# Pheasant's Tears Tsitska (2024)

- **Producer:** Pheasant's Tears
- **Colour:** white
- **Type:** still
- **Grapes:** Tsitska
- **Region:** Imereti, Georgia
- **Style:** Natural
- **Alcohol:** 12.0%
- **Average price:** €25
- **Vegan:** Yes
- **Contains sulphites:** Yes
- **When to drink:** Now or Later
- **Serving temperature:** 10–12 °C
- **Aromas & flavours:** apple, pear, quince, lemon, herbaceous, honey

## About this wine

Pheasant's Tears was founded in 2007 by American painter John Wurdeman and eighth-generation Georgian winegrower Gela Patalishvili. The winery takes its name from an ancient Georgian legend stating that only a truly extraordinary wine could make a pheasant weep tears of joy. Located in Western Georgia's Imereti region, this bottling highlights the indigenous white grape variety Tsitska, grown in clay-loam over limestone soils around Terjola.

## Interesting facts

- The winery's name originates from a Georgian myth about a wine so exceptional it made a pheasant cry.
- Unlike Kakheti's heavy amber wines, Imeretian Tsitska undergoes brief skin contact to preserve crisp acidity.
- Co-founder John Wurdeman originally moved to Georgia as an artist before diving into natural winemaking.

## Food pairing

Tsitska's vibrant, high acidity and subtle phenolic texture complement rich walnut pastes, cutting through fatty textures while pairing beautifully with fresh green herbs, poultry, and goat cheese.

## Wine making process

The hand-harvested grapes are destemmed and undergo a short skin maceration before spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts in traditional buried clay qvevri and stainless steel tanks. The wine ages on its full lees for approximately ten months and is bottled unfined and unfiltered with a minimal addition of sulfur.