Kakheti and the wine road: a day trip from Tbilisi
Making wine in a qvevri is the oldest method still in use anywhere, and since 2013 it has been on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. This tour takes you into the valley where the method still works in families rather than factories - and where the winemaker shows you the vessel your glass is then poured from. Below is the full day, with the exact distances and what is and is not in the price.
- 9-11 hoursDuration
- ~250 km round tripDistance
- Rtveli harvest: September-OctoberBest time
- 1-7 peopleGroup
The full day, hour by hour
Below is a typical day. The exact times bend around the season and your own pace - but the order, the distances and the length of each stop do not change.
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09:00
Departure from Tbilisi
We collect you from your hotel. There are two roads from Tbilisi into Kakheti: over the Gombori pass at 1,620 m, which is shorter and more scenic, or along the lowland through Sagarejo. We take one out and the other back, so the day is not repeated.
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10:45
Bodbe monastery
A monastery founded in the 9th century, where St Nino is buried - the woman who brought Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century. The present church is 17th-century and today it is a working convent. From the cypress avenue the whole Alazani valley and the Caucasus ridge open out. 40 minutes here.
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11:45
Sighnaghi: the walls and the streets
A town on a hill, built as a fortified settlement by King Erekle II in the 18th century. The wall runs about four kilometres and counts 23 towers - the best-preserved fortification in Georgia, and the towers can be climbed. We spend an hour walking: the central square, the balconied houses and the view over the Alazani valley.
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13:00
Lunch in Sighnaghi
Kakhetian cooking differs from the lowland Georgian kitchen: mtsvadi grilled over vine cuttings, chakapuli, khachapuri and local cheese. Most restaurants sit on terraces overhanging the Alazani valley, so the view is part of the meal. Lunch takes an hour and is not included - you pay on the spot.
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14:30
A family cellar and the qvevri tasting
You go to a marani where the wine still stands in qvevri buried in the ground. The winemaker shows you the vessel, explains the process and pours three to six samples - usually a white, an amber and a red, with local cheese, bread and churchkhela. An hour and a half here; this is the centre of the day. The tasting is not in the price and is paid at the cellar.
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16:15
Alaverdi cathedral
An 11th-century cathedral in the middle of the Alazani valley, 50 metres tall - for centuries the tallest building in Georgia. There is neither a town nor a village around it, which makes the scale particularly striking. The working monastery keeps its own cellar, where the monks still make wine in qvevri. 40 minutes.
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17:15
Setting off for Tbilisi
We return by the other road, so the day is not repeated. If there is time and you want it, we stop at the Chavchavadze house museum at Tsinandali - in 1886 Georgia's first European-style winery opened here, and the estate park is worth seeing in its own right. The ticket is not included.
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19:00
Back in Tbilisi
You are back between 19:00 and 20:00, at the address you were collected from. If you bought wine at the cellar, we carry the cases to the vehicle for you. In season, when the day is long, we often stop on the way back to watch the sun set over the Alazani valley - that does not affect the schedule.
What is in the price and what is not
Exactly what is covered and what is not. This same list reaches you in writing with the offer, before you book - no extra charges appear on the day.
Included in the price
- A comfortable vehicle with a driver, from your hotel and back
- Fuel and all road costs
- A licensed guide in Georgian, English or Russian
- A separate driver, so that everyone can take part in the tasting
- Parking at every stop along the route
- Drinking water for the journey
Not included
- The tasting at the cellar, at the cellar's own price
- Lunch in Sighnaghi, paid on the spot at the restaurant's price
- Buying wine at the cellar, if you decide to take bottles home
- The ticket for the Tsinandali house museum, if you add it
- Travel and medical insurance, which we offer separately
- Tips for the guide and driver, entirely at your discretion
What makes a qvevri different
A qvevri is a clay amphora buried in the ground up to its neck. The wine ferments in it and then ages in the same vessel - no oak barrel, no steel tank. The constant ground temperature of 13 to 15 degrees does the temperature control on its own, so no cooling equipment is needed.
