Does anyone here have any first hand experience here? Anyone know of any scholarly studies?
Also, does anyone know where I can find an amphora for purchase?
Hi Berry,
The quick answer is that not all Amphorae are created the same. They have ‘terroir’ so to speak. Differences in porosity come from the mixture of clay, size of vessel, firing temperature, and the real kicker: the amount and type of bees wax used to coat the inside. Too much and you basically have a sealed tank, too little and oxidation can be amplified. In general, a good Amphora (Qvevri) is much more porous than oak. Many are sealed without an air-lock. If they weren’t a little porous, the CO2 produced during fermentation would cause them to explode (and they sometimes do.)
e-mail this guy (Dr. David Chichua, one of Georgia’s leading Qvevri experts)
We buried some Qvevri this year for a portion of our Silvaner and the wine is excellent. I will also say that red wine hardly benefits from fermenting in Amphora as the result is somewhat the same as in neutral wood (though more tannic).
Which varieties were you thinking about?
Good Luck,
Bill
Here you go: Italian amphora for fermentation
Giornata Wines in the Templeton area has two of them they’ve been using for their white wines the past couple of years. Here’s a photo I shot of them from earlier this year:
Do you do bulk aging in amphora or just fermentation?
Thank you
We destemmed (traditionally the Georgians don’t) and fermented whole berries (topped them up with must –so technically partial-carbonic), sealed the Qvevri with a loam/clay/ash gasket and so they sit. I’ve cracked into them 2 or three times to taste, but we won’t empty them until June or July. They are completely fermented dry, where most of our wines from 2012 are still (or again) fermenting after the cellar temp jumped up again after winter. Like everything else we make these were wild-yeast ferments, but with all of the skin contact they really push. It was a fun experiment, though it required a lot of digging.
Cheers,
Bill