Day 12

Day tour of wine region. We left the hotel around 9:30 am with the intent of finding a tour to the Kakheti wine region. (Georgian wines are renown throughout all the eastern Europe and Russia, and during the Soviet times were always considered the best. The Kakheti region produces 65% of all Georgian wines.) We were approached by a guy on the main street of the old town (Abhazi) who offered tours. Bo negotiated with him for 5 minutes in Russian explaining where she wanted to go. He agreed and pointed to the nice van. A different driver got in and we were off. Three minutes later we discovered he did not speak Russian or English – so we had no way of communicating with him. He drove very aggressively passing all cars on the two lane road even though it was right hand drive van. There are many right hand drive cars here. They are cheaper to buy. An article I read said Japan is dumping them in Georgia but was not clear if new or used cars. During the drive we saw different landscapes – rolling hills, flatland and high mountains. After 2 hours we arrived in the town of Kvareli, which is a big center of wine making and has a bunch of wineries along the Kvareli wine route. The driver took us to the Kindzmarauli winery, which has been in existence for hundreds of year; during Soviet times it was government property and now is a cooperative. Massive production. They make 40 different wines both in Georgian style and European style. We first sampled 4 different wines and then a young guide gave us a tour of their production. Georgian traditional method called qvevri is very interesting. After squeezing the juice from the grapes, they don’t separate it from the stems and skins, but put it all together in huge (about 6 feet in diameter) clay containers, which are buried in the ground. There the wine ferments in constant temperature of 14C for several months (times differ depending on type of grape/wine). Then the containers are emptied by hand with very large ladles. After the tour, we had lunch in the winery “café” – with a traditional brick oven and strange contraptions. There we also sampled their “chacha”, which is a very strong vodka (100 proof) made from leftover grapes. Then briefly stopped in another large winery called Khareba, but didn’t want to wait for another tour. On the return we were supposed to stop in a town called Signagi. We drove up a winding mountain road with no other cars in sight. When we got to the top there was a picturesque bustling town. We walked around and in the local tourist information office Bo asked about another small “boutique” winery called Pheasant Tears she read about in an article. It turned out to be close by so we stopped in the beautifully renovated traditional Georgian house, got a brief explanation about their production and bought a bottle of a nice white wine made the qvevri way.