Vellino

Kakheti, Eastern Georgia

Vellino was established in 2016 by Beka Jimsheladze. Beka’s family have cultivated vineyards and made wine in kvevri for decades but it was always super small scale and for family consumption only. Beka was working in Tbilisi as a financial auditor for KPMG but felt such a huge emotional attachment to his  family village he decided to move back in 2015, not only to continue the family tradition but also develop it into a family business.

His biggest motivation when he began to make wine was his family’s traditions and deep connection to nature;

“People were in harmony with nature – working in the vineyard with their own hands, singing in the vineyard during seasonal work (they believed that the vines understand your mood and it is expressed in the grapes and eventually the wine), keeping the vines and grapes as healthy as possible without any chemical intervention and respecting their ancestors’ buried kvevris. They believed that this naturally made wine was medicine and drank a glass or two every day, sharing it with their loved ones because it was such a precious liquid to them. There was so much respect for the vineyard being a part of nature and to the wine, which was like a holy liquid given to them by nature. Those beliefs and traditions became my motivation and inspiration for all the wines I make in our small family winery.”

There are two vineyards, one in the village of Sagarejo in Kakheti, Eastern Georgia. It is planted to Saperavi, Tavkveri, Rkatsiteli & Mtsvane which are 40 years old and sits 520m above sea level. There are 2 types of soil in this plot; humus rich loam and clay. The second vineyard in the village of Kakabeti, also in Kakheti, planted exclusively to Saperavi which is just 5 years old and enjoys 720m of altitude. The soil here is humus, clay and limestone.

The the old family marani (winery) is located in the village of Kakabeti (adjacent to the new Saperavi vineyard) and was reconstructed in 2017. It has 8 small kvevris which have been used by family for many years. However, due to demand for Vellino wines, they have started construction of a new marani  where they have 16 kvevris, averaging 1500L each and a total production space of 25,000L.