AGRO-BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGIACAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 'RKATSITELI WINE GRAPE VARIETY, GROWING IN TIKVEŠ VINEYARDS

Research is being performed to the 'Rkatsiteli wine grape variety. The vineyards are sited on the Smilica-Tikveš vineyards. Plantation was started in 1996 with standard plantation material, 2.4 m planting distance between rows, and 1.2 m distance between vines in a row. The training system is Guyot two arms, with 20 eyelets leaving the vine. Some optimal agro-technical and ampelo-technical measures are applied. During the research period the following items were included: phenophases on development, fruiting of buds, weight of cluster (g), chemical composition of grape must (sugar, total acid, pH), and chemical analysis of wine. On the basis of obtained results we can conclude that the variety 'Rkatsiteli belongs to the group of native varieties (coefficient of fertility 1.10) with an 235 g average weight of cluster. The must grape contains 223 g/L sugar and 6.4 g/L total acids. The wine is a medium content of alcohol (12.33% vol) and low content of reducing sugar (1.7 g/L), which is due to selective grape harvesting and the way of vinification (winemaking)