Okro's Wines: Sighnaghi's small-batch natural wine family winery

Why Okro’s Wines deserves your attention

There is a particular pleasure in finding a winery that the wine world has only recently discovered. Okro’s Wines — the family project of John Okruashvili (Okro) and his family above Sighnaghi — offers exactly this. It is not yet the internationally celebrated name that Pheasant’s Tears has become, but the wines are serious enough and the visit distinctive enough that those who find their way here tend to leave as enthusiastic advocates.

The winery’s defining characteristic is unambiguous commitment. Okro makes natural wine and only natural wine — the phrase is not a marketing category but a description of an absolute position. No sulphur additions. No commercial yeasts. No fining, filtration, or other oenological interventions. Only indigenous grape varieties grown without synthetic inputs, fermented with their wild yeasts, aged in qvevri buried in the earth below the family marani. The quantities are small because they are made carefully, and because small quantities are what the family’s vineyards produce when the vines are worked at a pace that does not require chemical assistance.

The setting makes the visit memorable before the first glass is poured: the winery sits on a hillside above Sighnaghi with views across the Alazani Valley to the snow-capped Greater Caucasus ridge. The terrace where tastings are conducted in good weather is as beautiful a spot as you will find in Georgian wine country.

History and philosophy

Okro’s Wines emerged from the same wave of Georgian natural wine interest that brought international attention to producers like Pheasant’s Tears and Lagvinari in the 2000s and 2010s. John Okruashvili comes from a family with deep roots in Kakhetian winemaking — not as famous producers but as practitioners of traditional methods that had never fully disappeared even during the Soviet period, when large cooperative wineries dominated production but families continued to make their own wine in backyard qvevri.

The decision to formalise production under the Okro’s Wines label was a response to both the growing international market for Georgian natural wine and to the family’s own conviction that what they were making deserved wider recognition. The transition from family cellar to small commercial operation was gradual, and the domestic quality of the experience — tastings happen on the family terrace, the marani is beneath the family house, the conversation happens around a family table — has been preserved as the production has grown modestly.

The philosophy is stated simply: only nature, only tradition, only Georgia. In practice this means working exclusively with varieties native to Kakheti, following the traditional Kakhetian winemaking calendar without artificial modification, and making no additions to the wine at any stage of production.

The family

John Okruashvili is both the face of the winery and its driving force, but Okro’s Wines is emphatically a family enterprise. Multiple generations are involved in different aspects of the operation — vineyard work, harvest logistics, the cellar maintenance, and the hospitality that surrounds the tastings.

This family character is not performance. When you visit Okro’s Wines, you are visiting someone’s home and cellar, and the warmth of the welcome comes from the same Georgian tradition of hospitality that has been described by every traveller who has passed through the Caucasus for centuries. A supra table, when it materialises — and if you signal any openness to it, it often does — will be elaborate, generous, and accompanied by wine poured in the old way: into a pitcher from the qvevri, then into your glass by hand.

Vineyards and grape varieties

The estate vineyards are situated on the hillsides around and below Sighnaghi, a position that gives both visual drama and the viticultural advantages of elevation: cooler temperatures than the valley floor, better drainage, and the kind of diurnal temperature variation that preserves acidity in the grapes through a long growing season.

The principal varieties in production include:

Rkatsiteli — the great Kakhetian white, fermented with full skin contact in qvevri to produce a deeply amber wine of considerable structure and complexity. Okro’s Rkatsiteli is one of the purest expressions of the Sighnaghi area’s particular terroir.

Kisi — aromatic and relatively full-bodied for a white Kakhetian grape, Kisi in qvevri develops extraordinary complexity over time. The Okro’s version is typically one of the most sought-after in the range.

Mtsvane Kakhuri — floral and citrus-driven, a lighter complement to the more powerful Rkatsiteli and Kisi wines.

Saperavi — the dominant red of Kakheti, produced here without oak or other additions, fermented and aged in qvevri to produce a wine of deep colour and wild fruit character.

Smaller quantities of other indigenous varieties — some unnamed or recently identified from old vineyard plots — appear in the range depending on the vintage. Asking Okro what he has made from varieties “you might not have heard of” is always a worthwhile question.

Winemaking method

The Okro’s Wines cellar is a traditional Kakhetian marani — a cool underground space where qvevri of varying sizes are buried in the earth floor, their mouths level with the flagstones. The vessels are maintained with beeswax and the traditional cleaning methods that have been used for millennia. The winemaking follows the Kakhetian full skin-contact method: whole clusters or destemmed grapes are pressed by foot or by simple mechanical means, and the must — juice, skins, seeds, and often stems — is transferred directly to the qvevri.

Fermentation begins spontaneously from the wild yeasts living on the grape skins. The cap of floating skins is punched down daily by hand throughout the active fermentation period, which typically lasts two to four weeks. After fermentation, the wine rests on its skins for an extended period — typically four to six months — before being pressed off and transferred to clean qvevri for maturation.

