What is Saperavi?

McGregor Vineyard: America’s first commercially successful Saperavi producer

Available vintages of Saperavi

Winery founders Bob & Marge McGregor are pioneers of growing vinifera wine grapes in the northeast. In the 1970s Bob searched for red varieties that could withstand the often-brutal winter climate of the Finger Lakes, that were disease resistant, and were able to consistently produce quality wines. In 1978, Dr. John McGrew of USDA in Beltsville, Maryland gave Bob scion wood of numerous grape varieties originally imported from Leningrad in the late 1950s and 1960s. Saperavi was one of these grapes and McGregor Vineyard began planting these vines in the spring of 1980.

Saperavi is an ancient wine making grape (vitis vinifera) that is primarily grown and produced in the Republic of Georgia. Georgians make a variety of Saperavi styles, ranging from dry to sweet, unoaked to oaked. 

There are only a few vineyards growing Saperavi in the United States, and until somewhat recently McGregor Vineyard was the only winery among them to produce Saperavi into a commercially sold wine. McGregor Vineyard has phenomenal success with this wine, and now a handful of other Finger Lakes wineries are producing their own styles of Saperavi.

Today, McGregor Vineyard’s Saperavi wine is a benchmark red wine of New York State, earning its status as the must-try, cult favorite wine of the Finger Lakes region. Recent vintages have expressed themselves as approachable in their youth, while improving with age over 8 or 10 to even 20+ years. We hope you agree that this intriguing wine is worthy of the attention it continues to garner across the globe.