🏺 Ancient and special winemaking methods

This category gathers wines defined by an old vessel, an unusual ingredient or a special treatment. Georgian qvevri winemaking — fermenting and ageing wine in large clay jars buried in the ground — has been on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2013. The Kakhetian method keeps skins and stems with the wine; the Imeretian method uses only part of the skins. In Portugal's Alentejo wine is fermented in talhas, large clay jars; amphora wine is the wider name for wine fermented or aged in clay.

Retsina is defined in EU law (Regulation 1308/2013, Annex VII, Part II) as wine produced only in Greece from grape must treated with Aleppo pine resin. Vino cotto and vin cuit are made from must boiled down over a fire. Piquette, under EU rules, is a product of fermenting grape marc macerated in water and is not wine. Carbonic maceration lets whole bunches start fermenting inside the berries under carbon dioxide; it is the method behind many nouveau wines.

Why it matters to you. Clay or resin tell you how a wine was made, not its category: most of these are ordinary still wines. Retsina may be made only in Greece. WHO: no safe level of alcohol exists.