Enkeni

The occupation of Lasha Guruli’s family wine cellar “Enkeni” in the field of wine production is linked with the year 2015. Wine-making is the family’s traditional occupation which is hereditary and lasting. However, it has obtained the form of wine production for 2 years now.  At the Wine Festival, their wine “Tsitska-Tsolikouri 2015” entered the list of The 100 Best Home-made Wines. Currently, the brand “Enkeni” consists of 2 types of wine: Tsitska 2020 and Dzelshavi 2020 the pitcher wines.

The vineyards are located in West Georgia, namely, in Imereti, the village “Akhalterjola”. 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 year harvest wine is made in traditional ‘’qvevri’’. The 200-year-old pitchers are kept in pitcher places that still maintain the quality. This wine was made by pure Imeretian technology. The wine fermentation took place together with the 20% skin ingredient. For 3 months, the wine-making occurred on skin and the sediment. Only after that the wine was displaced into the pitchers again and kept until pouring into bottles.

The family marani thrift is run by Vitali Guruli, together with his sons – Lasha and Zaal Guruli, who take care of expanding the thrift and marani and do their best to make the family pitcher wine “Enkeni” popular.

The name “Enkeni” has two symbolic meanings. First of all, it comes from the word ‘’Enkenistve’’, which is the folk name of September month. In this month, the “Rtveli” (harvesting) takes place in most regions of Georgia. Thus, the ‘’Rtveli’’ and September symbolically maintain the relationship. The second symbolic meaning is directly linked with the village of “Akhalterjola” and the forgotten tradition of it. Annually, at the end of the month September – the 26th, the public holiday of “Enkenoba” was celebrated that reflected the initiation of Rtveli i. e. picking grapes, completing the Autumn works, harvesting, and placing the harvest for keeping. On that day, almost all the families used to host their relatives and friends in order to celebrate “Enkenoba”. The parties often went on for 2 – 3 days.