The best Georgian wines to try and buy in 2024

Why this list is different

Most Georgian wine recommendation lists are composed of wines that are easy to buy internationally. This list is composed of wines that are worth seeking out — whether you find them in a Tbilisi wine shop, at a cellar door in Kakheti, or on the increasingly excellent Georgian wine section of a specialist natural wine shop in London, Paris, or New York.

Read our qvevri winemaking guide and amber wine guide for the background context that makes these recommendations meaningful.

The Georgian wine vocabulary you need

Before diving into specific wines, a brief vocabulary guide:

Qvevri: The large clay vessel, beeswax-lined and buried in the earth, in which traditional Georgian wine ferments and ages. The defining vessel of Georgian winemaking. Pronounced roughly “kvev-ree.”

Amber wine / skin-contact wine: White wine made with extended skin contact in qvevri — the method that gives Georgian whites their distinctive deep colour, tannin, and complexity.

Marani: A wine cellar, specifically one containing qvevri vessels. Visiting a family marani is the most direct way to understand Georgian winemaking.

Rtveli: The grape harvest season, running from mid-September through October in Kakheti. The most atmospheric time to visit wine country.

Tamada: The toastmaster at a supra feast. Relevant because the wine is always consumed in the context of toasts at a Georgian table.

Rkatsiteli: Georgia’s most widely planted white grape variety, and the one most likely to appear in any amber wine you taste. Age-worthy, structured, complex.

Amber wines (qvevri skin-contact whites)

Pheasant’s Tears Rkatsiteli

The wine that introduced thousands of international wine drinkers to Georgian amber. Made by John Wurdeman and Gela Patalishvili from the Rkatsiteli grape with full skin contact in qvevri, this is a deeply coloured, tannic, structured amber wine with notes of dried apricot, beeswax, orange peel, and a long mineral finish.

Internationally available through specialist importers. In Georgia: Vino Underground, Wine Factory No. 1, and at the Pheasant’s Tears winery in Sighnaghi. Around 25–35 GEL in Georgia; considerably more abroad.

Iago’s Wine Chinuri

Iago Bitarishvili’s Chinuri from Kartli region is the benchmark for this variety — lighter skin contact than Kakhetian ambers, more aromatic and delicate, with a stony mineral quality that makes it exceptionally food-friendly. This wine is genuinely famous in the natural wine world.

Harder to find than Pheasant’s Tears but worth the effort. In Georgia: Vino Underground and specialist wine shops. At the cellar door with advance arrangement.

Our Wine Rkatsiteli

Soliko Tsaishvili’s wines are more intense and profound than most commercial Kakhetian production. His Rkatsiteli is deeply coloured, powerfully tannic, and complex — this is a wine that needs time and deserves attention. Often described as one of the most traditional expressions of Kakhetian winemaking still in production.

Primarily available in Georgia. Limited international distribution through specialist importers.

Lagvinari Kisi

Eko Glonti’s Kisi — one of the most aromatic and complex Kakhetian varieties — is one of the finest wines produced in Georgia. Fermented and aged in qvevri with full skin contact and extended maceration, then aged further before release. Notes of rose, apricot, dried flowers, honey, and a tannic grip that ensures it will age for a decade or more.

Limited production; available at the winery and select Tbilisi wine shops.

Ramaz Nikoladze Tsolikouri

Georgia’s most celebrated Imeretian winemaker works with the indigenous Tsolikouri grape using partial skin contact (approximately 20%) in the traditional western Georgia style. The result is a pale amber wine of extraordinary delicacy — aromatic, mineral, saline, with a freshness that makes it one of the most food-versatile wines from Georgia.

Internationally distributed through specialist natural wine importers. In Georgia at Vino Underground and specialist shops.

Red wines

Saperavi: the queen of Georgian reds

Saperavi is Georgia’s greatest red grape variety — a deeply pigmented, tannic, age-worthy wine that can be made in styles from approachable everyday drinking to profound, decades-long ageing.

Best Saperavi producers:

• Schuchmann Wines Estate Saperavi: Reliable, well-made, internationally distributed
• Pheasant’s Tears Saperavi: Natural winemaking with the same qvevri approach as their white wines; more texture and complexity than conventional Saperavi
• Kindzmarauli Corporation Saperavi: From the Kindzmarauli micro-zone, slightly softer and more approachable

Semi-sweet Saperavi note: Kindzmarauli and Khvanchkara are Georgian red wines with natural residual sugar — deeply coloured, somewhat sweet, but with enough structure to avoid being merely dessert wines. They are an acquired taste but are culturally significant and popular.

