Although not a distilling story, for all of you who use casks you will find this story interesting, reported by SevenFifty and written by Jaclyn DeGiorgio.

In a cultural exchange between Georgian and Italian winemakers, a project is duplicating how the Romans would have made and stored wine, complete with clay amphoras and wild yeast.

A play on the Italian word anfora that also means “I am not a fool” in the Romagnolo dialect, ANsomigaFORA is a cultural exchange with Georgian winemakers, who imparted their ancient winemaking techniques to the local Italian vintners. In addition to channelling the region’s winemaking roots, the project has led to the rediscovery of the region’s most important native grapes.

The project, which has so far sold all wine produced, has only three guidelines: producers must use native grapes; there should be no chemical intervention; and the fermentation must be spontaneous with natural yeasts. There are no minimum requirements for maceration.

As ANsomigaFORA presses ahead, Italian wine professional Carlo Catani hopes to increase its visibility both domestically and abroad. As most grapes predate modern winemaking and the transition to barrels, was the success of looking to the past inevitable? Well, he says, the amphorae can’t take all the credit. 

“The important thing to understand is that the amphora is an instrument,” says Catani who was the former director of Slow Food’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piedmont. “It doesn’t make good wine. You need good raw materials and good winemakers to do that.”

For the complete story, go here.

Mauro Giardini of Villa Venti. Photo courtesy of ANsomigaFORA.