The key difference is that in a qvevri the wine ferments together with the skins, the pips and often the stems - including when the grapes are white. In European practice the juice for a white wine is separated from the skins straight away. It is that contact which gives Georgian white wine its amber colour, its tannin and its denser structure.
The method entered the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage in 2013. Its continuous use runs to roughly 8,000 years - the oldest residues showing traces of wine have been found in southern Georgia.
Bodbe and the story of St Nino
Bodbe is one of the least touristed and at the same time most significant places in Kakheti. St Nino is buried here - a woman from Cappadocia who preached Christianity in Kartli in the 4th century, with the result that Georgia became one of the first Christian states in the world.
The monastery was founded in the 9th century; the present church dates from the 17th. In the Soviet period a hospital was housed here and the monastery was only restored in 1991. It is now a working convent, so a dress code applies.
On the grounds there is an avenue of cypresses, from the end of which the Alazani valley opens out entirely - the Caucasus ridge to the north, vineyards to the south. A path leads down to St Nino's spring, twenty minutes' walk, but it does not usually fit into a single-day schedule.
Sighnaghi: what lies behind the walls
Sighnaghi was built in the 18th century on the orders of King Erekle II as a defensive town against raids from Dagestan. The wall runs about four kilometres and counts 23 towers - the best-preserved fortification system in Georgia. The towers can be climbed.
The centre was completely restored in the 2000s: balconied houses, stone streets and Italianate buildings. Some find the restoration over-polished, though the result is that the town is a pleasure to walk and one of the best places for photography in Kakheti.
Sighnaghi is called the City of Love because marriages can be registered here around the clock. In practice that means you will often come across weddings in town, particularly on Saturdays.
At the cellar: how a tasting actually runs
We work with family cellars rather than large factories. In practice that means the tasting is led by the winemaker, the wine is poured from the same qvevri you were just shown, and questions are answered at whatever level interests you - from general impressions to technical detail.
A standard tasting covers three to six samples: usually a rkatsiteli or mtsvane white, one amber and a saperavi red. It comes with local cheese, bread and often churchkhela. The cellar sets the price, and you pay it directly at the cellar.
The driver does not take part in the tasting - they are a separate person, and that is exactly why one is included in the price. It is one of the main reasons not to drive yourself on a wine tour.
Alaverdi: an 11th-century cathedral in the middle of the plain
Alaverdi cathedral is 50 metres tall and was for centuries the tallest building in Georgia - a record only broken in the 20th century. It was built at the start of the 11th century under King Kvirike of Kakheti, on the spot where the Assyrian father Joseph of Alaverdi settled in the 6th century.
The cathedral stands in the middle of the Alazani plain with nothing around it - neither a town nor a village. It is that isolation which makes the scale so striking: on flat ground, a fifty-metre structure is visible from kilometres away.
The complex holds a working monastic cellar where the monks still make wine in qvevri, a tradition that has continued here without a break. The cathedral is active, so women need a headscarf and a long skirt; communal wraps are usually available at the entrance.
Rtveli: when it is and what taking part means
Rtveli, the grape harvest, runs from mid-September to the end of October. The exact dates depend on the weather and shift every year: in a hot year picking starts earlier. It is the only period in which you can join the work in the cellar rather than simply watch it.
In practice taking part means picking grapes into baskets in the vineyard, pressing them in the satsnakheli - often with your feet, as it has been done for centuries - and pouring the juice into the qvevri. The work is physical and clothes get stained, so bring something old.
Harvest days are limited - a family cellar cannot take many people at once, because this is a genuine working day and not a show. So if you want to take part in the harvest, start booking in August.
Amber wine and how it differs
Amber wine - often called orange wine in the West - is made from white grapes but by the red-wine method: the juice ferments together with the skins, the pips and sometimes the stems. The contact can last from a few weeks to six months.
The result is a wine that takes a colour from pale amber to deep orange, a tannin that white wine does not normally carry, and aromas not usually associated with white: dried apricot, walnut, black tea. The texture is denser and the structure closer to a red.
If you are meeting the style for the first time, one piece of advice: amber wine should be served warmer than an ordinary white - at 14 to 16 degrees rather than straight from the fridge. Served too cold, the tannin turns unpleasantly sharp.
