“White wine with maceration” Added to the list of OIV special wines.
"White wine with maceration" has been added to the list of special wines of the International Vine and Wine Organization (OIV). The decision was made at the OIV General Assembly on 26 November 2020 online.
Until now, the OIV special wines list included 7 wines: "sparkling wines", “carbonated wines”, , "liqueur wines", " Sweet wines with residual sugar derived from grapes”, "ice wines", "flor or film wines" and “Wine with an alcohol content modified by dealcoholisation”. "White wine with maceration" became the eighth in the list of OIV special wines.
The International Organization of Vine and Wine accepted the proposal of the Georgian side, to add the white wine fermented with long maceration on skins, to the categories of OIV special wines, in the expedited procedure in 2017.
Today's decision was preceded by an annual review and procedural support by OIV working groups.
An appropriate explanation will be given in the International Code of Practice of Oenology regarding the OIV decision:
• Winemaking is conducted exclusively using white grapes varieties;
• the maceration is carried out in contact with grape pomace;
• the minimum duration of the maceration phase is 1 month;
• “White wine with maceration” can be characterised by an orange-amber colour and a tannic taste.
The decision of the OIV is to inform the consumers about the special characteristics of this category of wines, to indicate the mentioned characteristics to the members of the jury in the wine competitions, so that they can make the appropriate assessment.
This decision is especially important for Georgia, which has 8 thousand years of continuous history and traditions of winemaking, and this method of making wine is definetly associated with Georgia.
The traditional Georgian method of making wine in Qvevries was awarded the status of Intangible Cultural Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2013, which indicates the uniqueness of this method and sends a message to the world that wine is part of ancient Georgian culture.
Based on the results of many years of scientific work conducted within the framework of the state program "Scientific Research and Promotion of Georgian Vine and Wine Culture" in 2017, on November 13, 2017, the scientific article "Early Neolithic Wine of Georgia" was published in the Scientific Journal of the US National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). South Caucasus” (https://www.pnas.org/content/114/48/E10309.full) on the research of archeological material found on the territory of Georgia, that wine was made on the territory of Georgia 8000 years ago.