Georgian Wine: The World’s Oldest Wine Producer in 4 Great Wineries

While traveling via campervan through Georgia — a lot was learned. Something particularly notable about this country was their love for their wine and their pride in being the oldest wine producer in the world. On the road, I was able to visit some beautiful vineyards, enjoy tasting Georgian wine, and even park my campervan overnight. I know what you are thinking… “Now that is my kind of road trip!”

Winemaking in Georgia is a long tradition and archeological evidence shows us that the drinking and making of wine dates back as far as 8,000 years. The method first used 8,000 years ago is still used today and is called the qvevri method; the skin, pips, and even the stalks of the grapevine are all put into a large ceramic pot along with the juice, and then buried underground for between five-six months to ferment.

The wine here has a totally unique flavor and many people prefer it over the “European” method of winemaking which often adds sugars and yeast, and regulates the fermentation process much more carefully while it remains in large steel drums. The European method also usually removes the skins, seeds, and stalks during fermentation unless you want to make rosé, in which case the skins of the grapes are left on.

During the Russian occupation between 1918 and 1991, there was a large amount of wine produced in Georgia, but many producers used the European method and the wine was largely of poor quality.

Nowadays Georgians are working hard to put Georgian wine on the map again, and considering that over 500 of the world’s 2,000 grape varieties come from Georgia, they should have a good base to start from.

Fun Fact — when a child is born, many families produce their own wine in a qvevri and bury it underground in their garden to ferment and age. It is only when their child is married that they unearth it, and then give it as a gift on the couple’s wedding day. It is no wonder that many Georgians often get quite tipsy after the ceremony!

Even though almost all Georgian families produce their own wine, the best place to visit to sample Georgian wine is the Kakheti region. Kakheti is only a 90-minute drive from the capital city, Tbilisi. If you prefer to take public transport, there are many small buses called marshrutkas, which take only two hours and are as little as 3 USD per person.

There are plenty of wonderful accommodation options, some of which are at wineries and some in surrounding villages. It was a fantastic place to travel with a campervan as there are currently no rules preventing people from spending the night anywhere in their campervans — a country where “van life” is only just starting to kick off.

To find some excellent spots to stay, I would recommend the app Park4Night which is written by fellow campervan enthusiasts. Users review each site, giving a feeling of safety, as people will mention if they have had any problems while staying there. However, if you ask nicely and put on your best smile, many wineries will also let you stay in their car park for free. This means that you can test all of their delightful offerings, and often you are able to enjoy magnificent views over vineyards from the comfort of your campervan.

Which Vineyards Should I Visit?

During my road trip, I decided that I wanted to try to visit as many different types of wineries as possible. Prior to visiting the Kakheti region, I had spent the winter in the mountain resort of Gudauri, which is on the border with Russia. Many people there produce their own wine during the summer months and then bring their enormous supplies with them to the mountains for the winter.

From being in the mountains and testing out everyone’s homebrews, it felt necessary to taste some wines from some “real” wineries. They ranged in their approach massively, each seeming to have their own niche.

I visited many and enjoyed eco-wine, orange wine, black wine, and even ice wine! I am an avid wine drinker and come from a family who have always had a well-stocked wine cellar, but I had never heard of some of these types of wines before. What is more, the process which they use to produce the wine also varies massively and therefore each wine had a distinctly different taste based on the method they chose to use.

Schuchmann Winery was the biggest and most commercial winery I visited. It produces 1.5 million bottles of wine per year and has an incredible on-site restaurant, hotel, and spa. If I were to go back to Georgia, the first thing I would do would be to stay here! I was on a budget during my campervan trip, but this would have been worth the splurge. They offer many different packages, but one of the most interesting to me was the two-day package which included over 3.5 hours of treatments and even a wine bath for around 330 USD! However, I simply enjoyed a vineyard and cellar tour. This included tasting five different wines with a paired food platter, all expertly explained by our very friendly waitress.

Schuchmann produces two types of wine — producing around 70% of their wine via the “European” using stainless steel drums, and the other 30% using the traditional Georgian qvevri method. This was therefore the first time I was able to test the famous Georgian “orange wine.”

The name “orange wine” does not refer to the flavor but simply the color of the wine which is a result of the way in which it is matured and fermented in the qvevris. The method uses white grapes — by allowing the juice to maintain contact with the skins of the grapes during the fermentation process, a deep amber or orange color is produced, in much the same way red grapes produce rosé.

The experience of trying this wine could only be described as confusing. It smelled fruity with apricot aromas, but then when you tasted it, it was dry and the flavor disappeared almost instantly after swallowing. Probably the most unusual wine-tasting experience I had ever had. However, I still bought a bottle to take home!

Sadly, the better-tasting wines (in my opinion) were the ones made in the European way. I so wanted to enjoy the qvevri wine, but it sadly was not up to the standard. The main reason for this, my waitress explained, is that the method is far harder to control because they can not regulate the temperature or monitor the fermentation process as carefully as they can with the European method. Therefore it is harder to create consistently good wine.