Alternative routes in Kakheti
Kakheti is not exhausted in a day. Telavi, the regional capital, with Erekle II's palace and a nine-hundred-year-old plane tree, fits into a single day only instead of Sighnaghi, not alongside it. Tsinandali, the Chavchavadze estate where Georgia's first European-style winery opened in 1886, takes half an hour.
Nekresi and Gremi lie to the north, on the far side of the Alazani. Nekresi is a 4th-century monastic complex on a mountain slope; Gremi is what remains of a 16th-century royal residence. The academy at Ikalto - a medieval school of higher learning - is near Telavi.
Kvareli, where Kindzmarauli is made, and the wine tunnels cut into rock are another direction again. Most of these do not fit into a single day - we add them in the two-day version or on a private tour. Tell us before booking which of them interest you.
Which grape varieties you meet and what to know about them
More than five hundred native grape varieties are recorded in Georgia, though only about ten are used commercially. Two dominate in Kakheti: rkatsiteli for white and saperavi for red. Rkatsiteli is high in acid and stands up well to skin contact - which is exactly why it is the main variety for amber wine.
Saperavi is unusual in that its flesh is red as well as its skin; few varieties in the world are like that. The result is a very dark wine, high in acid and tannin, with real ageing potential. Kindzmarauli, the semi-sweet red, is made from saperavi.
Mtsvane, kisi and khikhvi are three white varieties recovered over the last decade, after the Soviet focus on mass production nearly wiped them out. If a cellar offers you kisi or khikhvi, take it - these are wines you will rarely find outside Georgia.
Who this tour suits
The route is physically light: the road is flat, the only mountain switchbacks are the short Gombori stretch. There is walking in Sighnaghi, but the town is small. It works easily with children and with older travellers.
Who it does not suit: if you do not drink, half the value of the tour is lost on you. In that case we would suggest the same direction with a historical emphasis - Bodbe, Sighnaghi, Alaverdi and Nekresi, without the tasting. The price is lower too.
Who it suits particularly well: anyone who already knows wine and is interested in the qvevri method. In that case switch to the private format and we will find you a sommelier guide - they will talk at a technical level in the cellar and structure the tasting differently.
Frequently asked questions about the Kakheti day wine tour
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Is the tasting included in the price?
No, it is charged separately and paid directly at the cellar. The cellar sets the price. We tell you the exact amount in advance, so you know the whole budget for the day.
Does the driver take part in the tasting?
No. The driver and the guide are separate people, precisely so that everyone can taste on a wine tour. That is included in the price and is not an extra service.
How many wines will we taste?
Three to six samples at one cellar as standard: usually a white, an amber and a red. If you want to visit two cellars that is possible, but something has to come out of the day - Alaverdi or Sighnaghi. We cannot fit everything.
Can I buy wine and take it home?
Yes. The cellars sell bottles and we load the cases into the vehicle. Taking them abroad in checked baggage is usually possible, but the rules vary by country - checking that is on your side.
Can I really take part in the harvest?
Yes, from mid-September to the end of October. You join the picking, the pressing and the filling of the qvevri. This is a real working day and not a staged activity, so places are limited - start booking in August.
Does the tour run in winter?
Yes, all year. In winter the cellars are open, the roads are clear and there are fewer people. The one thing missing is the green of the vineyards - from December to March the vines are bare.
Where is lunch and how is it paid?
We stop in Sighnaghi, usually on a terrace overhanging the Alazani valley. The restaurant sets the price. Not included, paid on the spot. Tell us in advance about vegetarian or other dietary requirements.
If I do not drink, is this tour worth it?
Partly. Bodbe, Sighnaghi and Alaverdi are worth seeing in themselves, but the tasting is the centre of the day. In that case we would suggest the same direction with a historical emphasis, with Nekresi instead of the cellar - we will quote it so you can compare.
Do Alaverdi and Telavi fit into one day?
Alaverdi does - it is in the standard schedule. Telavi only instead of Sighnaghi, not alongside it: both towns involve walking and they are 60 kilometres apart. To see both, you need the two-day version.
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