Amphora wine: Qvevri, Tinaja and co. explained

The rediscovery of the amphora

The renaissance of these millennia-old vessels began in the 1990s in Collio, the hilly area of Friuli on the Italian-Slovenian border. There, pioneers such as Joško Gravner and Stanko Radikon made a remarkable departure from modern white winemaking methods, which were commercially successful but often interchangeable in flavour. Instead, they returned to traditional regional techniques in which skin fermentation of white grapes plays a central role. In his search for the ideal vessel for this process, Gravner began importing Qvevris from Georgia. After initial financial difficulties (his radical change of style almost drove him into bankruptcy), his wines gradually gained a foothold and attracted the attention of the wine world, particularly other producers seeking more authentic forms of expression.

The amphora is more than just a wine vessel. In an era of acceleration and technological perfection, it embodies a deliberate counter-model, a connection between people, earth and time. The clay vessel shatters the illusion of complete control and reminds us that wine is not merely a product but a living organism that unfolds in dialogue with its surroundings. Winemakers who work with this millennia-old medium renegotiate, within the microcosm of their cellars, the relationship between human craftsmanship and natural dynamics, between cultural heritage and contemporary innovation.

Qvevri, Tinaja, Dolium, Terracotta: comparing the vessels

Behind the collective term “amphora wine” lie vessels that differ considerably. The Georgian Qvevri is lined on the inside with beeswax and buried up to its neck in the cellar floor; the oldest known wine residues in clay vessels come from Georgia and are around 8,000 years old. The Spanish Tinaja and the Portuguese Talha, by contrast, stand free in the cellar, traditionally fired to a dense finish and often coated with pitch (pez). The Romans lowered their Dolium into the cellar floor up to the shoulder, and in Italy today almost every clay vessel in the cellar is called an Anfora. At the edge of the table stands the concrete egg: no clay, no tradition, an invention dating from 2001.

One line is deliberately missing from the table: the stoneware amphora. It is fired at a very high temperature and is practically non-porous; here, our Riesling “This is not a love song” from HM Lang matures in it. This very example shows the limits of any overview. How much air a vessel lets through depends on the clay, the firing temperature and the lining. The designation on the label tells you nothing about this – “amphora” is a word, not a guarantee of material.

What the amphora does to the wine

Oxygen in minute doses

The porosity of a clay vessel depends on the clay, the firing temperature and the lining, not on the word “amphora”. Moderately fired, unlined clay lets very little oxygen through – less than a wooden cask. Gernot Heinrich describes this from his own experience: his wines mature more slowly in amphora than in wood. A high firing temperature, as with the terracotta from Impruneta, makes the vessel considerably denser, while a lining of wax or resin renders it almost as tight as steel. Everything lies between these two poles, and two amphorae from different workshops can behave quite differently.

Cool earth, gentle fermentation

Clay reacts sluggishly to heat, and where the vessel is buried, it rests in the evenly cool earth of the cellar. Fermentation there proceeds gently without cooling technology; the earth buffers fluctuations between day and night. The shape also plays its part: the pointed base collects skins and pips, and the fermentation creates a natural circulation of the contents. What requires pumps and thermometers in the stainless-steel hall, the buried clay vessel accomplishes entirely on its own.

With or without skins

Amphora does not automatically mean skin fermentation. At Foradori, the red wines Morei and Sgarzon remain on their skins in the Tinaja for eight months. Francesco Cirelli and Gernot Heinrich take the other path: they press off after skin fermentation and let only the juice mature in clay – at Heinrich after around two weeks on the skins. In Kakheti, by contrast, white grapes are classically fermented with their skins and partly with their stems, remaining on them for up to six months. White grapes left on their skins in clay for so long produce orange wine; but a white wine can just as easily mature in amphora without skins. The difference lies in the work in the cellar, not in the vessel. Skin contact brings tannins that stabilise the wine. That is why many amphora wines manage with little or no added sulphur.

Clay, wood and steel

New wood imparts aromas: vanilla, roasted notes, tannin from the cask. Clay does not. Stainless steel is airtight and can tend towards reductive notes; moderately porous clay allows the wine to breathe. What remains is the variety and the place: fruit and origin take centre stage, the texture becomes rounder without anything tasting of cask. For producers who wish to express their origin rather than their cellar equipment, this is the real reason for working with clay.

