Georgia wine lover's itinerary: 7 days in the birthplace of wine

The world’s oldest wine country, reimagined

Georgia’s wine claim is not marketing. Archaeological evidence from the Kvemo Kartli region shows wine residue in clay vessels dating to 6000 BCE — making Georgia the earliest identified winemaking culture in the world. Eight thousand years of continuous wine production, the world’s largest repository of indigenous grape varieties (500+), a winemaking vessel (the qvevri) unlike anything used anywhere else, and a hospitality culture built around the shared wine pitcher.

For a wine lover, Georgia is not just interesting — it is revelatory.

This 7-day itinerary is designed for travellers who want the complete wine experience: the historic qvevri cellars, the small natural producers, the best Tbilisi wine bars, and enough context to understand what makes Georgian wine genuinely different.

Days 1–2: Tbilisi — wine capital

Day 1: Arrive and go straight to Vino Underground for your first Georgian natural wine. The basement bar in the Old Town is the best single introduction to the breadth of Georgian wine. Ask the staff to guide you through three or four wines from different regions and styles — Imeretian amber, Kakhetian full-maceration amber, a Saperavi red, and something unusual from a smaller producer.

Read our amber wine guide before you go.

Day 2: A dedicated Tbilisi wine day:

• Morning: Wine Factory No. 1 (Kostava Street) — the city’s best wine shop, where you can open bottles for a corkage fee and taste systematically through producers and varieties.
• Afternoon: the Georgian National Museum briefly (for the historical context of viticulture in Georgia — the artefact collection includes early wine vessels and implements).
• Evening: dinner at G.Vino (beautiful Old Town wine bar with excellent food) followed by Pheasant’s Tears restaurant-bar (the Tbilisi outpost of the celebrated Sighnaghi winery).

Day 3: Kartli — Iago’s Wine and Chateau Mukhrani

Drive west from Tbilisi into Kartli — the central wine region, closer to the capital and producing a distinct style from Kakheti.

Morning: visit Iago Bitarishvili’s small farm in Chardakhi village. His Chinuri amber wine is a benchmark for the natural wine world — visiting the farm where it is made is a pilgrimage experience. Advance arrangement required.

Afternoon: Chateau Mukhrani estate (40 km from Tbilisi) — a beautiful restored 19th-century aristocratic estate producing wines in both European and traditional Georgian styles. The grounds are lovely; the visitor experience is polished.

Return to Tbilisi for overnight.

Days 4–5: Kakheti — the wine country heartland

Drive east to Kakheti (1.5–2 hours). Stay 2 nights in Sighnaghi — the fortified wine town above the Alazani Valley.

Day 4: Producer focus — visit three of the best qvevri wine producers in the Telavi area:

• Pheasant’s Tears (Sighnaghi): The internationally celebrated producer; full cellar tour
• Lagvinari (near Sighnaghi): Eko Glonti’s intellectual, age-worthy ambers
• Twins Wine House (Napareuli): Excellent visitor infrastructure plus serious wine

See our best wineries guide for full producer profiles.

Day 5: Deep Kakheti exploration:

• Morning: Our Wine (Soliko Tsaishvili’s farm in Tibaani) — one of the founding figures of the Georgian natural wine revival; an authentic farm experience
• Afternoon: the Kvareli area — Khareba Winery’s extraordinary 7.7 km underground wine tunnel, where tastings are held at constant mountain temperature
• Evening: wine and food pairing dinner in Sighnaghi, choosing bottles purchased from the day’s producers

Book a Kakheti wine tour with 9 tastings from Tbilisi

Day 6: Imereti — the western wine style

Drive west from Kakheti through Tbilisi to Kutaisi (3–4 hours total). The Imereti region produces amber wines in a lighter, more delicate style than Kakheti — shorter skin contact, more aromatic and mineral.

Visit Ramaz Nikoladze’s farm (advance arrangement required) in Nakhshirgele village — one of the world’s most celebrated natural winemakers, whose Tsitska and Tsolikouri wines appear on wine lists from Tokyo to New York. The farm is a complete contrast to the more visitor-ready Kakheti operations — pure, working, agricultural. This is what natural wine is actually about.

Afternoon: explore Kutaisi briefly (Gelati Monastery is worth an hour) and taste Imereti wines at one of the town’s wine bars.

Overnight Kutaisi or drive back to Tbilisi (3 hours).

Day 7: Return to Tbilisi — final tastings and shopping

Return to Tbilisi for the final day. Dedicated to buying wine to take home.

Wine Factory No. 1 for the widest selection. Natural wine prices at the cellar door from producing families are the cheapest (15–25 GEL); shop prices at Wine Factory No. 1 for harder-to-find labels are 20–60 GEL per bottle. This is still significantly cheaper than Georgian natural wine prices in European specialist wine shops.

Final evening: Vino Underground for a farewell glass, reflecting on the week’s tasting journey.

Understanding what you tasted: a summary

After 7 days focused on Georgian wine, here is the framework for understanding the styles you encountered:

Regional spectrum (from lightest to most intense skin contact): Imereti → Kartli → Kakheti

Key varieties to remember:

• Rkatsiteli: The backbone of Kakheti amber — structured, age-worthy
• Kisi: The most aromatic, prestigious Kakhetian variety
• Chinuri: The elegant Kartli style (Iago’s benchmark)
• Tsitska/Tsolikouri: The delicate Imeretian pair
• Saperavi: Georgia’s great red — deep, tannic, built for ageing

Natural wine vs conventional: Georgia produces both. Conventional Georgian wine (clean, filtered, additive-heavy) is sold in supermarkets. The natural producers you visited represent the ancient tradition — native yeasts, no additions, qvevri fermentation.

