Harmony with nature in Vellino

In 2015, Beka Jimheladze left Tbilisi and returned to his home village to continue the family tradition of winemaking. For decades his family has been making natural wines in old clay vessels, qvevris, and so it was time to present it to the world. Taking family traditions as his biggest motivation and inspiration, Beka, like his ancestors, keeps the vines and grapes as natural and healthy as possible without any chemical interference, treating wine as a precious liquid given by nature that is meant to be shared with loved ones.

Harmony with nature is at the heart of this small family winery. No pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, or chemical spraying materials are used in vineyards. All operations including pruning and harvesting are done manually. For fermentation and maceration, Georgian clay vessels — qvevris, which are buried underground, are used. Only healthy grapes are crushed for fermentation with wild yeast. The wine is left in a hermetically closed qvevris for maceration for 2 to 8 months. Because of the shape of the qvevri the wine is filtered naturally and there is no need for any artificial filtration. After bottling, the wine is stored in a special cellar with controlled temperature and humidity.

Today the winery produces 17,000 bottles of wine from 4 types of grapes growing on 3.7 hectares of land, as well as 4 varieties purchased from local villagers. Vellino wines are presented in bars and shops in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Japan, USA, Belgium, Denmark, and Canada.