John Wurdeman

Teaches at Astor Center

John Wurdeman was born into family of artists in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1975. Spending his adolescent years in Richmond, VA he realized he wanted to pursue a life as an artist. Working on his undergraduate degree in art at Maryland Institute, College of Art, and Masters, at the Surikov Institute in Moscow, Russia, John developed a passion for Georgian polyphonic songs. Always interested in various ethnic cultures, John fell in love with the country of Georgia when he arrived in 1995 for the first time. The layered sounds of the music, flavors of the cuisine, and wines as well as the extraordinary authenticity left in the people and culture enamored him. In 1996, he bought a home in the medieval hillside town of Sighnaghi, while still a grad student in Moscow. Upon completion of his studies as an artist in 1998, John moved to Georgia to paint and collect folk songs. The folk singing tradition is part of an ancient feasting tradition called supra in Georgian. So through the diverse regional singing John learned in his travels in this ancient land about different ways to raise wine, from the vast collection of hundreds of endemic Georgian varietals. In 2006, partnering with vigneron Gela Patalishvili, who learned traditional winemaking from his grandparents, the two young men ventured out to start their own natural winery, Pheasant’s Tears. They used local varieties, used qvevri (clay pots for fermentation), and conducted elevage and farming the grandfather’s way. Over time Pheasant’s Tears became a nucleus for a general renaissance in traditional Georgian wines and sharing them with the outside world. John has opened two wine bars in Tbilisi, a restaurant at the winery, and travelled the world pouring wines, cooking food, and offering lectures on this 8,000 year old tradition. John still paints, collects songs and lives happily in Sighnaghi, Georgia with his wife Ketevan, son Lazare, and daughter Gvantsa.