Blogs from Kakheti, Eastern Georgia, Georgia, Asia

Day 21 Udabno to Sighnaghi, Georgia. Vines, Nuts and Religious Nuts. After a breakfast of coffee, bread and Mars Bar, we paint sketches of Udabno towns stark buildings and landscape here within a moorland plain, in pleasant isolation. As we drive north away from Udabno for a day’s outing in our hire car, we notice landmarks which we failed to spot on our entrance to town. There’s a miniature Svaneti tower build above the sign board for the town at the side of the road. It’s relatively new, as a monument to the eco migrants who came here. It is clearly the right shape, like those we saw in Mestia in 2016, but with lighter construction as a monument rather than a place to retreat to in times of attack. Over the next range of hills ... read more

Today was a later start and we didn’t have to meet our guides until 8.15am, so what a lie in. We were first to arrive at Europe Square (that’s actually a roundabout) and met a guide AND a driver. We are going up in the world!The vehicle was an 8 seater that we shared with George from Italy, Christine from Switzerland (the third single female traveller I’ve met here) and two people from Germany, they may have been mother and son. Things of note that I’ve learned today is that scenes from the 9th Fast and Furious film were filmed in Georgia: the bits that they wanted to look like Russia. I’ll not be surprised to find out that our driver from yesterday had a starring role.As noticed before, people get up late in Georgia and ... read more

Tsinandali is a tiny little village in Kakheti, Georgia surrounded by vineyards and peach orchards. The village has become popular because of the historic vineyards that continue to work to ensure the preservation of Tsinandali’s legacy as the cradle of Georgia’s classical winemaking. This and it’s beauty is why we felt compelled to add it to our itinerary. Historians assert that in the early 19th century, Prince Alexander pioneered classical winemaking and European winemaking and turned Tsinandali into the wine capital of the country. To this day, Tsinandali stays true to it’s history by utilizing ancient qvevri and modern techniques to produce premiere wines of Georgia. Tsinandali Estate is made up of a sprawling and well managed park that features the Tsinandali museum and the boutique hotel by Radisson Collection. All of it maintains the historical ... read more

As we traveled throughout Georgia, we made a point to try as many local wines as we could. We would be at a restaurant, the waiter would ask what we wanted to drink and we would ask if they could recommend a bottle of wine…a bottle of Georgian wine. This lasted only a short time as we quickly realized, the only wine you could find in Georgia was Georgian wine. Loyalty. Confidence in your product. I like that. Plus, in those moments when we did not share a common language with our waiter, we could just point and know we were going to be sampling local wine. Before arriving in wine country, we had started to see a trend in what wines we most appreciated and even started recognizing some labels and vineyards. Wow, does that ... read more

When you think of wine and it’s origins, I am willing to bet my bank account that your first thought is not of The Republic of Georgia. Don’t be embarrassed, Georgia was certainly not my first thought if I had to name where wine began, but now that I have been there, tasted it and witnessed the wine making process, I am an enlightened wine drinker. Or at least I am a wine drinker. I know what you are thinking right now. “Just how much wine were you drinking when you wrote this?” It’s a fair point. I get it. I was skeptical when I first read about Georgia being the birthplace of wine. This country that is smaller than the state of West Virginia, has seven different climate zones, 49 different soil types and over ... read more