Overall, I had a wonderful time overlooking the magnificent vineyards, eating lunch, and drinking wine. Afterward, I parked in their car park and spent the night in the campervan, having had a totally luxurious experience. All this for the eye-wateringly low price of around 13 USD each.

This is the historical estate of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze (1786-1846), son of diplomat and statesman Prince Garsevan. This is an outstanding estate with beautiful gardens and a stately home, but also, a winery.

Chavchavadze was a fascinating character who was a translator, poet, businessman, and soldier. However, he also devoted a large part of his life to an interest in all things European, including poetry, music, and (of course) wine. He is commonly known as the father of Georgian Romanticism and through his innovative adoption of the European method of bottling wine, combined with the traditional qvevri method of winemaking. Chavchavadze is known to be the first Georgian to produce bottled wine and thus, begin exporting it. The estate has one of the biggest private wine collections in Georgia and has wines in its cellars which are worth tens of thousands of dollars.

The tour was comprehensive and informative and overall this was a fantastic stop along my wine route. It was also the first place I was able to sample Georgian sparkling wine. I had read an article before I left for my campervan trip, that Georgia is “one to watch” for sparkling wine, and this was absolutely true. It was definitely as good as champagne and for a much lower price.

The reason for this is that they actually use similar grape varieties as they do in champagne, use the exact same method of production, and the Kakheti region has a very similar geographic profile to the Champagne region in France, thus creating an excellent champagne “replica.”

One downside, though, is that even though it was extremely cheap to buy the sparkling Georgian white wine in Georgia, bottles imported to other European countries or the US actually end up costing a similar amount to a bottle of champagne. Therefore I do not see this industry taking off internationally, as I feel most people prefer the prestige of the name “champagne.” I bought five bottles to take home with me and wish I bought more. My best advice is to drink as much of it while you are in Georgia as possible!

The Saperavi grape is one of the most commonly grown grapes in Georgia and it has a deep purple color. It is one of the few grape varieties which can create “black” wine. The black color is created in the same way as orange wine, by leaving the juice in contact with the grape skins during the fermentation process. The darker “black” color of the wine is produced because the flesh of the grape is also darker.  It is an absolutely delicious red wine with flavors of dark fruits, blackberries, spice, vanilla, and toast, with a smooth texture and a good amount of acidity.

The main reason that this winery was so interesting is because they offered a wine tasting with only black wines, which were all produced in different years and using different methods of fermentation. It was uncanny how different the wines tasted from each other considering the grape was the same. It was the first time I really understood the concept of a “good year” in terms of wine.

After a wonderful tour, the waiter gave me a private and incredibly detailed description of what happened during each production year in terms of weather. He also allowed me to sample two wines produced in the same year, but one used the European method and the other with the qvevri method. The taste difference was unbelievable.

While sitting in the beautiful gardens and enjoying a tasting platter of cheese, meat, and crackers, I was also able to try ice wine for the first time. Ice wine is produced by leaving the grapes on the vine until the first frost of the season. This wine is expensive because when the first frost happens, the vineyard workers have to remove the grapes in an “emergency” type fashion and therefore some are woken in the middle of the night to rush out and collect the grapes. The vineyards have to employ emergency workers and it is an “all hands on deck” scenario. The wine produced is a delicious, sweet dessert wine, but at over 100 USD per bottle, it was not worth it for me.

In the town of Telavi, Rostomaant Marani offers a two-hour wine tasting with a food-tasting platter, homemade cheeses, and chutneys. When first entering the place, it was a totally different experience from the other vineyards I had visited. To start with, the vines are not on site. They grow their grapes outside of the city and then produce the wines in what appears to be their family home. There was a dog with puppies lying in their small courtyard, an old man asleep on a plastic chair and nothing official looking apart from a small sign. However, this was actually one of the most authentic and interesting experiences I had.

I went along with a group of friends I made during my travels and ended up spending four hours there because the owner seemed to genuinely enjoy our company. He even opened up some unlabelled bottles which were in his special store for us to all try together. Some were fantastic. Some were not!

The best thing about this winery (apart from the copious amounts of wine that was given to us) is that this family only use the qvevri method, and during our tasting, the owner took the wine directly from the qvevri for us to try at different stages of the fermentation process. Thus helping us to further understand the method even more. It felt very authentic and the owner was wonderful. If you have any knowledge of wine at all, he will talk for hours and make you feel like a guest in his home.

I have visited wineries and enjoyed many vineyard tours and tastings in France, South Africa, Argentina, and California. Although I still feel that French wine is the best, this was a totally unique experience at a fraction of the cost of any of the other trips. Some of the wine was not very good at all, but some of it was fantastic. But when you are sitting at the base of the Caucasus Mountain Range, looking over vineyards in the sunshine, for a fraction of the cost of a trip to a French vineyard, the wine is bound to taste better. Enjoy.