Wine Arcana

Grape

Tsolikouri

Tsolikouri is a major white wine grape of western Georgia, especially Imereti and Guria, with further plantings in neighbouring regions. Its uses range from dry whites and qvevri blends to the semi-sweet wines of Tvishi in Lechkhumi. That range makes the intended style more informative than a single description of the grape's weight or sweetness.

Western Georgia and wine character

The National Wine Agency describes Tsolikouri as suited to western Georgia's humid conditions, with relatively thick berry skins. It also describes broad, sometimes slightly oily dry wines. In Imeretian blends, Tsitska can provide a lighter partner.

Descriptions of acidity vary. The agency characterizes conventional dry examples as relatively soft, while Georgian Wine House describes the fruit used for Baia's Tsitska-Tsolikouri as high in acid. The accounts concern different contexts: site, harvest, blending, and vinification can all change the balance in the glass.

Partial skin contact in Imereti

Baia's Wine offers a documented example from Obcha. Its importer describes estate-grown Tsitska and Tsolikouri fermented together in qvevri with only part of the skins, then transferred to stainless steel after three months.1. Georgian Wine House, “Baia's Tsitska-Tsolikouri,” vineyard and vinification account, accessed 21 September 2026. This is a useful alternative to assuming that all qvevri wines undergo the same extraction.

Georgia's National Wine Agency contrasts traditional Imeretian use of a portion of the grape solids with Kakhetian use of the full amount. The proportion of solids and the length of maceration are separate decisions. Less solid material changes the available supply of tannin, even when the wine remains in contact for months.

Tsolikouri therefore connects western Georgian blending traditions with the contemporary interest in skin-contact white wines. A dry qvevri blend and a semi-sweet Tvishi also illustrate two different contributors to texture: extraction from grape solids and residual sugar. Amber colour does not identify the sweetness of the finished wine.

Sources