The global significance: What you tasted this week is the root of the world’s wine culture. Everything produced anywhere in the world — every Burgundy, Barolo, and Bordeaux — traces its origins back to the Caucasus and the traditions you have now experienced firsthand.

Harvest participation (September–October)

If your visit coincides with the rtveli (grape harvest) in September and October, many of the producers visited above welcome guests to participate — picking grapes, helping with the tread, and sharing the celebratory harvest meal. Contact producers directly in advance to arrange participation.

The harvest experience adds an entirely different dimension to wine understanding — seeing where the wine comes from and how the community comes together to make it.

A tasting guide for the week

After 7 days of focused Georgian wine travel, a framework for understanding the diversity you tasted:

By skin contact level: Georgian amber wine ranges from light golden (a few weeks of skin contact in Imereti) to deep amber-orange (6 months of full maceration in Kakheti qvevri). The colour is a rough proxy for tannin level, aromatic intensity, and ageing potential. Imeretian ambers are delicate and fragrant; Kakhetian ambers are structured, tannic, and built for long ageing.

By region: Kakheti (eastern Georgia) produces the most intense qvevri ambers. Kartli (central) produces more restrained, mineral-driven styles. Imereti (western) produces the lightest amber, often with significant freshness. Adjara and Racha are smaller regions with distinctive microclimates and indigenous varieties rarely found elsewhere.

By variety:

• Rkatsiteli (Kakheti): The backbone variety — structured, acidic, age-worthy. The reference Kakhetian amber.
• Kisi (Kakheti): More aromatic, floral, and precious. The luxury Kakhetian amber.
• Mtsvane (Kakheti): Fresh, herbal, often blended with Rkatsiteli for aromatic lift.
• Chinuri (Kartli): Elegant, mineral, lower alcohol. Iago’s wines are the benchmark.
• Tsitska (Imereti): Delicate, high acid, floral. The Nikoladze benchmark.
• Tsolikouri (Imereti): Richer and rounder than Tsitska; often blended with it.
• Saperavi (Kakheti): Georgia’s great red. Deep purple, high acid, high tannin. Built for decades of ageing; young Saperavi is rough and compelling.

Natural vs conventional: Most of what you tasted this week is natural wine — native yeasts, no additives, minimal intervention. Conventional Georgian wine (sulphite-heavy, filtered, commercial) is sold in supermarkets and doesn’t represent the tradition. The producers in this itinerary are mostly natural wine producers at various points on the spectrum from full natural to low-intervention.

The food that accompanies Georgian wine

Georgian wine is made to drink with food. The supra tradition — the feast at which wine is the central element — is the context in which these wines were created. Understanding the food pairings transforms the tasting experience:

Amber wine and walnuts: The affinity between Georgian amber wine’s tannins and walnut’s bitter oils is the single most important food pairing in Georgian cuisine. Every walnut-based dish — pkhali, satsivi (walnut chicken sauce), badrijani nigvzit (walnut-stuffed aubergine) — is improved with a glass of Rkatsiteli amber.

Saperavi and meat: The red is made for grilled meat — mtsvadi, tabaka chicken, lamb. The acidity cuts through fat; the tannins need protein to soften.

Light Imereti amber and fish: A glass of Tsitska with fresh trout from the mountain streams is the Imeretian combination. The delicacy of the wine matches the clean freshness of the fish.

Amber wine and cheese: Georgian cheese (sulguni, fresh Imeruli) is mild and milky — the wine’s tannins make the cheese taste creamier and sweeter. This is the snack-and-wine combination in every Kakheti cellar.

Practical notes

Advance booking: Small natural wine producers (Iago’s Wine, Our Wine, Ramaz Nikoladze) require advance arrangement — they are working farms, not visitor centres. Email or call weeks in advance. Most have email addresses accessible through their wine importer websites in your home country.

Designated driving: Serious wine tastings and driving do not mix safely. For the Kakheti producer days, consider booking a driver or organised tour rather than self-driving. Shared Kakheti wine tours from Tbilisi are available and include transport. See our Kakheti wine tours guide.

Buying wine: Georgian wine transported in checked luggage survives well with proper packing. Wine bottle protectors (padded bags) and wine carry bags are sold at Wine Factory No. 1. Most airlines allow 2 x 23 kg checked luggage — a case of wine (12 bottles) fits comfortably in a bag under 23 kg.

Best season: September–October (harvest, the rtveli) is the most magical time for winery visits — the cellars are active, the grapes are arriving, and participation in the harvest is possible with advance arrangement. Spring (April–May) is excellent for wine travel — new vintage wines are fresh from a few months of maturation, the landscape is green, and producers have time after the winter quiet.

Related guides

• Amber wine guide — the complete guide to Georgian orange wine
• Best wineries in Georgia — full producer profiles and visit guidance
• Kakheti wine tours — organised tour options for the wine country
• Qvevri winemaking guide — the clay vessel at the heart of Georgian wine
• Wine tasting in Tbilisi — the Tbilisi wine bar circuit in detail