Host: My favorite wine from Dr. Frank's is Rkatsiteli. Could you tell me a little bit more about how the first Rkatsiteli wine came to America and how you vinefied and produced this excellent wine?
Guest: Well, that's one of my favorites as well. It's pronounced, R Katsiteli, so it's basically like a phonetic pronunciation, spelling out all the letters, R Katsiteli and this is an ancient wine grape from Eastern Europe. It's thought to be three or four thousands years old, and archaeologist in the early clay pottery have discovered Rkatsiteli seeds that they have able to scientifically show that they are actually from Rkatsiteli. So that's how many archaeologists are convinced, that Rkatsiteli is one of the earliest known wine grape varieties for wine making in the world. Fortunately we are one of the only growers in the United States. Worldwide, it's thought to be one of the largest vineyard acreages, concentrated in Georgia and Eastern Europe, in that part of the world. So in Georgia this is the number one grape variety for them, and because Dr. Frank studied at the University of Odessa, he was familiar with this grape variety and his dream when he came to New York in the early `50s, was to assemble the world's greatest wine grape varieties from different parts of the world, and grow them here right on vineyards of Rkatsiteli. One of those varieties that he felt was really world class status, and what we found over growing over in the last 45 years, is it's very well adapted to our poor soils and poor climate. So we have been extending our acreage over the years and we now have enough, where we can offer not only to visitors here at the winery, but to restaurants and stores throughout New York, and even in 30 states throughout the country, where we got distributors that work with us to market our wines.
It has won a tremendous number of medals. It competes in wine competitions out in the class for other white vinifera, and they sort of club together other pure varieties that don't have their own class. It's a competitive class because the styles vary so much between all these different varieties. It's won Best of Wines in three different national wine competitions, and in another competition it won Best of Show, meaning, it was judged the best white wine in the entire competition. The word is getting out about this quality of the wine, because the Wall Street Journal just two weeks ago brought up the story about exciting pure wine grape varieties that the author felt really deserved more attention and she included that Dr. Frank Rkatsiteli from all group of wines from throughout the world, she picks them from half a dozen and she felt really excited of the wine.
So we are really happy that Rkatsiteli is getting more recognition in United States, because it's one of our favorite wines. It really goes great with seafood and fish. There's a very nice crisp, natural acidity, and so that acidity compliments fish and seafood really well. And it's also great sipping on its own, it's a dry white wine, so really it's refreshing as it's just sipping wine on it's own, would appear with the meal, it's just a fabulous choice. If you're ever looking for a wine, this time, one of your friends who really thinks have very wide knowledge, this is the wine you are serving the next dinner party , in a nice paper bag, just ask your guest to guess what it is. Chances are you are going to teach your friend who really thinks he is a wine knowledgeable, something new, which is always fun in the wine business to teach and learn. It's what keeps us going. There are so many new wines and so many wine varieties of Riesling, but the Finger Lakes are really becoming discovered, and varieties like Rkatsiteli are being recognized. So we are really excited about that.
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