This sparkling wine specialist is named in honour of Prince Ivane Bagration of Mukhrani, the wine-loving prince who introduced sparkling wine production in Georgia in 1882, using the techniques he had witnessed in Champagne. Today’s company dates from 1937 and dominates sparkling wine production and sales in Georgia. The winery is full of new, and…
Sisters Baia and Gvanca Abuladze are inspiring young women. In just three years, they have restored their family’s long wine tradition. Baia was just 22 when, in 2015, she successfully applied for a national grant to help women in Georgia set up agricultural wine businesses. (Women comprise more than half of Georgia’s agricultural work-force, but…
Founded in 2004, Georgian Wines is an example of the blossoming of new, small wine producers since the new millennium. Their 40 hectares of vineyards are located in Kakheti, in a zone named after the Zangaura dry river bed. This sunny but sheltered terroir is renowned for producing intense, rich wines. The high, shimmering Caucasus…
In 2012, diggers unearthed a surprise stash of hundreds of old qvevri in the grounds of Vaziani wine cellar. They were the remains of the once princely, then derelict, winery of Makashvili, founded in the latter half of the 15th Century. Vaziani (a large, modern winery established in the 1980s) set about restoring the old…
This small estate of 34 hectares is being restored to old glories by Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze. Vazisubani’s mansion and vineyards were established by Tavadi (Prince) Sulkhan Chavchavadze in the late 19th century. Named after the village in which it is located, Vazisubani flourished in this golden but curtailed period of Georgian history. Beautifully…
Established in the 1960s, for decades Tbilvino was the state-owned engine that satisfied the thirst for easy-drinking Georgian wine all over the Soviet Union. In the last two decades, following Georgia’s hard-won independence, Tbilvino has been transformed into one of the most dynamic, open-minded, large producers of Georgia. The sprawling old winery complex was consolidated…
In 2005, eighth-generation Georgian wine-maker Gela Patalishvili came across American artist John Wurdeman painting in a vineyard. In 2007, they co-founded this holistic and dynamic winery in Signaghi. Theirs is a powerfully creative partnership that has raised awareness of Georgian wine across the world. Both are inspired by Georgia’s ancient but vulnerable viticultural legacy, and…
This exquisite winery, cellar and house was first created by the remarkable couple Ilia Chavchavadze and Olga Guramishvili in the late 1800s. Aristocratic, artistic, philanthropic and very much in love, they enlarged Olga’s family property in Kartli to make qvevri and sparkling wine from their nearby vineyards. Poet, politician and thinker, Ilia Chavchavadze was the…
This large and quality-focused producer owns vineyards in many of Georgia’s most famed micro-zones and appellations. The winery is in Tsinandali, the aristocratic town that Prince Chavchavadze made the heart of contemporary Georgian wine production in the 18th century. (His palace, now a national monument, is next door.) Shumi was founded in 2001, as Georgia…
Ramaz Nikoladze’s wines are one of the most sought-after cult wines of Georgia. They are fought over by cutting-edge sommeliers and natural wine buyers in London, New York and Tokyo. This demand is as strong and authentic as the wines. From his small, sustainably cultivated vineyard in Imereti, Ramaz makes just a few thousand bottles…