Telavi: Khaketi Wine Region

📌 Another gotrip got us from Kazbegi to Telavi through some beautiful countryside of mountains, lakes and spring trees. The ride was 5 hours but we were welcomed to another lovely guesthouse in the small town of Telavi. We were keen to try some of the wine from the oldest wine makers in the world.

📌 We organized a driver name Mamuka who was from the area thanks to a tripadvisor forum and he drove us around for the day for 50$. Bargain! We started at a winery that he knew, being off season it was very quiet, so essentially we were getting a private tour and private tasting. They're very generous, a tasting includes essentially free pour wine once a glass is finished, plus cheese and biscuits. They showed us how they make the wine in these large terracotta pots known as Qveri which are buried in the ground for months. We then went to a larger more industrial winery/warehouse which was equally as good due to their nice garden, sitting amongst the vines on a 25 degree day was perfect.

📌 We attempted to visit a third winery I had seen on Google but as we got there the owner was extremely pushy speaking Russian to our driver, once we left after he starts shouting kangaroo at us, the driver tells us that he was drunk. We ended up at Mamauka's recommendation, a winery run by an 80 year old man known as Shota. We were shown around the Qveri area and we were seated out on the balcony overlooking the mountains, us, mamuka and Shota, basically it felt like we were at a friend's house. The afternoon went on and Shota asked us to toast and with each toast you had to skull your wine. We were winning him over with our Australian drinking ways and he started saying "Steven" and pointing to my glass to finish and get more. Everyone was having a good time and then came out the local spirit known as ChaCha, soon shots were being had and stories about the Soviet union were being told. Eventually we had to leave as we were way to drunk and Shota somehow had to keep hosting some Russians. This was the most authentic experience we had to far.

📌 The day ended with us back at the guesthouse where we were given more wine by the hosts and we sat on the balcony drunkenly talking to some Georgian people our age and Mamuka who had stuck around as he coincidentally was good friends with host of the property. The night finished with some trips to the bathroom vomiting (both of us) and some very dizzy sleeping.Read more