Best Georgian Wines 2024: Award-winning wines from Georgia

If you’ve ever been to a supra (feast), you’ll know the respect with which Georgian wine is held by the country’s people. Frequently referred to as the ‘cradle of wine’, Georgia is soaked in winemaking history, with various vinous artefacts such as pruning knives and stone presses from as far back as 8,000 years ago excavated by archaeologists. Legend even has it that soldiers would weave a piece of grapevine into their armour to protect their chests before heading into battle, so if they died, a vine would sprout from their hearts.

In the 20th century, Georgia was the powerhouse wine producer for much of the Soviet Union but after gaining independence in the 1990s, the Soviet ‘wine factories’ are disappearing, replaced by smaller-scale producers intent on improving quality.

Glass of red Georgian wine for dinner — While Georgia may be known for its orange wines, its full-bodied Saperavi reds impressed judges at the IWSC 2024

Georgia is – perhaps unwittingly – at the cutting edge of winemaking too. The penchant for fermenting wine in large clay amphorae (known as qvevri) is a technique now used by some of the world’s most influential producers but it has been done in Georgia for centuries. Not only that but while natural/orange wine may be the millennial‘s drink of choice, they’ve been making the stuff in Georgia for millennia.

One such orange wine – Kardanakhi 1888, Tsarapi 2020 – scooped a Gold Medal in this year’s IWSC, scoring an impressive 97/100. Judges hailed the ‘golden raisins and freshly baked pastries on the nose with warm apricots and sweet spice’, as well as the ‘velvet palate with a complex yet silky structure’.

Georgia received an impressive number of IWSC Golds this year, including a red wine made with the indigenous grape variety Saperavi that received 96 points. Saperavi simply means ‘colour’ and the grape delivers rich, full-bodied wines, with notes of liquorice, plums and spice, and is sometimes made in a semi-sweet style.

Each Georgian wine at the IWSC 2024 was arranged by colour and style before being tasted blind by an expert panel. Sarah Abbott MW was in charge of proceedings, both at the in-site judging in Georgia itself and the main event in London. Read on to see some of the best Georgian wines from the competition.

HOW DO WE JUDGE THESE WINES?

We run a tightly structured, rigorous wine tasting process. That means that each wine sample is pre-poured into numbered glasses and assessed blindly by the judges. Most importantly, our IWSC wine judges are experts in their field, who work across all sectors of the wine industry. For evidence, see our full list of judges.

HOW DO WE SCORE THESE WINES?

Only the best wines sampled receive a Gold or Silver award. For example, to win Gold, wines have to score between 95 and 100 points. Meanwhile, Silver wines range from 90 to 94 points. Click here to read more on our scoring system.

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