Dry plain · 300–700 m
Wine of Kakheti
The dry eastern plain where qvevri winemaking never stopped.
Two thirds of Georgia’s wine comes from Kakheti, and almost every family here has a marani. The Alazani valley is hot, dry and sheltered by the Caucasus wall to the north, which is why Rkatsiteli ripens so reliably and why the amber wines made on the skins in buried qvevri taste of dried apricot and walnut rather than of fruit. Distances are short: you can see three families in a day out of Telavi and be back for dinner.
Grapes to look for
- Rkatsiteli
- Saperavi
- Kakhuri Mtsvane
- Kisi
- Khikhvi
Families here
Kvareli 1 family
Beridze Qvevri House
Levan Beridze is a qvevri maker as much as a winemaker.
Sighnaghi 1 family
Tsereteli of Sighnaghi
The house is inside the old town walls, which means the marani is small, the qvevri are small, and the view from the terrace over the Alazani valley is the reason most people stay longer than they meant to.
Telavi 2 families
Nikoladze Marani
Giorgi Nikoladze went to Tbilisi to study engineering in 1998 and came back eleven years later because his grandmother could no longer lift the lid off the qvevri on her own.
Chkheidze Family Cellar
Three sisters run this marani on the eastern edge of Telavi: Tamar keeps the vineyard, Ketevan makes the wine, and Salome, who spent six years working in restaurants in Warsaw, cooks and talks to guests.