All activities / Wine / Spirits Education / Kakheti
Wine / Spirits Education in Kakheti
The Alazani Valley wine heartland where eight thousand vintages meet buried clay: qvevri country, Telavi to Sighnaghi.
Why here
Georgia is the oldest continuously producing wine culture on earth, roughly eight thousand vintages deep, and Kakheti is its engine room: about seventy percent of Georgian wine comes from this one valley, drawn from a national catalogue of some five hundred indigenous grapes led by Saperavi, Rkatsiteli, and Kisi. The method is the draw, wine fermented and aged in buried clay qvevri, inscribed by UNESCO in 2013 and never abandoned here even through Soviet industrialization. Natural-wine pioneers in Sighnaghi pour at the source with supra dinners attached, German-Georgian estates near Telavi add cellar hotels and wine spas, and the September-October rtveli harvest takes visiting hands seriously.
Best months
May to June and September to October are the sweet spots, with rtveli harvest participation in the latter. Tastings are generous, plan a driver. Winter visits get the cellars to themselves.
Getting there & around
Telavi and Sighnaghi are ninety minutes to two hours from Tbilisi; estates cluster along the Alazani Valley road. Sighnaghi's walled hilltop makes the best base.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Pheasant's Tears
OutfitterThe Sighnaghi natural-qvevri pioneer founded 2007 by painter John Wurdeman and winemaker Gela Patalishvili, with tastings and supra dinners daily.
Schuchmann Wines Georgia
OutfitterGerman-Georgian estate in Kisiskhevi near Telavi since 2008, running winery tours, tastings, a chateau hotel, and a wine spa.