Author: Natia Mikhelidze
“I’m in fear every year; first, I fill the Qvevri with water. I test it, not being able to trust it fully. I’ve had it break many times, and so did my friends… we vine growers and family-owned wineries sat and waited for Ikhalto’s Qvevri School. Finally, the standard will be set; the Qvevri will be fired…. They showed us the firing of one, which was the end of Ikhalto,” – says Kakhetian wine-maker Mirian Nikoladze.
15 years ago, in Sagarejo’s village Ninotsminda, he opened the wine cellar “Mirianuli,” where he’d pour wine into a Qvevri and sell them on the Georgian market. Though, he had trouble finding a good quality, reliable Qvevri. According to him, there are no standards for producing this clay vessel on the Georgian market. Sometimes, they’d buy one so unfit it would break before they could even pour wine into it.
Therefore, as he told us, he was looking forward to the opening of the school academy in Ikhalto, which was going to be the starting point of Georgian wine jar (Qvevri) making. Instead of a wood stove, clay would be fired on a stove using modern technology, and they’d also teach young people this work. However, the winemakers were disappointed.
“We knew that the grant had been allocated, the funds were spent on this, and nothing. There’d be gas stoves… You feel happy seeing it; it’s the 21st century, yet you still didn’t lose the 8-thousand-year-old tradition. In the end, you realize nothing worked out,” – says Mirian Nikoladze.
The Qvevri school workshop in Ikhalto was solemnly opened in September 2016, and with this ceremony began the Georgian wine week.
“Just like Jerusalem is a longed-for place by pilgrims, for vine-growers, winemakers and specialists, Ikhalto’s ravine should become the second Jerusalem,“ – Bishop Abba Alaverdeli Davit in October of 2016, recalling the words of the then Minister of Agriculture Levan Davitashvili, on the air of “TV Religion.”
“This is the project that everyone’s dreamt of for a long time…” – These words were also said by Levan Davitashvili. There was no lie in the statement, winemakers sure have been dreaming of reliable Qvevris, and they still are. The school academy did open; however, nobody has poured wine into the vessels fired there, nor has the craft been learned by anyone.
The only thing we found out about the Qvevris here is that in 2017, at the “Cradle of Georgian Winery” exhibition in Bordeaux, France, they presented the 2-ton Qvevri fired in Ikhalto, which is still standing there in front of the exhibition house.
The school should have received the status of vocational education in 2017; however, the “Center of Education Quality Management” told us that “the Qvevri House” still isn’t on the list of vocational schools.
The Qvevri school in Ikhalto functioned for almost a year; several Qvevris were fired and exhibited, hosted the international Qvevri wine competition, and after September 2017, the building was inactive.
Although 5 million GEL was spent on the construction and equipment of the school academy, we borrowed 2.3 million from the World Bank; the rest was money from the Georgian budget. The debt is covered, but the question is if we used this money wisely.
“…Young people from the different regions of Georgia will learn not only the traditional way of making Qvevris, but also the methods of making old Georgian glasses and wine vessels. Lecture courses and practical lessons will be held for those willing to attend,” – written in the school project, which was made in 2014. This plan has not come to fruition.
How was “the Qvevri House” built?
Building the Qvevri school academy in Ikhalto was Bishop Abba Alaverdeli’s idea. In 2013, the Municipal Development Fund decided to start implementing this idea, and in September, LLC “Studio-4” signed a 50,000 GEL contract to prepare this project.
According to the project, the goal of the school was the popularization of the Georgian tradition of putting wine in a Qvevri, attracting tourists, employing locals, enlivening the district and the village Ikhalto’s development in the cultural-educational direction.
5,400 square meters of land was chosen near the Ikhalto monastery. 1,500 square meters of that belonged to the eparchy of Alaverdi, and in June 2014, it was given to Telavi’s municipality. This favor being granted is no surprise, considering that the school academy was usufruct by the eparchy a year after its opening and gained the right to dispose of the income.
The Municipal Development Fund hired LLC “Dagi” in January 2015 to set up the school building. The company was owed 2.3 million GEL for constructing “the Qvevri House” and arranging the communication infrastructure there. It’s unknown when and who took over the work of “Dagi.”
The agreement of acceptance and delivery is not uploaded on the e-procurement portal, but we know that the school was opened in 2016.
