Shavkapito has become a particularly popular variety in Shida Kartli winemaking in recent years. Its mother terroirs are said to include the area of Liakhvi Valley, that is, the southern slopes of the Caucasus, the historical Samachablo. Despite this, Shavkapito gives excellent results on other terroirs of Kartli as well, which naturally raises the question of why this variety was not spread throughout Shida Kartli earlier.

However, it should not be so easy to declare Shavkapito as a Samachablo breed. In Kartli, we can find another variety with a similar name "Kapita" / "Kapito", which is extremely rare, but the historical area of its distribution was the whole of Shida Kartli. Kapita is extremely similar to Shavkapito in terms of leaf, cluster, and grain parameters, and it is very close to it in terms of other ampelographic and agricultural characteristics as well (Ivane Javakhishvili considered Kapita, Shavkapito, and Kapistoni varieties to be of one origin and, as will be seen below, not without reason).

These circumstances lead me to believe that the name "Shavkapito" is essentially the same as "Kapita" with the addition of a "Shav-" (black) title. That is, "Shavkapito" is a variation of the name of essentially the same or very similar grape variety - "Kapita". Therefore, when we are interested in the etymology of "Shavkapito", the main study here is the "Kapito" part.

The etymology of "Kapita" seems a bit obscure, but with enough observation, it allows for sound conclusions. To do this, let's first look at what we know about Shavkapito as a breed. What does its visual side tell us?

In general, Shavkapito is known as the "Blue leaf" vine (Ujmajuridze L., Kakabadze G., Mamashlishvili L., "Georgian Vine Varieties", vol., 2018, p. 416). Shavkapito leaves do have a blue appearance, but their canes are also bluish. It is known that the German colonists of Lower Kartli planted Shavkapito in the Bolnisi area, although they gave it the German name Blauhöezer, which means “blue cane” (Ampelography of Georgia, p. 402). In addition, those who have vinified Shavkapito grapes will agree with me that after removing the wine from the pitcher, the first washed water comes out dark blue in color. The dark black color of the wine itself is also due to the excess of blue pigments in it. That is, it can be said that the Shavkapito is a “blue grape” in all its visual characteristics.

Now let's see what "Kapito" can mean. After a lot of thinking and searching, my attention was drawn to an old Georgian word, which was mainly used to denote “falcon”. This is the word "Kapuet", which referred to hunting falcons, but in ancient Georgian "Kapuet" also meant "green color": In the old Georgian lists of the Bible, "kwai mtsuane" (greenstone) and "kapoet" are used interchangeably to denote "light green" (Greek: "prasinos"), although the same "kapoet" is also used to denote emerald and onyx (B. Gigineishvili, etymological dictionary, p. 235). In Armenian, "kapojt" means "blue" and "light blue", in Pahlavi language “kapöt” also means "blue", and in many other languages words from this root were used to refer to various birds (pigeon, falcon) or fish. (ibid., p. 236)

It turns out that, on the one hand, we have a grape variety, which, according to our own tradition, is sometimes called “blue-cane” and sometimes – a “blue-leaf”, the wine of which is bluish in color, and on the other hand, we have the word "Kapoeti", which in ancient Georgian sometimes meant green and sometimes - blue. In addition to this, we have a confirmed tradition in Georgian that this word can denote not only blue and green colors, but also - invariably apply to completely other things as well. For example - falcon, who was called "Kapoet" because of his bluish color.

I think there is no doubt that "Kapoet" could have denoted other blue things with the same success, and one such, obviously, was the blue-reed, blue-leaved, and blue-wine grape variety, i.e. our study subject "Shavkapito". The very fact that we had the oe/ue sounding in the initial root (kapoet), and ended up with the i (kapito) sounding, must be due to the same reason as the addition of the “Shav" (black) in the beginning, i.e. because "Kapoet" as a barbarism gradually fell out of use and lost its meaning. Thus the pronunciation of the root was easily changed to the form that was more suitable for the Georgian sounding.

Finally, once again and with more confidence, I will repeat the assumption made above, that the initial form of "Shavkapito" was probably "Kapito", and the "Shav" (black) is already a late addition to it: probably of times when the old barbarism "Kapuet" / "Kapita" / "Kapito" was already removed from usage and no one understood its meaning anymore.

Andro Barnovi

25.01.2023