Chinuri Orange 2020

Pheasant’s Tears, which has long since become one of the most beloved and well-known Georgian natural wineries, borrows its name from an ancient Georgian folk tale where only the very best wines were good enough to make pheasants cry. Tearful poultry aside, it’s undeniable that these are wines of profound intensity and layered complexity. John Wurdeman, a painter by trade and originally from the US, moved to Georgia in 1996 and met his now partner Gela Patalishvili in 2005.

In a land whose winemaking tradition stretches back over 8,000 and where all white wine must be orange wine, John fell in love with Georgia’s winemaking heritage and these wines so rich in primal prowess and history. Strong of Gela’s family’s generations-long winemaking experience, they released their first vintage in 2007. All of their wines, as it’s the tradition in Georgia, ferment in the Georgian amphorae “qvevri” with the skins, and at times the stems, for 3 weeks to 6 months and are never soiled by winemaking additives, fining, filtration, or added SO2.