Sept. 17, 2011
Sleep came easy last night, but the morning came too soon. Although trips like these seem glamorous, the pace is fast and long, not that we're complaining. The first thing on the agenda was breakfast. Our rooms were in one of the buildings on the Tsinandali Palace grounds, which are under going renovation. We had to walk across the way to an adjacent building to find the breakfast table. Here's a peek at the stroll.
Breakfast was good and satisfying. We were offered Turkish coffee towards the end of the meal which Esther, Jimmy, and I gladly accepted and thoroughly enjoyed.
Literally refueled, we drove back to Zaza's home to see the kiln opening. We invited two extra guests from the Symposium along for the experience. Karen Shimizu, associate editor of Saveur magazine, and Billy Ray Mangham, director of Eye of the Dog Art center and noted potter specialist from Texas. Zaza and his father stopped adding wood to the fire last night and allowed it to burn out overnight. When we arrived the fire was completely out. Zaza and his father began to pull down the hand placed bricks, which sealed the kiln during the 12 days of firing. After all the bricks were pulled away, we got our first look at the 12 Qvevri inside which would have to cool for a week before they could be handled.
After they opened the kiln for us, Zaza and his father took us over to another area of their home and demonstrated how they knead the clay and then their method for making the Qvevri. The process is completely done by hand with the exception of first passing the clay through a mixer. They begin each Qvevri the same way by molding a conical shaped bowl that ends in a point at the bottom. After the bowl is made they cover the outer edge with wet cloth or parchment and let the bowl cure for a while. The edge stays moist as the rest of the bowl begins to dry a bit of time depending on how big the finished Qvevri will be. When the next layer is added, they knead and roll sections of fresh clay. The cloth or parchment is removed and the edge of the bowl is hand scored. A section of new rolled clay is placed on the edge and working into it by hand. After a few more sections of rolled clay are added and the new "ring" is completed, they further score the new ring into the existing bowl, smooth and shape the ring while wetting occasionally until the bowl is now taller. Depending on the size of the finished Qvevri, they will work each section to a given height, lay wet cloth or parchment on the outer edge, allow the next section to cure, and start the next layer again when tha section has cured. They shape each layer as they work upwards to end up with the classic pointed bottom, semi oval, open lipped shape of a Qvevri.
Zasa and his family were very kind and generous in their sharing of how they make Qvevri. Darrell was given a small Qvevri by Zaza and also purchased a large Qvevri, which will soon be seen among the other culinary artifacts inside Corti Brothers.
After our morning lesson in Qvevri making, we went back to the Alaverdi monastery for the second day of of the Symposium programs. The view of the Caucasus mountains was spectacular today as most of yesterday's cloudiness had passed. We sat Darrell down to give us some of his impressions on the trip and Symposium so far.
During the first break in today's Symposium program, everyone came out of the rectory to stretch their legs and have some of the snacks and drinks put together for us. The most interesting snack was a very traditional Georgian one called "churchkhela" or affectionaly by westerners "Georgian Snickers". They are made by threading walnuts on a string and then dipping them into badagi, which is a sugary grape juice. Flour is also used to help the grape juice set as they dry while hanging the strings of churchkhela. It is much like fruit leather coated walnuts. The flavor was very wonderful. You see them sliced in two pictures below.
After the break was over, it was time for the rest of the day's program. Darrell gave his speech, called "The importance of unique wines in a homogeneous wine world", during this session. Here is the speech in its entirety.
Shortly after Darrell's speech the program convened to a banquet above the rectory for lunch and some of the Alaverdi monastery wine. You will see something in the video below that is very important in Georgian life and culture, the daily toast.
We took a break from the Symposium after lunch to visit the nearby city of Telavi and its public market. Niko guided us through the market and Darrell commented on many of the foods and goods offered there. We were amazed at the diversity of products sold, and in some cases, the manner in which they were displayed and sold.
We enjoyed our visit to the Telavi public market. Now it was time for another drive. When we got into the van I opened a bottle of Coca Cola that I bought in the public market. I wanted to see how it compared to Coca Cola back home.
We now headed to the area around the town of Sighnaghi, which was about an hours drive to the south east of Telavi. Here's a few images from the drive.
Our first stop was at the Pheasant's Tear's winery and then to one of the Pheasant's Tears vineyards to see the harvest taking place. At the winery, we saw John Wurdeman's qvevri. He had one of his helpers open a qvevri which already had some new harvest saperavi grapes inside. They demonstrated how they "punch down" the grapes regularly during fermentation, which is the term used when the skins and must float to the surface of the qvevri and need to be pushed down to the bottom regularly until they no longer float to the top in time.
Since we arrived at Pheasant's Tears winery ahead of the group and were able to film before they arrived for their tour, we took the opportunity of having extra time to go to a nearby Pheasant's Tears vineyard to film the grape harvest before meeting back up with the group in Sighnaghi for dinner. The workers were harvesting Saperavi grapes when we arrived and Darrell gave us commentary while we all watched.
As we walked out of the vineyard, I had a chance to pick something we saw growing all along the side of the road and abundantly throughout the Kakheti region...wild hops! I gave the picking to Darrell for his commentary.
Having finished our filming of the harvest it was time to drive southward then up into the hills to the town of Sighnaghi where John Wurdeman hosted the group for dinner at his Pheasant's Tears restaurant - art shop - offices - and home. The drive into the hills was beautiful. The drive took us above a 2000' elevation in a fairly short distance, so the view back down into the valley was spectacular. As we approached Sighnaghi we could see the ancient city walls at guard towers stretched along the hills. We approached the main city gate and stopped to capture some video footage and photographs before driving into the city.
It was a short drive into Sighnaghi to the Pheasant's Tears wine bar and restaurant. The tables were set for a feast and there was an abundance of food, drink, song and dance for all. We enjoyed the festivities very much. After a long day with much to see and do, it was nice to relax to a great meal and have some good conversation with the group between performances and toasts.
After a very enjoyable and toast filled evening at Pheasant's tears, the clock had ticked its way past 10:30pm and it was time to make the drive back to our hotel at the Tsinandali Palace grounds for a good nights rest. We arrived around midnight to the sounds of loud disco. It was Saturday night after all and there was a party going on at the building across from ours. Georgians sure know how to party. The music went on until well past 2 am.