October 2026 Wine Club
Historic Wines For Transitional Times
Don’t blink while you are driving around right now or you’ll miss peak foliage in Vermont. The nor'easter that's been circling us all week has left everything wet and foggy, with clouds hanging low between the fiery reds and yellows in the mountains. It never gets old. It quite literally looks like something out of a storybook. If "cozy" has a picture in the dictionary, this is it. It makes you want to curl up with a book and a glass of wine after a long walk in rubber boots. And every year it gets me how fast it goes. A couple more storms and those leaves will be on the ground, and stick season will be upon us again so make sure to stop and savor it.
To balance out all this change, I figured we'd drink something that feels as old as time. It's harvest season in Kakheti, Georgia right now (they call it rtveli), and people there have been picking grapes, pressing them and burying wine in clay qvevri for around 8,000 years. The three bottles this month come from Tbilvino and Chelti, historic Georgian wineries that carry a lot of that tradition. The leaves here won't wait around, but the practice behind the wine in these bottles has held on for millennia.
1) DIDEBULI AMBER RKATSITELI, KAKHETI, GEORGIA
WINE: AMBER // GRAPES: RKATSITELI // CLUB: VIN DE SOIF & CORK DORK
About the Producer: Didebuli is a label from Tbilvino, a winery founded in Tbilisi in 1962. Brothers George and Zurab Margvelashvili took it over and turned it into a family business in 1999. Today they're based in Kvareli, in the heart of Kakheti, and they farm vineyards in the Mukuzani and Kindzmarauli zones. It's a big operation with deep roots, and they're a big reason Georgian grapes now show up on tables in more than 30 countries.
About the Wine: Rkatsiteli is one of Georgia's oldest and most-loved white grapes. Here it spends time on its skins, which gives it that golden-amber glow (shoutout to the little qvevri on the label). Expect peach, apricot and citrus, soft tannins, a round texture, and a mineral finish. This is your gateway amber wine guys: enough grip to keep things interesting, easy enough to pour, slightly chilled, in back to back glasses.
2) DIDEBULI SACHINO, KAKHETI, GEORGIA
WINE: RED, SEMI-DRY // GRAPES: SAPERAVI, RKATSITELI // CLUB: VIN DE SOIF & CORK DORK
About the Wine: This one's from the same Tbilvino family as the amber, this time in red. Sachino is 70% Saperavi, Georgia's signature red grape, blended with 30% Rkatsiteli. It spends four days on the skins, then gets pressed and fermented cold in stainless steel to keep the fruit fresh. It pours a moody garnet and feels velvety, with ripe fruits up front and a slightly sweet, subtly peppery finish. It's semi-dry, so serve it with a chill at about the same temp as a late October evening.
3) CHELTI KISI 2024, KAKHETI, GEORGIA
WINE: WHITE // GRAPES: KISI // CLUB: CORK DORK ONLY
About the Producer: Chelti is in Shilda village, on the lower southwestern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains along the Chelti River. Giorgi Mirianashvili revived his family's winemaking in 2001, and his kids Ana and Andria run it today. The 80-hectare estate has iron-rich clay and volcanic stone soils, plus big swings between day and night temperatures. While they were planting the vineyards, they dug up an ancient qvevri. Talk about a sign from above. Their cellar keeps qvevri seven meters underground, where it stays 12–16°C all year, right alongside modern steel tanks and French oak.
About the Wine: Kisi is the deep cut this month: a native Kakhetian white you don't come across often. It's pale straw with flashes of green, with citrus, white peach and dainty florals on the nose. It’s crisp and balanced like a fall day, with refreshing acidity and minerality. If I were you I would serve it with something smoky, like fish or an evening by a bonfire.
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