The project “The Qvevri House” includes a three-story brick-lined building, a workshop for making and storing clay; a Qvevri workshop with a showcase wall so that the guest can observe the work process; a wine-tasting hall, an exhibition space, museum, library, and terrace.
Alaverdeli Bishop Davit even said there would also be Georgian porcelain, enamel, and goldsmith workshops in “the Qvevri House.”
In the end, Ikhalto’s Qvevri school academy building and its amenities cost 2.6 million GEL, and the purchase and installation of an Italian oven for firing the clay vessels were an additional 2 million GEL.
Within a year of the school’s opening, it was passed hand to hand. On the 20th of September 2017, the Patriarchate asked the National Property Agency to pass five objects near the churches and monasteries to Telavi’s municipality. One of them being the Qvevri school.
One month after the request, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili issued a government decree, by which “the Qvevri House” was handed over to the Patriarchate with a 49-year usufruct. This means that during this time, the Patriarchate has the right to dispose of the school’s property and income.
The Patriarchate handed the school over to the author of the idea, Mitropolit Abba Alaverdeli. And in the year 2022, “the Qvevri House”’s management company became “Badagoni.” As for how we will elaborate further on that below.
Who was supposed to benefit from the Qvevri school?
The wine-jar (Qvevri) making tradition in Georgia is UNESCO’s monument of intangible culture. The oldest wine Qvevri was made in the 6th millennium BC, and this industry field still goes on to this day. This clay vessel is made by up to 50 Qvevri makers in four regions – Samegrelo, Guria, Imereti, and Kakheti. Most of them are in Imereti.
This traditional industry needs development and support to meet modern requirements for the Qvevri to be of good quality and to provide accommodation for Georgian wineries.
The Ikhalto school academy should have taken on the mission of being the savior of the field. The craft would be learned by novice masters, and there would be more Qvevri makers on the market. This would be a salvation for the winemakers, who put a lot of time and energy into searching for Qvevri.
“The people we bought Qvevri from are already experienced masters in Chiatura, Tkemlovana village. We thought hard, and after a 3-month search, we found and visited these people… There is a queue for quality Qvevri. You could probably even be in the queue for a year. You pick grapes; you want to make a product. It’s one thing to love your job, but on the other hand – it’s business. When you pour a pure liquid into the Qvevri and are not satisfied after, or when you end up with nothing in the Qvevri… Naturally, it’s a catastrophe,” – says Sophio Samteladze.
She is a co-founder of “Lomtadzeebis Cellar” in Kvanchkara. Alexandrouli, Tsulukidzi’s Tetra, and Tsolikauri wine have been poured into Qvevri since 2017-2018.
In a conversation with iFact, the owners of the cellar say that there is no standard for the making of Qvevris, they’re still fired with old, archaic methods, and accordingly, they end up having to buy vessels that are less durable and suitable for long-term use.
“We know Qvevris that are 200-300-400 years old, and these new Qvevris probably wouldn’t even last 10 years… We saw on television that one Qvevri was fired. We thought, finally, the standardization process had started, and then it was over… Every qualified expert foreigner tells you that since you have endemic varieties, you should be focused on boutique wineries, learn and make small editions. Whether you like it or not, this is linked to Qvevris,” said Mirian Nikoladze, who has a cellar named “Mirianuli” in Sagarejo.
Winemakers are concerned about not only the insufficient vessels but also the quality. Precisely, their thickness and firing method. In the village, Vardisubani, Telavi, “Jakhelebis Cellar’s” founder Zaza Jakheli tells us that a bad Qvevri causes the walls to have pores, in which bacteria nest and spoil the wine.
“The Qvevri lacks proper firing, which happens more when you don’t follow the rules… I keep having to see older Qvevris; their walls are thicker and more solid. How can I say they made Qvevris better 100 years ago than today? I’m a bit surprised by it,” – said Zaza Jakheli.
He’s been producing Qvevri wines since 2015, putting them on the foreign market in more than 10 countries. He also purchased his Qvevris in Tkemlovana, though he had difficulty bringing them from Chiatura to Kakheti. The vessel can get damaged during transportation. Because of that, he preferred to buy the Qvevri nearby. Ikhalto’s “Qvevri House” is a 10-minute walk for him.
