Georgia – The Cradle of Wine | 6 Wineries You Must Visit

Hey guys, Gamar Joba. Welcome to Georgia. You know Georgia is world famous for its winemaking that goes back several thousand years. Do I know much about wine? I sure don't, but there's something about wineries that I really enjoy. They're always surrounded by beautiful locations and friendly people. There are three major winemaking districts in Georgia. Eastern, Western and Central. In this video we'll explore the Eastern part also known as Kahiti or Alazani Valley. So without further ado let's start with winery number one. Giwani Winery. The first winery we're going to start with is called Giwani and they've been operating as a family winery since 1894. But since 2014 they've been more of a commercial company. So they've been in business for quite a while and they have a really fantastic estate. So you can come here to wine taste and you can also they have a tiny hotel for six rooms and they got a very nice swimming pool. So let me show you. So let's take a look around. There's a swimming pool. If you get too drunk you know it's refreshing a little bit. And this is an olive tree. It's not like from a flower store because this is gardener roses. Much better. First let's get some things straight. There's two ways to make wine. Classical European wine is when you separate grapes from stalks and press them to make juice. The juice is then fermented in steel tanks. For white wine the skins are removed. For red wine red grapes with the skins left in the mix for a variable period during fermentation. Now traditional Georgian winemaking is different. It's 100% natural. Same as it was 8 000 years ago. Grapes, stalks and skins are thrown in together in a large clay pot known as kveri that is buried underground. The sediment naturally sinks to the bottom of the pot. The sediment is then removed and the wine can sit in the clay pot anywhere from three months to four years. We have dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet wines. In terms of color we have white, we have red wine, we have pink and we also have this wine that is made here in our kveri. We call it amber wine. He's going to the U.S. He's also going to the U.S. so it seems like the U.S. is buying a lot of wine from Georgia. Look at this. He's also going to the U.S. Are you guys familiar with Georgian wine and have you been buying from wine from Georgia? When we make a classic wine, we squeeze out the juice, add the grapes and do the fermentation of the juice and get the wine. And here, together with the juice of the grapes, that is, both the skin and the bones, these ridges, all this goes together with the juice. A few times a day, 5-6 times a minimum, so that this process goes evenly. We mix it all up. And when the fermentation is over, all these hard particles go down, settle, go to the bottom, and the wine, as you can see here, rises up. And when this process is over, we close it all up, so that the air doesn't get in there. And we keep it like this for a few months. And of course, when we try it, kveri wines have a completely different color, a completely different color, and the aromas are completely different. Some of the barrels come from France, some are local. If you want some wine, just take this one. This is an old-style kveri. Wow. I'm now going to be testing Manawi, and this is a white, dry wine. And what makes it special is that it has this protected designation of origin. It's very important. And the word Manawi is actually the name of the village that we're in. It's very good. Refreshing wine. So, it's Georgian bread. It's our sunflower oil, but it's not refined, it's just cold-pressed. I can feel it. Aromatized. It's our chuchkhela. So, as I told you, it's grape juice, flour, mixed, and inside, walnuts, and our cheese. So, I told you, it's our traditional way of winemaking in clay pots, in kveri. So, let's try this, and what's interesting, now you can compare how the technology can affect on color, on structure, on aromas, and on taste of wine. So, it is the same variety. So, it is Cahetian green, and it's also Cahetian green. As you see, color is absolutely different. Yes, amber. Not like this. It's more orange. Yes, as I told you, the same variety. So, this classical type of winemaking is relatively new to us. Just a couple of centuries, two centuries, not more. It's centuries and centuries, about 8,000 years. That's what I read. It wasn't until the 19th century that you guys started making European wine. Before that, you only relied on kveri. Yes, you're absolutely right. So, please see how it comes on the surface of glasses, yes? How oily, how very, very… Looks oily. I love the smell more of this wine, because it's more colorful. More colorful. And aftertaste. The finish is very long. When you taste it, you still remember the taste of this wine for a long period. What about price of this wine? It's more labor-consuming to make kveri wines. That's why the price is higher here. About $35 is this wine. It's half, about $17. And our winery tour continues. And it's just so enjoyable. I thought it would go at a faster pace, but it's just impossible. We went to one winery, we spent two hours tasting wines, admiring everything. The scenery is just like, wow, you gotta make stops so many times. And I'm lucky to have a drone with me. And this is my designated driver. Her name is Lenny, you might be familiar. We continue our winery tour, and we have come to the town of Signaki. And we're going to this winery that's called Pheasant's Tears. Let's go check it out. So we continue our winery tour, and we have come to the winery called Pheasant's Tears. Is that correct? It's correct. It's Pheasant's Tears. It's like a fairy tale. When we like wine here, especially kveri, we say, wine was so good, so sane, so