Kapistoni Winery

Kapistoni Winery is a small, young winery from the Georgian province of Kartlia, close to the capital Tbilisi. Kapistoni is the life's work of Niko Chochishvili. He immigrated from the United States in 2010. The winemaking was then first a 'side job', but Niko is very enthusiastic. Winemaking is his calling. In 2017 he had a wine cellar built and since then his passion has been his (life) work. He makes natural wines in qvevri'. They are clean and pure. He uses grape varieties that are rare even in Georgia.

Kapistoni! That was the exclamation of Niko Chochishvili's grandfather when he got a really good wine in his glass. And he should know, because Grandpa was a winemaker by trade. Niko has wanted to become a winemaker all his life. And in a roundabout way he also found his calling.

Niko emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1993 as a teenager. He attended High School and then Military College. He became an American citizen and a career soldier in the United States Army.

Yet the blood crawls where it cannot go. In 2010, Niko returned to his homeland. He started making wine in his country house not far from the capital Tbilisi. There were still old qvevris buried in the basement. And study a lot. Study a lot. Because almost every man in Georgia makes wine; Making really good wine every year, that is really a profession.

In 2107 he took a big step. He had his own wine cellar built. With a few dozen qvevris. So that he can make enough wine to make a living from it. In addition to his own vineyards, he started renting some vineyards so that he could grow enough grapes to fill the qvevris. Niko mainly works with grapes from the Kartlia region, such as Chinuri, Shavkapito and Tavkveri and rare varieties such as Danakharuli and Budeshuri Saperavi. A grape that Niko does not have in the vineyard yet is the Kapistoni. Because he only got there after he called his winery that: the Kapistoni is a (very rare) Georgian grape.

As far as Niko is concerned, it comes down to three things: good equipment and technology, hygiene in the basement and love for the profession. Niko is a spiritual person. In his philosophy, as a winemaker you make contact with nature in the vineyard and you give love to the maturing wine. Only in this way can you make better wine every year than in the previous year.