Lavrenti Janiashvili

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

Senior Researcher

Institute of History and Ethnology, Tbilisi State University

Tbilisi, Georgia

Lavrenti.janiashvili@tsu.ge

Construction and Reconstruction of Wine Cellars Based on Folk Experience

In our time, Georgian winemaking has come under the spotlight of the world's enologists, largely due to the discovery of ancient cultural viticulture evidence in the early agricultural settlements of the 6th millennium BC in Lower Kartli (on the "cut hill"). The recognition of Georgian traditional winemaking is also reflected in UNESCO granting the status of intangible cultural heritage to qvevri wine in 2013. In Georgia, along with the ancient technology of wine production, over 500 varieties of grapes have been preserved. The daily life of Georgians is unimaginable without alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages made from grape fruit (wine, sparkling wine, cooking wine, chacha, badagi, sweet wine, vinegar, etc.) and foods (grapes, raisins, isrim-makvali, tatar, pelamushi, tkbiliskveri, churchkhela, janjukha, wine jelly, boghlitso, majigaro, etc.).

Activities related to viticulture and winemaking, as well as labor inventory, agricultural buildings, and beliefs, have played and continue to play a significant role in daily life. The implementation of empirical knowledge into contemporary practice has become the foundation for the success of individual entrepreneurs. Many of them draw on the experience accumulated by Georgian farmers over centuries and have turned traditional methods of wine production and storage into a key marketing tool. Tourist routes are mapped out along the so-called “wine roads,” most of which resemble ancestral wine cellars. Sometimes, the traditional nature of these cellars is merely a façade, concealing innovative technologies as archaic.

In this context, it is naturally of great importance to maximize the use of folk knowledge in both the construction of new cellars and the repair of old ones. Such an approach is particularly desirable in the reconstruction of cellars existing in museum spaces to preserve their authenticity as much as possible. In Kartli-Kakheti, a cellar or “wine house” (as described by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani) was a structure made of brick or timber located in the yard, and sometimes it was situated on the ground floor of a residential house. Here, wine was stored in qvevris buried in the ground, with a winepress and other necessary inventory nearby. The entire process of wine production, from crushing grapes to fermenting them in qvevris, took place here. In western Georgia, cellars were mostly constructed of wood, primarily used for grape crushing and storing winemaking inventory.

 

Wine cellars were typically located in specially shaded areas, on the hilltops where they were buried. Georgian farmers attached great importance to the location of the cellar, the type of soil for burying qvevris, the construction materials, and the proper preparation of qvevris and winemaking containers or inventory. The types of cellars (open, closed, etc.) varied by region, as did their locations (standalone, in vineyards, or in residences), functions (wine production and fermentation, grape crushing, storage of inventory, and in some cases, food supplies), and construction materials (brick, timber, woven reeds, etc.). This diversity is the result of the rationalization of empirical knowledge accumulated over millennia, and it is advisable to consider it in contemporary practices.

Keywords: Marani, Tradition, Winemaking