Wine Tour to Georgia: an Incredible Blend of Fine Wine and Heartfelt Hospitality

If you truly want to feel the “taste of life,” you absolutely must visit Georgia or at least stop by a Georgian wine shop like Silk Road Wines. You will instantly fall in love with this small country with a big “soul”, amazing cuisine and unique charm.

From Grape Harvest to the Georgian Wine Shop

Winemaking traditions in Georgia go back thousands of years and in any wine store, you will hear that the country has 9 winemaking districts each with its own character and specialties.

Here are 3 of them we especially recommend visiting:

• KAKHETI – this region is a motherland of famous Saperavi and Kindzmarauli wines, and what is more at least half of all Georgian wines are produced here.
• RACHA – you have probably heard the names of Khvanchkara and Tvishi wines, they are produced here.
• KARTLI – this region is famous for its sparkling wines, which we usually call champagne.

Best Wine Shop and Qvevri

To understand what the difference is between traditional Georgian wines and any others you should know these 3 things:

• Frequently grapes are still harvested by hand so this allows winemakers to select the best berries.
• Grape juice is sent to ferment along with the twigs and peels which makes the wine more intense.
• The fermentation process takes place in clay jugs and does not require the intervention of modern technologies.

In such a way, we can obtain a natural product with the maximum number of useful macronutrients which are just filtered out using the European winemaking method.

Be Sure to Taste

It is time to taste the best wines from different winemaking regions:

• SAPERAVI – dry red, ideal with meat and shashlik. 
• RKATSITELI – dry white with a slight honey note in taste.
• KHVANCHKARA – semi-sweet red with a velvety taste and aroma of ripe blackberries.
• TVISHI – semi-sweet white with a light and elegant taste.

These wines are the most popular both in Georgia and abroad so you will find them at almost every importer of Georgian wine around the world. But you can choose any bottle from more than 30 varieties produced in this country and be sure it will not disappoint you. For example, my favorite is dry white Kisi, which perfectly quenches thirst.

Traditions, Technologies, Winemaking

Today, Georgia exports more than 120 million bottles of wine per year and every seller strives to ensure good quality of its product which is possible only thanks to the perfect balance between ancient traditions and modern technology.