2-Day Kakheti Wine Tour: Qvevri Cellars & Six Top Wineries

Daybreak in Tbilisi and the city still yawned when our minivan cut east toward the sun-soaked plains of Kakheti. By the first hour we were swirling golden Rkatsiteli at Chateau Khashmi, its cellar air thick with the earthy perfume of buried qvevri. The road rolled on past orchards and poppy-red fields until Sighnaghi’s rose-brick ramparts crowned the Alazani Valley; here, lunch tasted of churchkhela, mountain air, and a crisp Chinuri poured on a balcony that felt borrowed from a postcard.

Afternoon delivered us to Tsinandali Estate—Prince Chavchavadze’s 19th-century manor—where classical French barrels shared space with 8-ton clay amphorae. Sunset found us clinking glasses of amber Kisi in Velistsikhe’s Chubini Winery while the winemaker’s mother ladled mtsvadi straight off the vine-wood coals. We slept in Telavi under vine-entwined eaves, dreaming in shades of Saperavi.

Dawn lit day two, and we tunneled deep into the Kvareli Wine Cave, a Soviet-era gallery blasted through limestone where 25,000 bottles nap at a perfect 12 °C. Outside, Shumi Winery answered with a flight of experimental blends, proving tradition and innovation can toast the same table. A quick hop to tiny Shilda capped our 369-km pilgrimage with a family-run cellar, where qvevri lids were lifted just for us, releasing warm, bready aromas older than any border on the map.

 

We returned to Tbilisi dusted in vineyard clay, certain that the real treasure of Kakheti isn’t just its UNESCO-listed qvevri craft—it’s the way every pour carries a story, every hillside a welcome, and every traveler a new place at the supra.