{"id":11936,"date":"2013-10-07T11:21:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T09:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/?post_type=the-new-gastronomes&p=11936"},"modified":"2016-09-26T17:36:27","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T15:36:27","slug":"an-so-miga-fora-georgian-wine-makers-share-their-traditions-in-romagna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/an-so-miga-fora-georgian-wine-makers-share-their-traditions-in-romagna\/","title":{"rendered":"AN so miga FORA: Georgian Winemakers Share Their Traditions in Romagna"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a part of our study trip to Romagna, Italy, we where invited to the winery of Leone Conti where we were introduced to the \u201cAN so miga FORA\u201d project. This is a great cultural exchange project whose aim is to pair ancient Georgian winemaking customs and techniques with wine producers in Emilia-Romagna. This project is organised within the bigger project of \u201cIo Bevo Romagnolo,<\/a>\u201d an initiative that promotes the consumption of wines from the Romagna region together with its identity and culture.<\/p>\n

A large number of Georgian winemakers still make their wines using the same techniques as their forefathers did thousands of years ago. So what does this mean? They make wine in something called a qvevri, a pottery vessel, buried in the ground, that was used in in the past to store grains, cheese, and alcohol. But it is especially good for making wines because of its coned bottom, and the stable temperature in the ground. The seeds fall to the bottom very quickly and are isolated from the wine due to other sediments. This winemaking process is also often referred to as natural winemaking. This is because there is minimal human interference and no additives are needed. Another Georgian tradition is the singing of polyphonic songs during the harvesting season; the singing of these songs is even listed in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This recognition means that this custom is of great cultural importance and should be protected.<\/p>\n

To introduce and share this culture in Romagna, 15 winemakers and one vinegar producer participated in the Georgian way of wine making. They bought qvevris and started to experiment with them under guidance of some Georgian winemakers.<\/p>\n

During our visit to the Leone Conti winery, one of the producers that bought a qvevri, we got to see and experience the first steps in making this natural wine. After a short introduction to the projects and the Georgian traditions, we got to pick some of the intense golden grapes, accompanied by some of the traditional songs sung by some of the visiting Georgians. After harvesting Albana grapes, we followed them to the destemming machine. After all the stems were removed, the grapes where poured directly into the prepared qvevri (the interior is coated with bee wax) . The vessel is closed and the grapes are left to ferment until the spring, when the wine is bottled or transferred into a clean qvevri.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to leave it up to you to decide whether the wine that comes out of these vessels is good or bad according to our \u201cmodern\u201d standards and your personal tastes. One thing is sure, this technique has been used for thousands of years so this means it is a valuable cultural heritage that should be shared and protected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a part of our study trip to Romagna, Italy, we where invited to the winery of Leone Conti where we were introduced to the \u201cAN so miga FORA\u201d project. This is a great cultural exchange project whose aim is to pair ancient Georgian winemaking customs and techniques with wine producers in Emilia-Romagna. This project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22331,"featured_media":11938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","show_related_posts":true,"relatore_articolo_journal":"","autore_articolo_journal":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unisg-voices-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unisg.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}