Archil Guniava’s Wine Cellar

Kvaliti, Imereti

Archil has been making wine in Kvaliti, Imereti since he was a child, and he knows his craft well. Archil makes two wines: a white which is a blend of varieties including Tsolikouri, Krakhuna and Tsitska and a red from Otskhanuri Sapere. The press Archil uses is an old school tree trunk press that is over a hundred years old.

Winemaking is in the blood of the Guniava family and although he is the 3rd generation winemaker at their current home in Kvaliti his history of making wine goes back much farther, in fact, as long as anyone in the family can remember. Archil, like a lot of winemakers in Georgia, only began to bottle wine recently. This was mostly spurred on by the global interest in the natural wine movement, although this is never what Archil considered himself as this is always the way things were done in his family. The first wine bottled under his own name was in 2009 and he has since inspired his children to take up the family tradition, one of his daughters has her own wine which she has made for a couple of years from the family vineyards; Nino’s Mgalobishvili and the other has planted her own vineyard in a neighbouring village with her husband…watch this space!

The Marani is located in a small structure adjacent to Archil’s home and has a total of 17 kvevris that range in size from 100L to 2000L. Although the winery was established in 1928 the marani is much older and the kvevris are estimated to be a few hundred years old.