The wine grape may have originated at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, which has more than 500 indigenous varieties. For millennia Georgians have fermented wine in beeswax-lined clay jars called qvevri. Winemakers bury the jars up to the neck and use them for generations. Some traditional Georgian whites—like this one being poured by Sulkhan Gulashvili, from a cup inscribed with the names of his forebears—are fermented as red wines are, with the grape skins, seeds, and even stems left in the juice. That gives them a bold flavor and a distinctive orange hue.
