Kakheti Wine Region Day Trip

Georgia has been making wine for around eight thousand years, and Kakheti, in the far east of the country, is where most of it is made. Its vineyards fill the broad Alazani Valley beneath the Caucasus, and its winemakers still ferment grapes in qvevri, huge clay jars buried in the ground, a method recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. The amber wines this produces, made with the skins, are unlike anything else you will taste. This full-day group tour, one of the best-reviewed experiences in the country on Viator with thousands of reviews, combines the wine with the region’s two great sights. Bodbe Monastery, among cypress trees and gardens, holds the grave of Saint Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia. Nearby Sighnaghi, the so-called city of love, is a pretty hill town of balconied houses ringed by eighteenth-century walls and towers with sweeping valley views. The tour includes nine tastings of wine and chacha, the fiery Georgian grape spirit.

How to visit: the tour runs about ten hours from central Tbilisi, with a drive of roughly two hours each way through the Gombori hills or the valley road. Stops include Bodbe Monastery, a roadside bakery at Badiauri for hot bread, the town of Sighnaghi and family wine cellars where you taste nine wines and chacha. Food at the cellars and lunch arrangements vary, so check the inclusions on the booking page, and pace yourself on the tastings. Free cancellation applies up to the usual cutoff.

What to expect: Bodbe is an active convent, so dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered and a scarf for women. Sighnaghi is best explored on foot; walk a stretch of the town walls for the view across the Alazani Valley to the mountains. The cellars are usually small, family-run places where the winemaker explains qvevri fermentation and pours straight from the jar. Autumn, during and just after the September and October harvest, is the most atmospheric time, but the tour runs year-round and the wine is just as good in winter.

Making the most of it: buy a bottle or two at the cellars rather than in Tbilisi shops, ask about amber Rkatsiteli and red Saperavi, and if you love the region, come back for a night in Sighnaghi or Telavi to slow down.