Tour Day 9: “Travel on to the Kakheti region, renowned for its wine-making and welcoming hospitality. Your drive today is quite scenic, so soak up all of the Georgian countryside and its myriad of greens, reds and browns.
“Arrive in the regional centre of Telavi, where you’ll take a visit to the historic Tsinandali – an old estate and vineyard-turned-museum welcoming guests to walk in the gardens and see the quaint house. Afterwards, it’s time to sample some of the local drops – visit a small private winery where our host will tell you all about the Georgian wine-making process and you’ll be able to sample their best wines.
“Tonight, you’ll stay nearby in a hotel run by another wine-making family. Enjoy a delicious traditional dinner at the hotel.”
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We left our accommodation, the Darchi Hotel in Kazbegi, in the rain and snow, heading back down to the green lands…
..of serious wine-making country.
We stopped here for a 20 minute pee break. I really liked it and barely made it to the purpose of our stop. Thank goodness for google lens getting the names of things without too much ordeal. This is Ananuri Fortress Complex.
That’s our John and Anthea making their way under the handsome trees.
In the oh-so-many churches and monasteries we’ve been visiting, most of the frescoes have been removed or faded out over the years so it’s always exciting to find them. Here you see the faces in the panel on the left are smudged out, commonly done by various Muslim invaders where showing faces is not allowed.
Merlyn’s picture – I missed getting over to this cool viewing opportunity.
Arriving at the town of Telavi for a visit to the historic Tsinandali wine estate.
The landscaping was really gorgeous. We all agreed… ooow, we could stay here! And btw there’s a Radisson hotel here too.
The way they do the brick and stone walls, exterior and interior, always attracts my attention.
One of the original buildings from the winery.
Playing around in the Radisson.
This place is the storeroom of the history of this winery plus gifts from other wineries for 100+ years. Our guide through the facility pointed out that none of these wines will ever be drunk. They’re labeled and catalogued though. During the tour we got again the story of Georgian wine (that they were the first to make wine, much earlier than those Armenians…who also have evidence that They were the first.) Both Armenia and Georgia point to their clay pots buried in ancient caves. There are pictures of the clay pots scattered around this story.
Our next stop, a pop and son operation and here is more about the clay pots some of them are so huge, taller even that the man who has to climb in to clean them.
He is showing what kind of wine you get out of the pot and at the very bottom is the chacha. Chacha is the Georgian version of grappa. Once I discovered chacha I started having one wherever it was offered, to see what it was like. Like grappa, some were better than others!
I am writing this 7 days behind and by now I know a little better how I feel about Georgian wine. For one, they are careful to tell you which wine is made in the traditional way, buried in clay pots, and wine made in the European way in vats. The clay pot wine is decidedly distinct, very different, and I think, an acquired taste. I remember acquiring a taste for retsina in Greece. After a week or two I was a fan. Am I a fan of clay pot wine? Not so much. The one kind that I might order is the semi-sweet red. It’s rich and wine-y and the odd taste seems to blend in with the other strong flavors. I like that one!
One of everyone’s highlights, our personal, at home, wine tasting. We got a white and a red and chacha. It was Very fun the best part being an introduction to Georgian toasted sunflower seed oil. They brought it to the table for the bread. I just kept pouring that oil on the bread until it was soaked through. Probably I should have just enjoyed the oil from a spoon. The cheese was nice soaked in oil too.
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Back at the hotel/winery this was the dining room, our table set up as it always was through the tour. Intrepid and Ksenia and our easy-going group made meal time a relaxing delight. So often it takes So Long to get through a group meal but preparations organized ahead and willingness to share made it trouble free.
Like moths to a flame, before long everyone was gathered around that fireplace.