Italy: Foradori, COS and Cirelli

Foradori: an early champion of amphora ageing

One of the most attentive observers of this development was Elisabetta Foradori from Trentino, one of Italy’s leading biodynamic winemakers. In search of an alternative to wooden casks – a material that permits micro-oxygenation but inevitably influences the flavour of the wine – she discovered the ideal solution in amphorae. For Foradori, these clay vessels represent a symbolic return of the wine to its origin: the earth on which the grapes grew. Her choice fell upon Spanish tinajas from Villarrobledo with a capacity of 400 litres. Like many pioneers in this field, she needed years to be completely satisfied with the results of her experiments. For Foradori, biodynamic viticulture and ageing in amphorae are inseparably linked. She observed that in the first years after converting to biodynamic farming, the wines aged in amphorae did not yet possess the desired stability, a condition that only improved over time.

The evolution of her methodology is fascinating: the first amphora wines, such as the Teroldego Morei and the Teroldego Sgarzon, were initially fermented only in amphorae and then aged in neutral wood. It was not until the 2012 vintage that the wines remained on the grape skins in the amphorae throughout the entire ageing process. With growing experience, Foradori refined her technique further: part of the wine ages without the grape skins for a further twelve months in the cylindrical tinajas, the Cilindricas, with a volume of 350 litres, which lends the wines an additional dimension.

COS: visionaries in Sicily

Another story worth knowing is that of Azienda Agricola COS. When the young friends Giambattista Cilia and Giusto Occhipinti received a vineyard near Vittoria in southern Sicily as a gift in 1980, they founded an estate together with Cirino Strano (hence the name COS, the initials of their surnames). Not only were they the youngest winemakers in the country, they rapidly became catalysts for Sicily’s transformation from a mass producer of grapes back into one of Italy’s most interesting and quality-conscious wine regions. The foundation for this was their focus on indigenous grape varieties and their early adoption of biodynamic cultivation methods – a radical approach within traditionally conservative Sicilian viticulture.

But COS went one step further and became the spearhead of the amphora movement in Italy. At the end of the 1990s, Giambattista and Giusto undertook a study trip to Georgia to learn about the traditional qvevri technique. Then, in 2000, the first Cerasuolo di Vittoria aged in Spanish amphorae was bottled under the name Pithos Rosso. At COS, the amphorae are buried in sand and gravel found along the Sicilian coast, following the Georgian model. They are lightly fired vessels which, like qvevris, are lined with wax to seal them. When COS moved to new premises in 2005, Giambattista and Giusto made a remarkable decision: they parted with all their small wooden casks and instead invested in 150 amphorae, each with a capacity of 400 litres – a clear statement of their wine philosophy.

Anyone wishing to understand the influence of the ageing vessel on a wine’s character should venture a comparative tasting: the Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico, traditionally aged in large Slavonian wooden casks, and the Pithos Rosso, matured in amphorae, offer an illuminating experience. The Pithos Rosso captivates with a piquant, almost analytical clarity, as if one were viewing the Cerasuolo di Vittoria through a magnifying glass that precisely focuses every detail of the terroir expression.

Francesco Cirelli: Tuscan amphorae in Abruzzo

Francesco Cirelli from Abruzzo represents another highly interesting variation of amphora ageing. Alongside his classic range, his wines aged in amphorae are gaining increasing importance. Unlike some of his colleagues, Cirelli relies on Tuscan cellar amphorae from Impruneta near Florence, a place renowned for its outstanding terracotta craftsmanship since Etruscan times. Cirelli’s method differs subtly: after maceration and fermentation in the amphorae, the wine is pressed, and only the juice continues to age in the clay vessels. This technique lends his wines a remarkable balance between structure and finesse, which is equally convincing with Montepulciano and the region’s white grape varieties.

Pfalz and Burgenland: Odinstal and Heinrich

Odinstal: half qvevri, half wood

Andreas Schumann of Weingut Odinstal in Wachenheim in the Pfalz follows a particularly remarkable approach to amphora ageing. His Riesling 190 N.N. [Nakt] is a fine example of combining tradition and innovation. The grapes come from a terraced vineyard whose biodiversity is impressive and which is cultivated entirely by hand, both in terms of vine care and harvesting. An unusual feature of this wine is that it is an assemblage of three vintages. Its ageing follows two paths: one part is fermented in classic qvevris buried in the ground directly beside the vineyard, while the other part is aged in neutral wood.

