Rtveli in Georgia

Rtveli in Georgia is a very famous activity, you may call that that. Well, mainly it takes place in Kakheti region _ this is the East Georgia, because vineyards are mostly in the eastern Georgia and people grow grapes there and make wine and vodka and others. The main thing in Rtveli is that people gather to pick grapes, which they took care of the whole year and so that is the time they see what came out of those many hours of working in vineyards and carefully pruning the vines and other stuff. It all requires a lot of work throughout the whole year. Pruning is an essential thing for vines. This gives them their shape and determines the quality of the grapes. The pruning begins in spring and goes on for a while. They say, that it takes one minute to prune a vine, so it’s one minute per plant. And imagine how many plants there are in a vineyard! There are rows just about 30 for example, and each row is divided, let’s say, into  something like 50 small units and in each unit there can be about 5 plants. So that means, that it takes 5 multiplied by fifty and then multiplied by thirty minutes and not to mention the resting time _ because a man does this work, not a machine not to take a break or something. This is a very hard work. Then there is bloom, then canopy management, etc. 

So, everyone loves Rtveli, especially in Kakheti, because that is the main place where Rtveli is an inevitable thing. If you don't have your own vineyard, you can get invited to others' and you help them with their grapes, and you have lots of fun, too.

As I’ve mentioned in another blog about Georgian wine, wine-making in Georgia has a great history and it dates back to the 8-th millennia BC.

The territories here, in Georgia are optimal for viticulture. The climate is good for vine and, in addition to this, Georgian farmers are pretty hard-working and they love wine and so they do this vine-growing and stuff like that with pleasure. There are more than 400 types of vine, but only 38 varieties are officially grown for commercial viticulture in Georgia, and they include many famous of them, such as Saperavi, Aleksandrouli, Ojaleshi, Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, Aladasturi, Tsolikauri, Krakhuna, Tsitska, etc.

So, a Georgian man took care of vine as his own son the whole year and in autumn there came time when the grapes ripened and it was time for vintage _ Rtveli!

From the early centuries till today Rtveli is considered kind of as a festival. It included many other events and the preparations for Rtveli had to start much earlier than the event itself. Well, to be exact, before the event starts, Georgians wash Kvevris and cellars and they prepare everything for the vintage and wine-making.

Tradition of Rtveli

So, when all the things were ready, it was time to pick some grapes! Rtveli had a significant meaning, as it was something that determined the family’s fate throughout the year, because it was their income and salary and stuff. They chose a sunny day for Rtveli. What’s more, they tried grapes to be under the sun as long as possible so that the grapes would ripen even more and they said that with more ripen grapes the better wine was made. That’s why there is a saying: “there is much sun in a good wine.”

Besides the family members, traditionally, all the relatives and friends and neighbours used to take part in Rtveli. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really happen nowadays, as the process itself has become easier _ people just hire some workers who go to vineyard and pick grapes and stuff. But some years ago people didn’t really have money to spend on the hired workers and they had time for Rtveli and the circumstances made it possible so many people to help one family pick grapes. In return, this family members then would go and help those ones who helped them in Rtveli and it went on like that until everyone had had their vintage. So now you get why it was a big celebration. There were so many people and they didn’t just work and pick grapes and carried those huge buckets and Godoris (those were large things like buckets, but they were made of twigs and things like that and they are used to carry fruits and vegetables, so traditionally, these Godoris were used to put grapes in it in Rtveli), but to have fun and socialize and stuff like that. At the end of Rtveli there usually was a big feast and everyone joined it and it was a great ending of a hard work’s day. So it was like while working in that usually hot and sunny day, people didn’t even think about eating and stuff, until in the evening _ when all these things were over _ the host invited them to the feast, in that vineyard itself, or at the host’s house. They usually had a sheep or a cow or something butchered.   

Well, it’s easy not to think about hunger or something when you are having fun and, at the same time, there is plenty to eat there in the vineyard, if you know what I’m saying. I usually eat lots of grapes during Rtveli. The grapes are so delicious, and especially then _ while working!

Rtveli was over in a day in small vineyards, but in larger ones it continued even for  10 or 15 days. There were big Godoris at the beginning of a vineyard where everyone put grapes that they had collected in their smaller Godoris. At the end of the day these grapes had to be crushed, because if you let those picked grapes be like that in a Godori or something, it will get bitter and it won’t do any good _ it will just be spoilt and all that work done will be in vain. So these grapes were crushed in a specially made large bowl or something called “Satsnakheli”. I’m sure you’ve seen Adriano Celentano crush grapes with his feet in that film, I think, it’s his most famous scene of all times.

Usually there are Rkatsiteli, Saperavi and Mtsvane more common in East Georgia, and Tsitska and Tsolikauri _ in the West Georgia. Manavi Mtsvane is a well-known wine that everyone likes because of its great taste.

Now you may think, that Rtveli was the main thing here. But no! Rtveli was not an ending of all the work. In fact, the hardest part of wine-making starts after Rtveli. There are so many things to be done and so much work to do in order the wine to be good, that you can’t really imagine unless you’ve done it or, at least, seen it. Well, then the main thing is to keep an eye on this newly crushed grapes. People tidy up the cellar or Marani, they keep an eye on wine fermentation, they pick out those good grapes that they can store for some time and eat, they prepare grape juice for Tatara (or Pelamushi _ as they call it in West Georgia), then they prepare Churchkhelas, then they filter the wine and so on and so forth…

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