Shavkapito

A rare Kartli red grape producing wines of unusual structure and herbal character. Very limited production. Seek it out at specialist Tbilisi wine bars — it represents the direction of Georgian red wine discovery beyond Saperavi.

Sparkling wines

Georgian sparkling wine production is smaller but growing. The traditional method sparkling wines from the Imereti and Kartli regions — made from Tsitska and Chinuri with indigenous yeasts — are genuine alternatives to Champagne at a fraction of the price. Worth trying at specialty wine shops in Tbilisi.

Buying wine to take home

In Georgia

Wine Factory No. 1 (Kostava Street, Tbilisi) has the widest selection. Buy directly from producers at the cellar door for the lowest prices. Budget 15–40 GEL per bottle for quality natural wine.

Internationally

Georgian natural wine is now imported into the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, and parts of the US. Search for specialist natural wine importers in your country. Prices are typically 2–3x Georgian retail — which still makes them competitive with equivalent quality European natural wines.

Shipping

Shipping wine from Georgia is legally and logistically complex. The simplest approach is packing bottles in checked luggage with appropriate wine bottle protectors (available at Wine Factory No. 1). An airline weight allowance of 2 x 23 kg = 46 kg total: a case of 12 bottles weighs approximately 18 kg, comfortably within limits.

The wines that surprised me

Beyond the benchmark producers listed above, a few wines and styles that consistently surprise visitors who think they understand what Georgian wine is:

Chinuri sparkling: The Chinuri grape from Kartli makes one of the most interesting traditional-method sparkling wines outside Champagne. The variety’s naturally high acidity and aromatic delicacy translate beautifully into sparkling wine. Seek it at Wine Factory No. 1 or Vino Underground.

Krakhuna amber from Imereti: This Imeretian white variety is the most mineral and saline of all Georgia’s whites — wines that remind some tasters of Muscadet or white Burgundy in structure but with a distinctly Georgian aromatic signature. Ramaz Nikoladze and a few others make benchmark versions.

Khikhvi amber: One of the rarest Kakhetian varieties — only a handful of producers work with it seriously. The Khikhvi wines I have tasted are among the most complex and perfumed whites from the country: rose oil, apricot, exotic spice, and a tannic grip that ensures they age well. When you see it, buy it.

Old-vine Saperavi: In the Alazani Valley of Kakheti, some vineyards have Saperavi vines that are 60–100 years old. The wines from these old vines have a concentration and complexity that young vine Saperavi cannot match. Schuchmann’s old vine Saperavi and similar offerings from Shumi and Chateau Mukhrani represent Georgia’s red wine potential at its most serious.

A tasting guide in brief

If you enjoy Burgundy white: Start with Imeretian amber — Tsolikouri or Tsitska — lighter skin contact, more aromatic and mineral.

If you enjoy Sherry or oxidative wines: Go straight to Kakhetian amber — Rkatsiteli or Kisi — the structure and oxidative character will resonate.

If you enjoy Pinot Noir: Try Saperavi — it is Georgia’s Pinot equivalent in terms of its role as the flagship red variety, though structurally more like a Barolo.

If you enjoy natural wine generally: Pheasant’s Tears, Iago’s Wine, Our Wine, and Ramaz Nikoladze are your producers. They are the Georgian representatives at any natural wine gathering.

If you are entirely new to Georgian wine: Start with a guided tasting. The context that a knowledgeable guide provides — about the qvevri method, the indigenous varieties, the regional differences — transforms the experience from confusing to revelatory.

Book a Kakheti wine tour with 9 tastings from Tbilisi

What the best Georgian wine costs

In Georgia, quality natural wine from the producers listed above costs 15–50 GEL per bottle at specialist wine shops. At the cellar door, prices are often 10–20% lower. This price range — roughly €5–17 — puts Georgia’s benchmark natural wines at a fraction of the cost of comparable quality in France, Italy, or Spain.

The price differential shrinks significantly when you buy outside Georgia — specialist importers in the UK, Germany, and France typically sell the same bottles at €20–40, reflecting import costs, distribution margins, and the growing international demand.

The practical implication: buy as much as you can carry home from Georgia. A case of mixed Georgian natural wine packed in checked luggage is among the best wine-buying decisions you can make as a traveller.

Visit our wine tasting in Tbilisi guide for where to drink your way through this list, and our amber wine guide for the technical background on how these wines are made.