Visually, this unfiltered wine presents itself with a slightly hazy apricot hue and a fine mousseux, a visual indication of its artisanal origins. The aromatic profile is anything but minimalist, as the name “Nakt” might suggest: multi-layered aromas of vineyard peach, elderflower, elder wood and hibiscus harmonise with fresh citrus notes, citrus zest and ginger. Complex secondary aromas of malt, rooibos tea and fine tobacco complete the bouquet. On the palate, the wine develops a gentle tingle with a harmonious interplay of yeast character and bright fruit. Like the wines of other amphora pioneers, it owes its remarkable stability to the long contact with grape skins and stems, meaning it requires no sulphur addition whatsoever for stabilisation. A complex wine that unfolds beautifully alongside light summer salads with figs and Gorgonzola, lemon risotto or smoked salmon.

Heinrich: an act of Freyheit

In Austria’s Burgenland, Gernot Heinrich has discovered the amphora as a medium for developing a radically different wine language and questioning established conventions. His method differs significantly from the approaches described so far: after around two weeks of maceration, he presses the wine and then transfers the unfiltered juice into voluminous 600-litre cellar amphorae. To underscore this special ageing visually as well, he bottles the Graue Freyheit in traditional stoneware bottles – a perfectly coherent overall concept. Heinrich, who ranks among Austria’s leading biodynamic winemakers, is enthusiastic about the potential of amphorae: “It is brilliant to work with amphorae,” he explains. “As relatively small vessels with a large inner surface area that is porous to a certain degree, they are perfect for an elegant white wine style, but increasingly also for red wines, especially Blaufränkisch. We have found that amphorae exert less oxygen influence than wooden casks, which means the wines mature very slowly. That is exactly what we strive for: a gentle development that leads to wines showing precise fruit aromas and possessing striking elegance.”

Portugal: Aphros and Phaunus, amphorae without electricity

Vasco Croft pursues a particularly purist interpretation of amphora ageing in Portugal. At his Aphros estate in the north of the country, he has established a second, more radical line under the name Phaunus. Phaunus is all about winemaking with absolutely minimal intervention, an approach that recalls the origins of viticulture. The wines are made in a room containing classic amphorae, half-buried in the earth and lined with beeswax. What makes it special: the room has only minimal light sources and is free from electromagnetic interference – there is not even a power connection. It is in this almost meditative environment that Croft’s Phaunus Palhete and various wines from field blends are created, niche products based on archaic winemaking methods that appear highly contemporary precisely for that reason. Croft’s approach impressively demonstrates how pre-modern winemaking techniques can today rank among the most avant-garde concepts.

However different the ageing methods described above may be in detail, they are all united by a common principle: by choosing the amphora, the winemakers consistently continue the path they began when converting to biodynamic viticulture. Biodynamics forms the foundation for the remarkable stability of these wines. The path leads back to the roots, not only to the origins of winemaking, but also in the sense of a natural cycle, as Elisabetta Foradori and her son Emilio put it:

“It is the most natural way to make wine. You consistently continue in the cellar the path of working with nature that you have already embarked upon in the vineyard. The whole thing only works, however, with living grapes. That is when special wines are created. Not superficial, quick or showy, but wines that go deep, introverted wines that need time to open up, but then become finely layered, mineral and lively, capable of changing from minute to minute.”

The growing popularity of amphora ageing is not a passing trend, but a return to essential qualities of winemaking: transparency, authenticity and the wine’s ability to express its specific terroir unadulterated. In an era where technological interventions and flavour standardisation are widespread, these ancient clay vessels offer a way of producing wines that not only reflect the grape variety and the place of their origin, but also possess a cultural dimension reaching far back into the past.

Buy amphora wines from us

Our amphora selection comprises around 100 available wines from a wide range of regions: Trentino and Abruzzo, the Aeolian Islands with Tenuta di Castellaro, Burgenland with Heinrich and Meinklang, plus Weinviertel and Kremstal, Hungary, Catalonia, Galicia, Alsace and the northern Rhône. Winemaking here spans every colour – white, orange, rosé and red – and even Champagne is included. The standard 0.75-litre bottle starts at around €20; entry points include the Siuralta Orange 2021 from Vins Nus at €20.00 or Cirelli’s Amphora line at €21.00, while the upper end of the range extends beyond €150.

Our advice for getting started: begin with a red wine, such as Foradori’s Teroldego from the tinaja, and then try an orange wine to understand what time on the skins in clay achieves. Serve white and orange amphora wines at 12 to 14 degrees, and reds slightly warmer. And give the wines air: they like oxygen, so open them early or decant them.