo region of Western Georgia, and more specifically the town of Martvili, Oda is named after the structure in which it is housed; a Mingrelian ‘Oda’ is a specific kind of two-story house traditionally built on wooden piles to avoid first-floor flooding, often adorned with ornate front and back balconies, and a separate facility to house the family’s Qvevri where the household’s wine was stored. Keto Ninidze, the woman behind Oda Winery, moved here with her husband (Zaza) some years ago, trading in the life of a professional linguist in the capital of Tbilisi for something more pastoral and true to her spirit and filial heritage. She crafts gorgeously pure wines. We carry her Ojaleshi, a bottling that re-casts the possibilities of the Ojaleshi grape, a fruit that had been industrially farmed into semi-sweet barnyard oblivion under Soviet rule. In the years to come, she will produce wines from rare native grapes whose vines were very recently planted at Oda, like Koloshi and Ashugazhi.

Vinification: 100% Orbeluri Ojaleshi. Direct pressed with no skin contact. Fermented with native yeasts. Spends 6 months in Qvevri. Unfined, unfiltered, no added sulphur.