Kallmeti Winery, Lezhë: Wine From the Village That Named the Kallmet Grape
Kallmet, near Lezhë
Kallmeti was the first winery to work with us. That was 2021, when Me Zemër had no customers yet and no real proof that anyone outside Albania would pay for Albanian wine. The Gjini family trusted us with their bottles anyway, and their wine is how we found out that people would.
The winery is named after the village, and the village gave its name to the grape. Kallmet is a red variety that belongs to northern Albania, grown around Lezhë and Shkodër, and in 2006 three Gjini brothers opened the winery to make wine from it. In their first year they made just 5,000 liters. Today they own about 10 hectares in the village and buy Kallmet grapes from more than 50 small growers nearby. The hills here are dry and windy. As Gjokë Gjini put it to Decanter, "the dryness is so beneficial" that they only spray the vines two or three times a year.
Their Kallmet Prestigj stays on the vine two or three weeks longer than the rest of the harvest, until the grapes start to wrinkle. After that it spends a year in steel, a year in French oak, and a year in the bottle. Kallmet pours a deep blood red, fresh on the nose, with firm tannins and a full body. The Prestigj won silver at the Balkans Wine International Competition in 2019, and when Pope Francis visited Albania in 2014, Kallmeti was the wine served to him.
The village has an olive of its own too, also called Kallmet, and the brothers press it into oil and make raki alongside the wine. We still carry their wine, and we still think of the Gjini family as the people who got us started.
At a Glance
Kallmet, near Lezhë · Founded 2006 by the Gjini brothers · Native Kallmet grape · With Me Zemër since 2021
Where to Start
The Kallmet Prestigj, if you want to taste how far this grape can go.