Ebook: Georgian Ampelography

2-nd edition. — Tbilisi, 2012. — 454 pp.The Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia made an important decision to renew this bibliography for the wide circle of interested readers who referred to matters of Viticulture, Wine-making and Enology in the popular book - Georgian Ampelography, the authors of which were Niko Ketskhoveli, Maksime Ramishvili and Dimitri Tabidze. The book was originally published by the Academy of Science of Georgia in Tbilisi, in 1960.
It was determined that the book would be translated and published in the English language, in order to increase the sphere of geography; to introduce foreign readers to the significance and value of Georgian vine’s rich history , and allow them to form an image of Georgian viticulture.
In the previous version of the Georgian Ampelography, 57 vine varieties were included which – according to the authors - either had or will have importance to Georgian industry. 52 of those are locally presented vines, with just five being wide-spread and well-known French varieties. The characterization of each variety is presented in detail in the Ampelography and includes fascinating information: the origin of the variety; synonyms and homonyms; the distribution; botanical descriptions (of young sprout, one year shoot, leaf, flower, bunch, berry, and seed); agro-biological characterizations (the duration of vegetation phases, productivity, vine growth and ripening of vegetation parts, resistance to fungal diseases and durability against pests, and the interaction of each vine with its environment); technical descriptions (mechanical consistency of the grape, the chemical consistency of grape juice, the use of the vine and characterization of the product, and the quality of the wine); relation with own and other roots; variations and clones; and general evaluations of each variety by district of cultivation. Each given description is accompanied by a picture of the berry and a color painting of the leaf. To learn more about the capabilities of each vine variety, attention should be paid to the testing and statistics regarding its use in other directions of viticulture. The indicators of the features after blending, the organoleptical characteristics, and the prospective for use and distribution in separate areas, or micro-districts, must also be taken into consideration.
Besides the classical description of ampelography, Georgian Ampelography provides information about Georgian vines and their natural conditions- explaining, in detail, the physical geography of each district; the orology, land-climate conditions, vegetation, Georgian viticulture time zones, consistency of vine and the placement of each variety in its viticulture district(s).