Zurab Topuridze has also been producing Qvevri wine for 20 years; he is one of the founders of the “Natural Wine Association,” and the owner of the family cellar “Iberieli.” He tells us that he’s careful so that he doesn’t buy a bad Qvevri and tends to watch over the firing process. According to him, another problem is that bad-quality Qvevris can be more challenging to wash, and the wine spoils.
Five years ago, Zurab Topuridze decided to go to the Ikhalto school academy to see the Qvevris, but he found the building non-functional when he arrived.
“I went there because I was curious to see what kind of Qvevris they had, and if they had them, I would probably buy them. Someone was there, and he told me that they don’t work nowadays and don’t have Qvevris,” – says Zurab Topuridze.
Ivane Nareklishvili has a cellar in Gurjaani, village Velistsikhe. Five generations of his family produced Qvevri wines, and he also followed this business. According to him, the main issue of Georgian Qvevris, is that cracks start to appear due to improper firing and the incorrect proportions of clay and silt, or it just completely breaks, and they end up losing the wine placed in it. Honey candle wax is applied to the Qvevri to cover up the cracks. Nareklishvili does not like this approach since the wine does not touch the clay during fermentation.
“Clay is a very good vessel for wine fermentation, it’s made from a structure that contains many micro and macro elements. When we cover it with honey candle wax, it loses the value for what it was made for all these centuries,” – says winemaker Ivane Nareklishvili.
Due to the problems listed above, all our respondent winemakers say they were looking forward to Ikhalto’s “Qvevri House” opening and had big expectations. For example, Ivane Nareklishvili said:
“…Of course, we were looking forward to it. Generally, there was an interest in the technology of Qvevri production, that we would settle on how the Qvevri is created once and for all, that there would be no more problems for neither the manufacturer nor the buyer.”
We heard that no Qvevris are being made and sold in “the Qvevri House.” We wanted to know if they had other wine-related events, so we visited the school academy’s Facebook page. It turns out that the page is also inactive, just like the building. It’s pretty easy to tell that the school hasn’t done anything after 2017. Until 2020, stories about Qvevri wine manufacturers were shared on the page.
Who should operate the Qvevri school academy?
In 2016, after the school academy’s opening, Bishop Abba Alaverdeli said that we might not know everything thoroughly, and we’ll improve along the way, and the difficulties will become more apparent. The school’s main problem is that it could not be launched.
Along with the Patriarchate, the wine company “Badagoni” also needs to operate the school. In February 2022, they signed a memorandum of cooperation with Alaverdi’s Eparchy and USAID.
“Badagoni” took the management, and the development of the infrastructure and investment plan of “the Qvevri House” upon themselves, while USAID provided the economic security. This means they’ll help their business by acquiring job skills and collaborating with the public and private sectors.
Alaverdeli Mitropolit and “Badagoni’s” partnership has some well-established roots.
In 2006, this wine company financed the restoration of Alaverdi Monastery’s historic cellar and began to produce their own Qvevri wine there.
The scheme worked successfully in the future as well. The government finances the project either from their budget or with loan money, then hands over the management rights to the Patriarchate for a few years, and in the end, the project will end up in “Badagoni’s” hands.
For instance, this is what happened in 2019, when “Matsoni House,” which was owned by the Patriarchate, got handed over to “Badagoni” for management, and in the year 2022, along with “the Qvevri House,” the visitor information center “Shuamtis Karibche” has also been passed over to “Badagoni.”
“Badagoni” must start up the school academy that’s been inactive for eight years.
The state, however, stood aside in this matter and almost served the purpose of a bridge between the World Bank and the Alaverdi Eparchy. The state was not interested in the fate of the building, however.
We became interested in this and tried to contact the Alaverdi Eparchy’s leader Bishop Abba, and “Badagoni,” but to no avail.
The priest said he didn’t do phone interviews and hung up. We called him again the next day to ask one question – why they couldn’t find a function for the school of 5 million. He, this time, didn’t even answer our call. Over two days, there was no contact with “Badagoni’s” founder Giorgi Salakhaia either.
And at the head office of the wine company, they did not give us the number of the official representative or the press office.
In 2016, Bishop Abba Alaverdeli said that “the Qvevri House” would be a spiritual and material oasis. However, there are no signs of that being true yet.
