Freddy R. Troya

9.8

Do-Re-Mi – Unfiltered Amber Dry Qvevri Wine 2021 (Rkatsiteli)
Kakheti – Georgia 🇬🇪

Overview
Made from 100% Rkatsiteli, this unfiltered amber wine is crafted in traditional qvevri vessels with extended skin contact. The Do-Re-Mi winery embraces a natural, minimal-intervention approach, letting the grape and terroir speak for themselves. (Educational note: Leaving a wine unfiltered preserves texture, color, and flavor complexity — a hallmark of many natural amber wines in Georgia.)

Aromas & Flavors
Aromas of dried apricot, quince, and orange peel, lifted by chamomile and herbal tea notes. Underneath, hints of walnut, honey, and earthy spice add depth and rustic charm.

Mouthfeel
Medium-bodied with firm tannins from skin contact. Textured and slightly cloudy due to being unfiltered, with lively acidity that keeps it balanced. The finish is long, savory, and grippy.

Food Pairings
Excellent with walnut-based Georgian dishes, lamb stew, or roasted eggplant. Also pairs well with Middle Eastern mezze, lentils, and aged cheeses.

Verdict
A bold, rustic amber Rkatsiteli — raw, textural, and deeply authentic. The 2021 vintage shows both freshness and grip, delivering an unpolished charm that speaks to Georgia’s ancient qvevri tradition. 🍷

Did You Know?
Rkatsiteli is Georgia’s most planted grape variety, prized for its naturally high acidity — making it ideal for both crisp whites and structured amber wines. — 13 days ago

David Kline

9.8

Incredible depth of color rim to rim without variation. Inky. Showing slight brick under strong light. Nose of rye toast, tobacco, turned earth, black cherry, oak bark, crumbly roses, dried lavender, and sage. Descriptors do not do justice to the seamless whole of the smells, which are sewn together with espresso and bay leaf, allspice and forest notes. Smooth and silky tannins slip over medium mouthfeel of dried mushroom and graphite, re-emerge as round textural tapestries, filled with candle smoke, dark, rich cherry and ripe black currants. A stunner that needed days of exposure to fully emerge. Enticing and exquisite.




#chateauhautbrion #hautbrion #premiergrandcruclassé #2009 #pessacléognan #graves #bordeaux #leftbankbordeaux #leftbank #grandcruclasséde1855 — 2 years ago

with Courtney

Paula Strebig

9.0

Bright, bing cherry color, copious legs on the swirl, subtle notes of chocolate covered cherries on the nose. Easy sipping, dry, cherry pits with hints of plum, smooth tannins on the finish. Pleasant wine with Mexican re-do dinner on the lanai with Tim and Kendra — 3 years ago

with Tim

Jay Kline

9.4

Opened a few hours prior to service and enjoyed over the course of an hour. This bottle of the 1986 was re-corked at the chateau in 2011. The wine pours a deep garnet color with a near opaque core; medium viscosity with moderate staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is vinous with notes of ripe and some dried dark and red fruits: black currants, brambles, black plum, tobacco, pencil shavings, some dried flowers, green pepper, leather, some earth and a gentle mix of cool and warm spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannin and medium+ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is long. This seemed evergreen and this bottle spending most of its life in the cellars of the chateau likely has a lot to do with that. Fabulous stuff. Drink now through 2046. — 3 months ago

Jay Kline

9.2

Popped and poured. The 2012 pours a deep ruby, with a near opaque core; medium+ viscosity with moderate staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is vinous with notes of blackberries, desiccated cherries, prune, pipe tobacco, new leather, purple flowers, wet rocks, and baking spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannin and medium acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is medium+ and quite satisfying. The texture is luxurious. This drinking well now and should continue to do so for a least a few more years but why wait? — 2 years ago

Robertocheese

9.7

Tanning central! a special experiance this is not to be missed the flavour that perculated after 2 sips was spellbounding. Then i was smitten — 3 years ago

Benjamin Hickey

9.3

Grippy, good balance of texture and savoury — 3 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.3

2015 vintage. Medium-heavy body. Coffee grounds/mocha nose. Deep color. enuff grip and plenty of chonk. Ridiculous pricing for this vineyard/these grapes. Noticeably without the over the top, reductive flavors espoused by Napa's "finest" re: this vineyard the last decade+. Not exactly a declaration of independence but definitely passive-aggressive and non-compliant. Doubt you'll find it but if you do, worth a flirtatious comment and a wink. 06.18.25. — 4 months ago

Alan Weinberg

9.1

Wish I knew the base year and other relevant info re this bottle. I’ve had it a couple years. Lovely stuff. Since they claim to make 1911 bottles, what do they do with the rest if “more” is vinified? — a year ago

Wulf Losee

9.6

I’m going to leave my original review up, but if you want my final review of the this wine, scroll down to the bottom.

My original rating was 9.1– Pine and a hint of leather on the nose. Currents on the front of the palate. Medium tannic structure—but not much going on on the mid palate. Ends with a lot of tart high notes on the finish. There is a pleasant mineral astringency that lingers after one swallows. I rather like that. I’m going to let this sit for a half an hour to see if the tartness of the finish mellows out a bit. There’s not much here to open up though. this is a perfectly fine wine, but it’s not QC’s best. Slightly disappointed.

Update: after being left in a decanter for an hour and a half (I got distracted) the fruit on the front and the mineral finish faded, leaving the astringency at the back of the palate with tannins that were unable to balance the bitterness. This is a wine that’s best guzzled quickly [at least if you intend to drink the wine today— see my further comments below].

Updated rating, two days later: 9.6!
Oh my! Because this wine didn’t seem very exceptional, I put the remainder in an empty plastic water bottle. I squeezed out most of the air and I capped it and left it for two days. I certainly wasn’t expecting much when I drank it tonight, But it went from OK to fantastic! Bouquet was 100 percent leather. The fruit had faded on the front, but the tannins from front to back are now intriguingly complex. Lots of earth, and mineral notes all along the palate, and the finish is longer. Yummy!

The moral is don’t bother to decant this sucker. Open the bottle, at least 24 hours before you intend to drink it, and do the French thing of pouring off half a glass and then re-corking the bottle. Truly an amazing transformation!
— 2 years ago