In the Kakheti village of Akhshani, in Akhmeta Municipality, a cellar has been producing wine for over a century. Lekso Pitskhelauri is its current steward, and in 2015 he opened Lekso's Marani to the world, bottling the family tradition and sending nearly 70 percent of production to export markets in Germany, Austria, Poland, and the United States.
Backstory
The marani — the Georgian word for a wine cellar — was built by Lekso's grandfather, whose name he also carries. Some of the qvevri vessels still in use today are more than a hundred years old, ranging from five-liter jars used for domestic batches to enormous 2.2-ton earthenware vats. When Lekso took over formal commercial production in 2015, he honored that inheritance without modernizing away its character.
The Region
Kakheti, in eastern Georgia, is the country's most important wine region and the birthplace of the world's oldest continuous winemaking tradition. The Akhmeta area sits at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, where altitude and continental climate combine with the region's distinctive clay and alluvial soils to produce wines of concentration and depth. Kakheti is the stronghold of amber wine made in qvevri, and Lekso's Marani keeps that tradition alive without compromise.
Vineyards and Farming
Pitskhelauri farms 2.5 hectares of his own vineyards, supplementing production with grapes purchased from neighboring Kakheti growers he trusts. The focus is on indigenous Georgian varieties: Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, Kisi, Saperavi, Jananura (also known as Khikhvi), and Pink Muscat. Farming follows organic principles throughout.
Winemaking
Every wine at Lekso's Marani is made in qvevri — the large beeswax-lined earthenware vessels buried in the cellar floor that have defined Georgian winemaking for eight millennia. Grapes are fermented with their skins and indigenous yeasts, then sealed in the qvevri for extended aging. The winery has a total fermentation and aging capacity of 20 tons across its collection of ancient and more recent vessels. Annual production sits at around 8,000 bottles.
The Wines
The range includes Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, Kisi, Jananura, Pink Muscat, and Saperavi Dry Red. The Saperavi, with its deep color and 14% alcohol, is a flagship expression of Kakheti red winemaking, while the amber whites — especially the Rkatsiteli and Kisi — reward those who take the time to understand Georgia's skin-contact tradition.
