07 - Supra

სუფრა

Supra

Wine. The table. The toast.

The Feast

The Table ↓How to Survive ↓Toast Order ↓

The Wine

The Qvevri ↓Our Favorite Wine ↓Glossary ↓

Niko Pirosmani · The Feast · c. 1906 · National Gallery of Georgia

სუფრა · Supra

The Feast

The word means "tablecloth." The table is the point. An enormous spread, prepared by people who take feeding others very seriously. A festive supra is called a Keifi. Our wedding feast will be called Qortsili Supra.

თამადა · Tamada

The Toastmaster

Selected by the host. The emotional conductor of the table. Needs eloquence, genuine feeling, and the capacity to drink without showing it.

Sofi's Dad was Tamada to many weddings. He broke the rule of never leaving the table to dance - and always danced with her.

Do not speak over the Tamada. Listen. When the toast ends: Gaumarjos.

სადღეგრძელო

The Toast

Sadghegrdzelo. The Georgian word for toast. Etymologically: "long life to." Every toast, at its root, is a wish for the other person's survival and flourishing. A statement of care, not ceremony.

Example of the toast

The Legend of the Late Arrival

There is a legend - and Georgians tell it with complete affection for their own character - about what happened when God was distributing lands to the different peoples of the world.

The Georgians were absent.

When they finally arrived, all the land had already been given out. God asked them where they had been, why they were late. The Georgians replied: they had been feasting and toasting - in God's honor, in gratitude for his world, in celebration of the day.

God was so moved that he gave them the piece of land he had been keeping for himself.

The most beautiful, fertile, warm, extraordinary piece of land on earth. This is why Georgia is the way it is. And this is also why Georgians are never in a rush to stop toasting.

How to Survive Georgian Wine

The supra involves a lot of wine, consumed through toasts, at a pace set by the tamada. Here are the things experienced supra attendees do.

Eat butter before you start. People swear by this. Coat your stomach.

Order a lot of bread and cheese early. Keep eating throughout.

Fresh cilantro apparently helps. Have it on the table.

Pace yourself even when the table absolutely refuses to let you.

Georgian wine - especially the natural, unfiltered amber wines - hits differently than what you are used to. It sneaks up on people.

Drink water. This is not shameful. It is smart.

The word "Gaumarjos" (გაუმარჯოს) means victory. You will say it many times tonight. Practice now.

The Toast Order

A traditional supra follows a rough sequence, moving from the sacred and collective toward the personal. Not rigid - a good tamada reads the room - but this is the grammar of the evening.

Peace / God

The first toast is usually for peace, or to God. Sets the register: this is a serious occasion, approached with gratitude.

The Occasion

Whatever brought everyone here. The birthday, the wedding, the reunion, the fact that everyone made it.

Georgia

A toast to the country. Always present. Always emotional.

Hosts & Guests

The table is a covenant between hosts and guests. Both sides of that covenant get their moment.

Parents

To parents. The people who built the people at this table.

Women

A long toast to the women in the room and in everyone's lives. Said with genuine feeling.

The Fallen

Those who should be here but aren't. The table becomes quieter here.

Children

For the children at the table and the ones not yet born.

Love

To love. In all its forms.

Closing

The tamada closes the supra. The table does not immediately end - it continues in more informal toasting - but the ceremony has its closure.

now, the wine you will be drinking

8,000 years of practice

The Qvevri

The Vessel

Buried in the ground. Egg-shaped clay. Coated in beeswax. Been here for 8,000 years.

The Method

Grape juice, skins, seeds - everything in together. Sealed underground. Earth keeps the temperature. Six months. Wine.

The Result

Amber-colored. Tannic. Textured. Somewhere between a white and a red. Nothing like the whites you know.

Amber Wine

Almost every Georgian family makes wine. What the rest of the world calls "orange wine" Georgia has been making for 8,000 years. Amber in color, made in a buried clay vessel with skins and all. You will be offered wine poured from an old plastic bottle with no label - just this family, this village, that vineyard over there. Try a Rkatsiteli from Kakheti.

Our favorite wine →8000 Vintages · store · tastings →

September in the countryside

Rtveli

Rtveli is the Georgian grape harvest - a word and a season and a tradition all at once. In September and October, across Kakheti, the vineyards are picked by hand. Families come together. Music appears. There is always too much food.

A Small Glossary

Qvevri

ქვევრი

The buried clay vessel used for winemaking. The technology is 8,000 years old.

Rkatsiteli

რქაწითელი

One of Georgia's most ancient grape varieties. The most planted in Kakheti. Makes excellent amber wine.

Saperavi

საფერავი

Georgia's great red grape. Dark, tannic, deeply colored. Ages beautifully.

Mtsvane

მწვანე

A white grape, literally "green." Often blended with Rkatsiteli. Fresh and aromatic.

Chacha

ჭაჭა

The Georgian grape pomace spirit. Like grappa. Very strong. Someone at the table will insist you try it.

Tamada

თამადა

The toastmaster. The emotional conductor of the feast. Chosen by the host. Listened to by everyone.

Sadghegrdzelo

სადღეგრძელო

The word for toast. Literally: "long life to." Every toast is a wish for the other person's survival.

Gaumarjos

გაუმარჯოს

The universal toast. "Victory." Said with the glass raised, looking at the person you are toasting.