Georgia is unlike any wine country I have ever visited. After more than 20 years working in wine and travelling through the vineyards of France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and beyond, my trip to Tbilisi and the Kakheti wine region completely surprised me.
This is a country with around 8,000 years of winemaking history, more than 500 indigenous grape varieties and an ancient tradition of making wine in huge clay vessels called qvevri.
But that's only part of the story.
What struck me most about Georgia was the feeling that its ancient past, Soviet history and incredibly exciting future are all existing side by side.
And somehow, it works.
Tbilisi: a city that feels on the cusp of something
We started in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, and I absolutely loved it.
It is difficult to describe because it doesn't feel quite like anywhere else I've visited.
There are fabulous hotels, great restaurants and a brilliant coffee, café and wine-bar culture. There are tourists, but it hasn't yet developed that overly polished feeling you sometimes find in cities that have become major tourist destinations.
Instead, there's a rawness to Tbilisi.
It almost feels like travelling a few decades ago, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Beautiful old buildings sit beside modern hotels. Tiny cafés appear down little streets. Some things are rough around the edges, but that is part of its charm.
It feels romantic, rustic and alive.
One of my favourite discoveries was Vertskhli Street, where we stopped for coffee and cake. It's exactly the kind of place that made me fall for Tbilisi. Beautiful, characterful and somewhere you could happily lose an afternoon.
What to eat in Georgia
You cannot talk about Georgia without talking about the food.
The hospitality is wonderful and eating and drinking seem to be completely intertwined with Georgian culture.
One of my favourites was khinkali, traditional Georgian dumplings filled with meat and delicious broth. Think of them almost as Georgian soup dumplings.
They are absolutely gorgeous.
We also tried a traditional Georgian sweet that one local rather brilliantly described to us as “the Snickers of Georgia.”
Needless to say, I tried that too.
Then it was time to leave Tbilisi and head east towards Kakheti, Georgia's most important wine-producing region.
Kakheti: the heart of Georgian wine country
This was where Georgia really began to get under my skin.
I've visited wineries all over the world, but I had never experienced anything quite like this.
You can stand beside state-of-the-art modern winemaking equipment and then walk a few metres and find enormous qvevri, the traditional Georgian clay vessels used for fermenting and ageing wine.
Then you turn another corner and find huge Soviet-era tanks and old pieces of machinery.
Some have been kept. Some are still useful.
Meanwhile, enormous investment is going into modern technology and improving quality.
Ancient winemaking, Soviet history and cutting-edge technology, all under one roof.
Nothing about it feels staged.
The old equipment isn't there as a prop for tourists. The qvevri aren't there because amber wine suddenly became fashionable. And the new technology isn't trying to erase what came before it.
They are simply different chapters in Georgia's story.
What is a qvevri?
A qvevri is a large, egg-shaped clay vessel traditionally used in Georgia to ferment, mature and store wine.
They are buried underground, which helps maintain a stable temperature, and the tradition stretches back thousands of years.
What fascinated me was seeing that qvevri are still made by hand using local clay and traditional techniques. This isn't a winemaking method that has been recreated for the modern natural-wine movement. It never went away.
In 2013, the traditional Georgian method of qvevri winemaking was recognised by UNESCO as part of humanity's Intangible Cultural Heritage.
At the winery we visited, some of the qvevri held around 2,500 litres. During fermentation the wines are regularly worked before eventually being left in the qvevri for months.
Standing beside them is impressive.
Tasting the wines afterwards is even more interesting.
Saperavi, Rkatsiteli and the grapes of Georgia
Georgia has more than 500 indigenous grape varieties, which gives you some idea of just how much there is still for the rest of us to discover.
Two of the most important are Saperavi, a red grape, and Rkatsiteli, a white grape.
Saperavi particularly fascinated me.
We visited around 60 hectares of Saperavi vines, with some vineyard rows seemingly stretching forever. At harvest, around 150 people can be working in the vineyards.
We were told that the 2026 harvest was running around ten days later than usual because the weather hadn't been excessively hot, and there was real excitement about the potential quality of the vintage.
The sense of scale is incredible, but so too is the attention to detail.
Even the wax on some of the bottles is applied by hand. Labels are applied by hand.
You begin to understand that Georgia isn't simply relying on its extraordinary history. There is huge ambition here too.
Tasting Georgian qvevri wines
One of the most interesting parts of the trip was being able to taste the wines after seeing exactly how they were being made.
The Bedoba Orange is made from Rkatsiteli and Kisi and spends six months on its skins in qvevri.
I found it floral and incredibly juicy, with peach, apricot, grapefruit and a touch of caramel. It was rich and textured but still beautifully fresh, with fantastic length.
Then there was Bedoba Reserva, made from Saperavi and aged entirely in qvevri.
Spicy, savoury and incredibly long, with a gorgeous silky texture and beautiful warming spice.
And this is where something clicked for me.
We sometimes talk about Georgian wine as though the ancient techniques and unusual grape varieties are the reason people should drink it.
They're not.
The real reason is much simpler.
The wines can be seriously good.
The history just makes them even more fascinating.
Georgian wine: ancient, but not old-fashioned
Perhaps this was the biggest thing I brought home with me.
Georgia has one of the oldest winemaking traditions on earth, yet it doesn't feel like a wine country looking backwards.
Quite the opposite.
I felt like I was visiting somewhere right on the edge of something incredibly exciting.
The ancient qvevri are still there. The Soviet tanks are still there. The indigenous grapes are still there.
But alongside them is a new generation of winemakers investing in vineyards, technology and quality, and showing what grapes like Saperavi and Rkatsiteli are capable of.
I've travelled through some of the world's great wine regions and normally you have a reasonable idea of where you are in their story.
Georgia feels like you're watching the next chapter being written.
Is Georgia worth visiting for wine?
Absolutely.
Go for the wine, but don't make the mistake of thinking that's all there is.
Go for Tbilisi. Go for the food. Go for the hospitality. Go for the mountains and vineyards. Sit in the cafés. Drink Georgian wine. Eat far too many khinkali.
And allow yourself time to wander.
Georgia doesn't feel undiscovered. People are already travelling there and there are some fabulous hotels and restaurants.
But it does still feel wonderfully unpolished in places.
And I hope it doesn't lose that too quickly.
I went to Georgia already loving Georgian wine. I came home understanding it.
After more than 20 years of travelling for wine, I can't remember the last time a place surprised me quite as much.
I would go back in a heartbeat.
My tips for travelling to Georgia
We flew Dublin to Tbilisi via Istanbul, which worked very well, but give yourself plenty of time for the connection at Istanbul Airport. It is enormous and simply getting from one part of the airport to another can take much longer than you expect.
Once you arrive, spend proper time in Tbilisi rather than treating it simply as a jumping-off point for wine country. Stay around the Old Town if you can, explore on foot, and make time for the city's cafés, restaurants and wine bars. Vertskhli Street was one of my favourite finds for coffee and cake.
Then head east into Kakheti and experience Georgian wine country for yourself.
And one final piece of advice.
Come hungry. You need to eat the khinkali.
0 comments