Ramaz Nikoladze
Quick facts:
Location: the village of Nakhshirgele, in the Imereti region of Western Georgia
Owner & winemaker: Ramaz Nikoladze
Vineyard management: Practicing organic and biodynamic. 10-50 year old vines. 1.5 hectares. Small production, ~6,000 bottles annually.
Soils: Clay based, with lots of moisture.
Main varieties: Ancient indigenous Georgian varieties, including delicate white grapes like Tsolikouri and Tsitska.
Winemaking: Grapes are hand-harvested and pressed by foot or small press. Ramaz was an early adopter of skin-contact winemaking in the region, inspired by wines he’d drank in Eastern Georgia; he separates grapes from their skin, seeds, and stems, and then adds a small percentage back to the juice during fermentation. Many of his cuvées see little-to-no skin contact, while others macerate for four to six months in underground kvevris. Wines are then racked primarily to stainless steel, or occasionally to glass demi-jeans or old oak barrels, for another four or five months. His wines are pure, nearly untouched expressions of the terroir and kvevris where they ferment; there is no fining, filtering, or added SO2.
You’d be forgiven for mistaking Ramaz Nikoladze’s lush, wild stretch of a vineyard for an unkempt garden. Here, in the village of Nakhshirgele — in Western Georgia’s Imereti region, caught between Tbilisi and the Black Sea — the grass grows waist-high, shading the grapes from the piercing sun during the day. The nights are cool and humid, and the clay soil requires very little water, creating idyllic conditions for autochthonous grapes like Tsolikouri and Tsitska to flourish.
Nikoladze, born into a winemaking family, grew up between the cellar and the vines. Like his father before him, he works the land without herbicides or chemical additives. He began making his own wine in earnest in 2007, first in his family’s historic cellar and later building his own mariani, or winery, where traditional kvevris are buried into the earth.
He soon attracted international attention for his unique winemaking style, which incorporates extended maceration — a technique favored in Eastern Georgia’s Kakheti region, which is far from traditional in Imereti. That style of tannic, tea-like “amber wine,” so closely tied with most foreigner’s conceptions of Georgian wine, is the inverse of the style in Imereti, which sees far less skin contact.
“I liked skin contact wines and decided to see what would happen if I tried to make one,” Nikoladze tells us of how he pioneered the technique in his region, adding that his father and colleagues cautioned him against the idea at first. “I talked with my friends and fellow winemakers from the Kakheti region about how to do it, and in 2011 I made my first skin-contact vintage. Since then, I’ve always done it this way.”
Rather than go for whole-cluster maceration, Nikoladze favors a more fresh and gentle approach, separating the juice from the mash and stems and later adding a small percentage of them back in during fermentation — anywhere from five to twenty percent.
Nearly all of his wines ferment in below-ground kvevris for four to six months. Those without skins he hardly touches; for the macerations, he’s quite attentive to the cap, stirring it regularly by hand to keep it from drying out. The wines are typically racked to stainless steel tanks, where they rest for another four to five months before bottling. In order to best preserve the energy and character of the land, the wines are unfined, unfiltered, and see little-to-no additional sulphur.
We’re delighted to welcome Ramaz Nikoladze’s wines to our growing portfolio of natural winemakers in Georgia, which boasts a rich 8,000-year history of winemaking.
Wines
Dzvelshavi 2023
Grapes: 70% Dzvelshavi, 30% Tsolikouri
Vineyard: Clay soil, 10-50 year old vines. Organically farmed.
Making of: Grapes are hand-harvested and co-fermented, with skins-on Dzvelshavi (an indigenous red grape) and only the juice of Tsolikouri (an indigenous white grape). Aged in kvevri together for 5-6 months, then racked to stainless for another 4-5 months before bottling.
Personality: Fresh, lithe and a bit peppery — close your eyes and you might think it’s Pinot d’Aunis from the Loire Valley. This light, fresh red grape is hard to come by in Georgia, and the wine is made in limited quantities.
Tsitska
Grapes: Tsitska
Vineyard: Clay soil, 10-50 year old vines. Organically farmed.
Making of (2024, 2025): Grapes are hand-harvested and directly pressed into a kvevri without any maceration. Aged in kvevri together for 5 months, then racked to stainless for another 5 months before bottling.
Making of (2023): Grapes are hand-harvested and directly pressed into a kvevri without any maceration. Aged in kvevri together for 5-6 months, then racked to stainless for another 4-5 months before bottling.
Tsitska Tsolikouri
Grapes: 50% Tsitska, 50% Tsolikouri
Vineyard: Clay soil, 10-50 year old vines. Organically farmed.
Making of (2024, 2025): Grapes are hand-harvested and directly pressed to kvevri, where they co-ferment together without any maceration. Aged in kvevri together for 5 months, then racked to stainless for another 5 months before bottling.
Making of (2023): Grapes are hand-harvested and directly pressed to kvevri, where they co-ferment together without any maceration. Aged in kvevri together for 5-6 months, then racked to stainless for another 4-5 months before bottling.
Solikouri
This wine’s name is a play on words: at first glance, it appears to be a misspelling of its grape, the local variety Tsolikouri; Ramaz is said to have removed the “T” as the wine bucks local tradition by incorporating skin contact.
It’s also an homage to Ramaz’s late friend and mentor, Soliko Tsaishvili, who first taught him the skin contact method of winemaking. In Georgian, “Solikouri” reads as “From Soliko.”
Grapes: Tsolikouri
Vineyard: Clay soil, 10-50 year old vines. Organically farmed.
Making of (2024, 2025): Grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed. The clusters of fruit are fermented in kvevri with skins on for an extended maceration of 5 months; wine is then racked to stainless for another 5 months before bottling.
Making of (2023): Grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed. The clusters of fruit are then fermented in kvevri with skins on for an extended maceration of 5 months; Ramaz occasionally moves the cap with his hand, but otherwise hardly touches the juice. The wine is then racked to stainless for another 4-5 months before bottling.
Motskobili
This wine is named after its vineyard site, Motskobili, which sits in the village of Kardenakhi.
Grapes: Blend of 4 grapes indigenous to the the Kakheti region of Georgia: Rkatsiteli 25%, Mtsvane 25%, Kisi 25%, Mtsvivani 25%
Making of: Grapes are hand-harvested. 80% are direct pressed while 20% remain with their skins; all ferment together in kvevri and age for 5 months. Wine is then transferred to stainless steel for another 5 months of aging before bottling.