Through Kakheti with David – My Wine Journey to Georgia

Some journeys begin with a bargain. Mine started with a Wizz Air ticket from Berlin-Schönefeld to Kutaissi – somewhere between 37 and 70 euros, I can't remember exactly. Kutaissi is located in the west of the country. From there, we took a bus across Georgia to Tiflis, the capital, internationally known as Tbilisi.

A Young Man, an Old G-Class

In Tiflis, we had booked a wine tour with David Lobalanidze. The next morning, a young man pulled up in an old Mercedes G-Class, introduced himself, and said: “Today I'll show you Georgian wine.” We had no idea we'd end up with bread first.

Shoti: Bread from the Oven Wall

Our first stop was a small bakery. They make shotis puri, shoti for short: a crispy bread shaped like a canoe. It is baked in a tone, a deep, round clay oven set into the ground. The baker slaps the raw dough directly onto the glowing-hot inner walls, where it sticks and bakes crispy in just a few minutes. It was accompanied by chacha, Georgian pomace brandy. A breakfast not to be forgotten.

Qvevri: The Clay Vessel in the Ground

Anyone looking into Georgian wine quickly encounters the qvevri: a large, egg-shaped clay vessel without handles, buried up to its rim in the ground. For us, wine usually matures in stainless steel tanks, barriques, or tonneaux. In Georgia, it traditionally ferments in a qvevri, often together with skins, seeds, and sometimes even the stems. This is how the amber-colored white wines known today as orange wine are created.

Signagi: The “Tuscany of the East”

Afterward, we drove east into the wine region of Kakheti, to Signagi. The small town sits perched on a hill and is often called the “Tuscany of the East.” In perfect weather, we sat outside and looked out over the vast Alasani Valley toward Azerbaijan.

Georgia is considered one of the oldest wine countries in the world, with over 500 autochthonous grape varieties. You notice this everywhere: in almost every village, sometimes even at the gas station, someone sells their own wine – sometimes in an old plastic bottle, sometimes very elegantly in a fine glass at a well-kept estate.

What does it taste like? Different from what we are used to. Sometimes spicy, sometimes smoky, sometimes with strong, almost tart acidity and plenty of tannins. Whether red or white hardly matters – Georgia has both, in a variety rarely found anywhere else.

Wine in a Bunker: The Tunnel of Khareba

The highlight was waiting in Kwareli. The Winery Khareba stores its wine in a former Soviet military tunnel, driven deep into the rock of the Caucasus and around 7.7 kilometers long. Year-round, the temperature there stays between 12 and 14 degrees at about 70 percent humidity – ideal conditions for wine. Walking through the mountain among countless bottles, where the military once was, left a deep impression on me.

Gori and the Cave City

During the trip, we also came to Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, and saw cave dwellings carved directly into the rock. Tradition, history, and viticulture are only a few kilometers apart in Georgia.

My Conclusion

By evening, we were back in Tiflis – tired, full, and happy. A huge thank you to David for this day! What stays with you are the people: open, young, full of energy, curious about the future, yet deeply connected to their millennia-old wine culture.

Georgia is an absolute travel recommendation. Fly to Kutaissi or directly to Tiflis; wine tours can easily be booked on-site. If you want to get in the mood beforehand, check out the series “Drops of God” on Apple TV+.