Tako Zhuruli ("Zhuka-Sano")

In 2015 Tako Zhuruli (Zhuka) and her husband Zura Sanodze (Sano) bought a house in Kakheti, in the small village of Ruispiri, not far from Telavi. The name of their winery is composed of their respective nicknames: Zhuka-Sano.

Tako is actually a journalist and was involved in many socio-political issues. But there was one thing lacking inside of her: the connection to her own earth. And indeed, Tako was somehow able to convince her family to settle down in a rural life and become happy here. She enjoys the immediacy of the change of seasons and the dependence on the weather itself...

It is a small family winery, the Marani is located directly in the house, the small, half hectare vineyard is only a five minutes’ walk away. In the old Marani there are still older Qvevris, one with a production engraving from 1907...

She restored the Qvevris and converted the fields to organic farming, where today Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane, Iqaltos tsiteli (tsiteli=red) are grown. Especially the red Iqalto vine is a historical treasure, because it belongs to one of the oldest vine varieties in Georgia and grows only in close proximity to the famous and historically important Iqalto Monastery (built in the 6th century), which is where the name comes from. Zhuka-Sano are the only ones who grow this vine professionally at all, their fields are about 2km away from the monastery.

The humility and the thirst for knowledge of the couple, who call themselves beginners, is especially appealing. They are scholars of the well-known and experienced natural wine growers Iago Bitarishvili and Kakha Berishvili. They constantly inform themselves about traditional and new scientific viticulture methods and are intensively engaged in biodynamic vineyard management. But at the end of the day, Tako and Zura usually find that the more they learn, the less they know.