This Connecticut launch event was the newest stop on our Wild (y) East series, and the newest name on our distribution roster: Ungrafted Selections, Connecticut’s purveyor of conscientiously farmed, handcrafted wines from small independent growers. Ungrafted has spent years building a book around growers who treat farming as the whole point rather than a line item – Jura, Beaujolais, the Rhône, Slovenia, a scattering of Spain and Italy’s quieter corners. This partnership was less an introduction than a recognition that both lists were already speaking the same language.

From 5 to 7 PM, the Loop’s retail space at the corner opened its doors to everyone, industry and civilians alike, for a walk-around tasting of Georgian wine from the Saperavi Brothers portfolio. No RSVP, no gatekeeping, just glasses and conversation, which is exactly how we like to introduce a region that most of the room was meeting for the first time.

Then the room changed shape. At 7 PM, the tasting gave way to a supra-style dinner, industry-only and intentionally small. Saperavi Brothers’ own Kosta was the guide to the crowds that have been following Georgian wine’s slow, deserved climb into American wine lists. He walked the table through the country’s wine history, pouring Artizani, Tilisma, Two Sisters, Simonica, Didubuli and Chelti (phew!). It was Kosta’s first time bringing his stories, and his library of Georgian wine knowledge, to Connecticut, and the room spent two hours proving that an “industry-only” dinner can still feel like a Georgian feast. Supras run on a sequence and New Haven kept the tradition intact, right down to the last glass raised before the room emptied back onto Orange Street.

Ungrafted Selections now carries Saperavi Brothers’ Georgian portfolio across Connecticut, and if this event was any indication, the state’s wine shops and restaurant lists are about to get a lot more interesting.