The wines are not filtered or fined. They clarify naturally over the winter months in the sealed qvevri, and are bottled in spring when the winemaker judges them ready. Some wines receive additional bottle ageing before release; others are available soon after bottling.

For the technical background on why qvevri wines look and taste as they do, our qvevri winemaking guide explains the process in detail.

What to taste

The Okro’s Wines range changes with each vintage, and production quantities are small enough that some wines sell out quickly. A few consistent highlights:

The Rkatsiteli Qvevri is the anchoring wine — deeply amber, tannic, with the characteristic Sighnaghi terroir of dried stone fruit and a long, savoury finish. Taste it first to calibrate your palate for the range.

The Kisi is often the most complex wine in the lineup — aromatic even through the tannin, with a texture that suggests something between a white and a red but is distinctly neither.

The Saperavi in good vintages shows what Kakhetian red wine can be without the oak that many producers add: raw fruit, wild herbs, deep colour, and tannins that soften over five or six years in the bottle.

Ask whether any experimental or rare-variety wines are available from the current vintage. Small batches made from vineyards under observation sometimes don’t make it onto the formal list but are available for tasting when you ask.

Visit logistics

Location: Just outside Sighnaghi, on the hillside above the walled town. The exact address is communicated when you book — the approach involves a short drive along a track that is navigable by normal car in dry conditions.

Reservations: Essential. Okro’s Wines does not operate a walk-in tasting room; visits are by appointment and the experience is arranged around your arrival. Email or telephone at least a few days in advance; in high season, book a week or more ahead.

Duration: Allow 2–3 hours minimum. The tasting itself takes an hour, but if the conversation is going well — and it usually does — the terrace has a tendency to hold visitors longer than they planned.

Cost: Tastings are modest in cost. Buying several bottles is the appropriate reciprocation for a small family winery.

Languages: English is spoken. Georgian is the primary language, and a guide or translator significantly deepens the conversation.

Getting there: The winery is accessible by car; it is not easily reachable on foot from central Sighnaghi. Taxis from Sighnaghi can be arranged.

Book a guided wine tasting tour in the Sighnaghi area

Best time to visit

Spring (April–May): The wines from the most recent harvest have had the winter to settle and integrate. The hilltop views are stunning — green valley, snow on the Caucasus. The winemaker has time after the winter cellar work to talk at length.

Harvest (September–October): If you can arrange to visit during rtveli, the experience of a working harvest at a family qvevri winery is extraordinary. The smells — crushed grape, fermenting must, beeswax, earth — are unlike anything else in food or wine culture.

Summer (June–August): The terrace is at its most enjoyable; the views are clear and the wine is good. Book well ahead as summer visitors fill the appointment calendar quickly.

Buying wine and export

Bottles purchased at the cellar are priced to reflect the cost and effort of small-batch natural wine production — expect to pay 30–60 GEL per bottle, which is extremely good value for wines of this quality and rarity. Buy generously; you may not find them at home.

International availability of Okro’s Wines is limited. Some specialist Georgian wine importers in the UK, Germany, and France occasionally carry small allocations. The easiest way to drink these wines at their best is in Georgia.

Nearby wineries to combine

Sighnaghi’s wine geography rewards combining Okro’s Wines with other producers in the same area.

Pheasant’s Tears (see our Pheasant’s Tears guide) is the most famous natural wine producer in Sighnaghi and makes an obvious pairing visit. The contrast between Pheasant’s Tears’ more formal operation and the intimate family character of Okro’s Wines is instructive.

Lagvinari — Eko Glonti’s highly regarded amber wine producer — is also near Sighnaghi, by appointment.

Kvareli and the Kindzmarauli micro-zone are about 45 minutes away, offering a different expression of Kakheti terroir.

For comprehensive Kakheti visit planning, our Kakheti wine tours guide covers logistics in full.

Book a Kakheti wine tour with tastings from Tbilisi

FAQ

How is Okro’s Wines different from Pheasant’s Tears? Both are natural wine producers in the Sighnaghi area committed to qvevri and indigenous varieties. Pheasant’s Tears is an internationally famous operation with a restaurant and established visitor infrastructure. Okro’s Wines is smaller, more intimate, and genuinely a family home cellar operation. The Pheasant’s Tears visit is polished; the Okro’s visit is personal.

Can I bring children? Yes. The terrace is safe and the environment is informal. Children old enough to appreciate a beautiful view will enjoy the setting; younger children may find the cellar visit shorter than the adults want.

Do I need to speak Georgian? English is spoken and the essential winemaking conversation is accessible. A Georgian-speaking guide adds significant depth to the experience — much of the philosophy and the family history is more fluently expressed in Georgian.

What if I can’t make a reservation far in advance? Try calling directly rather than emailing — availability sometimes exists at shorter notice than the booking calendar suggests. Alternatively, joining a guided wine tour that has existing relationships with small family producers is the surest way to access wineries like this.

Is Okro’s Wines organic certified? The wines are made without synthetic inputs, but formal organic certification is not a priority for most small Georgian natural wine producers. The methods are traditional and unquestionably natural; the paperwork is not the point.