Is Saperavi the Next Great Finger Lakes Grape?

A few years ago, Lasha Tsatava and Erika Frey were catching up over a bottle of wine when, Tsatava says, “a connection was made.”

It was a somewhat unusual bottle—one that spoke to and reflected both of them.

The wine was from the United States, and specifically, the Finger Lakes: a region Frey was passionate about in her work as a wine educator and consultant. But the grape variety, Saperavi, had originated in the Republic of Georgia, where Tsatava, the beverage director at New York’s Chama Mama group, grew up.

Together, they decided to follow the thread.

“As we shared our discoveries, we formed new connections with friends and colleagues in both Georgia and the United States,” Tsatava explains.

In 2022, he and Frey founded an organization to help further open the channels between the two countries for a cross-cultural discussion about viticulture and winemaking, especially around the grape that first got their wheels turning. They called the project Saperica: Saperavi in America.

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An Ancient Grape Poised for Revival

Saperavi originated in Kakheti, likely Georgia’s most famous wine region, where wine has been produced for many thousands of years.

It’s the country’s most important black grape and is used for both single-variety wines and blends, which are often aged in qvevri, the large clay amphorae traditional to Georgian winemaking.

With Saperica, one of Frey and Tsatava’s goals is to share this history and heritage with New York growers and winemakers through programming like seminars and educational exchange trips.

Of course, the groundwork for this work in the Finger Lakes had already been laid: There was a lot of Saperavi already there.

Saperavi Festival — Image Courtesy of Project Saperica

How Saperavi Arrived in New York

The first plantings in the region are said to lead back to Konstantin Frank, a Ukraine-born viticulturist and founder of Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery, which has vineyards on both Keuka and Seneca Lakes.

“Konstantin spent most of his life in Odessa, where he devoted his life to grape growing and winemaking research,” explains Meaghan Frank, his great-granddaughter and the winery’s vice president.

It was there that he first encountered Saperavi; Georgia was one of the main wine producers of the USSR, and Georgian varieties had spread to nearby republics.

“When he emigrated to America, these are the varieties he brought with him,” Meaghan says.

The vines were especially well-suited to the region where Frank eventually settled: Saperavi’s cold-hardiness is an asset for Finger Lakes winters, while the looseness of the clusters allows for important airflow and sun exposure during the short but often humid growing season.

Before the first Saperavi was planted in the late 1950s and early 1960s, much of the winemaking in the Northeastern U.S. was done with the native Vitis labrusca grapes (like Concord and Niagara), which loved the soil and climate but produced wines considered inferior to those from European Vitis vinifera varieties.

Konstantin was a pioneer in showing that vinifera could be a significant regional player, too.

Saperavi, in particular, can also allow for a style of red wine that is otherwise difficult to achieve in the Finger Lakes. It is a teinturier grape, meaning the pulp and juice—not just the skin—are deeply, stainingly red.

Tsatava explains that “Saperavi” is etymologically related to the Georgian word for “to color” or “to dye.”

“In our cool climate, it’s very difficult, from a winemaking perspective, to get the color for a bold, deep-hued red,” Meaghan Frank says.

Dr Konstantin Frank with Saperavi in 1978 – Image Courtesy of Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery

But for many U.S. wine drinkers, that kind of full-bodied red has been the blueprint. “It’s difficult to meet that expectation year after year with other varieties,” she adds, with Saperavi a welcome exception. The grape also lends itself well to rosés and sparkling styles; Dr. Frank will soon be coming out with a traditional-method sparkling Saperavi from its 2024 vintage.

After Konstantin Frank’s success with Saperavi, others in the area began to follow suit; many plantings can be traced back to his original material. The Finger Lakes is still the only wine region in the U.S. growing Saperavi in any significant amount, and one of the only places doing so outside of the former Soviet Union.

Tapping Into Saperavi’s Potential

It wasn’t until relatively recently, Meaghan Frank says, that people really started to take notice of the grape’s potential. Saperavi was not recognized by the Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates what grape varieties can be used on wine labels. After the approval, she explains, “We have seen plantings soar.”

The enthusiasm from growers has had a ripple effect: “Now the wineries are saying, ‘Okay, I’ll try it.’ So that’s an interesting twist, because usually it’s the other way around.”

That’s exactly what happened for César Vega, cofounder of Barbichette, a natural wine producer that works exclusively with New York grapes.

“We didn’t really think about the grape very much until we were presented with the opportunity to work with it,” Vega explains.

When Barbichette’s partner grower in the Finger Lakes told them some Saperavi was available, they were all in.

“At the time, we were ready to jump at whatever they were willing to offer us in terms of fruit selection, so we were quite excited,” Vega says.

That was back in 2021, when Barbichette made about four barrels of their inaugural “Le Rouge” and saw it take off among their customers. Vega says he quickly became a fan of Saperavi for its high acidity, intense color and “iron-y, sanguine quality.”

But frost and freeze conditions meant the grape was unavailable for the next few years.

Barbichette continued making that same cuvée with other grapes, but “that wine became synonymous with Saperavi,” Vega says, and people continued asking after it. “It didn’t seem like anyone cared about Saperavi until you didn’t have any to offer them.”

Thankfully, 2024 provided a better harvest.

“People loved the wine so much, and we had such a fun time with it in ‘21, that getting our hands on it again was really exciting,” Vega says.

Thanks in part to Barbichette’s light-touch winemaking style, Vega says this vintage is pleasingly different from the last, despite coming from the same planting and hitting a similar alcohol level.

“The current one we have in the cellar has a lot of black and white pepper,” while the 2021 “was a little bit more cranberry, kind of crunchy, less spiced,” Vega says. “It seems a little bit of a chameleon, in a way.”

That versatility, Tsatava says, is also mirrored in the vineyard. He predicts Saperavi— drought resistant and able to fare well in all manner of soils and conditions—will stand strong as climate change continues to compromise harvests.

Barbichette Le Rouge — Image Courtesy of Barbichette

Pouring Saperavi Into Your Glass

With growers and winemakers growing more enthusiastic, the next step in New York’s Saperavi story will be getting U.S. wine drinkers familiar.

Saperica’s work also extends to promoting Saperavi among the public: For the past few years, the organization has hosted a spring Saperavi Festival with a community supra (the traditional Georgian feast) and tastings from both New York and Georgian winemakers.

Meaghan Frank actually sees Saperavi as an opportunity for New York to stand out in the U.S. market. “It opens up a door for us,” she says. “Wine drinkers used to California or Oregon or Washington; they’re not like, ‘Oh, well this doesn’t taste like a Napa Saperavi.’”