Georgia's leading white grape; the name means "red stem". High acidity meets substantial fruit, and fermented on the skins in the clay qvevri it becomes the distinctive amber, tannic style known as orange wine.
Cultivated for millennia, above all in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia. It was among the most widely planted whites of the Soviet bloc until the anti-alcohol campaign of the 1980s saw vast areas uprooted. Since the collapse of the USSR it has drawn global attention alongside the qvevri method.
Qvevri-made examples carry tannin despite being white, and they overturn expectations. That Georgia — held to be the birthplace of wine — still makes it much as it did 8,000 years ago is itself part of why the glass is worth drinking.