pure, like Pheasant's Tears. We took this title because we produce only organic, only natural wine. We use only Georgian traditional method. It's absolutely different compared to other wines. We love all wines, of course. We appreciate everything. But we want to continue these old traditional wines. We use just endemic grapes. We have 500 types of endemic grapes in Georgia. They grow only in Georgia. Let's step inside. This house is 200 years old. The sapiravi, of course. Sapiravi is the, I don't know, it's modern wine. Modern wine. I mean, it's a very interesting type of grape. It's very basic for kakheti. And then, of course, the kakheteli, ember. So, it's yellow, but it's dark yellow. Yeah, we call ember because it's really light. It looks like ember. So, that's rose wine. Yeah. And poliphonia. Poliphonia, it's four handy types of grapes together. Wow. We make museum in our vineyard. We plant four handy types of different Georgian type of grapes together. And this wine has all of them? Yeah. We make symbol of wine. Yeah. Wow. Slava, this is so gorgeous. Just look at it. Wow. I feel like deja vu. Somehow, I've already been here. Really? Yeah. In your dreams. It's a tiny little town. With cobblestone streets. But yet, it's center of tourism. It gets lots and lots of tourism. And the tourism industry in Georgia is growing. Just yesterday, we met people from Thailand. All the way from Thailand. So, it's just a picture perfect location, you know. Everywhere you look is like, can I take a picture? Yes, you can take a picture. Alright. Oh, I love that old car. Over there, look at that. On our way to the next winery, I saw some merchants with cool traditional hats and carpets. So, I had to stop and take some pictures. Can I try? And you see this hat? It's called papaha. And it keeps you warm. You know, sometimes it gets cold and it keeps you warm. And this overcoat on me is also keeping me warm. So, oh yeah, I need my stick. Where are my sheep? I'm telling you, I had 50 sheep this morning. Where did they all go? I think they left me. This valley you see is known as Elazani Valley. It is perfect for winemaking. It's huge. 11,500 square kilometers. Or 4.4 thousand square miles. Okay, winery number three. Akasheni Wine Resort and Spa. We have come to the wine resort of Akasheni. So, let's go inside. Welcome to the Akasheni Wine Resort and Spa. We are just a new hotel. Actually, we have been working here for four years. We have a hotel right now. Which has 41 rooms. You will see we have different categories. We have small gardens. You have direct access to the swimming pool. Which is wonderful in the summer, of course. Actually, we also have a restaurant. Wine degustation. We have a Cajetian corner. Where you can make some Cajetian dish to make yourself. And degustate, of course, all of them. What you see around the wine yard. In September, it's a wonderful time to collect the grapes. And after, make the wines by yourself, of course. And the barbecue that we have outside. You will see the fresh food. It's the best for our hotel. Just to give me an estimate. How much is it per night? From 400 to 650. Looks like paradise. So this is so unusual. They are supplying all their electricity needs with this solar panels. And they said during the summer time, it's 100% they are relying on the solar panels. In the winter time, kind of combined. But that's pretty cool. That's what it means to go green. And I mean literally, go green. It's green everywhere. Gonna take a peek at the pool. There's a pool area. A couple of pools. Yeah, yeah, come on. We got so hungry. We got some local bread. Freshly baked bread. From a local bakery. Give me some. Give me some bread. Wow. It's still warm. Yeah. Just from the oven. Just been baked. Coming to winery number four. Quarelli Wine Cave. And this is a good example of Quarelli. It's a clay pot that Georgians have used for centuries, if not thousands of years. How big is it? They can be enormous. They can be anywhere from 200 liters to like 5,000 liters. It can be just like huge. And this one's actually really, really big. Just imagine trying to fill it up with wine. How many bottles would it take? Welcome to Quarelli Winery. This company was established in 2004. Building of this unique place began in 1959 and was completed in 1965. Of these bottle are full? Yes, so each bottle is real. By the way, the first question of everybody is, are they real? Yes. Are they for sale? No, not yet. So, you know, we are aging them and when they are ready, then we will sell it. Oh, okay. I think after 10 or after 15 years, it will fetch the higher price, so then we will sell it. It's a great investment. So, you said all these tunnels all together are 8 kilometers long. Yes, 7 kilometers and 700 meters. Wow. By the way, this is the biggest tunnel in the whole Transcaucasia and one of the biggest in the world. Do you know that Georgia is the first producer of wine? No. No? No, really. It was proved by the archeological digs as well. Right. Because archeologists discovered ancient grape and ancient clover, which were 8,000 years old. Take out wine from the clay pot. Oh, that's how you do it, okay. Yes. It's like a huge spoon. Big spoon. Yeah, big spoon. And this is the same thing, but smaller. I know this one. It's really pressed. It's sore. We used to press grapes with our feet. Stomping grapes with your feet. But it was done only by men in Georgia. Really? Really. Because by Georgian men opinion, women have changing temperament and if a woman would press grapes, wine would be as crazy as women are. But it was in old time, of course. It's more than 100 years old. Wow. Ah. Sorry. I think we're parked over there. VIP service. VIP. Winery number 5, Chateau Mouhrani. Gamarjoba. Why don't you tell me about this winery? Very nice. So, welcome to Chateau Mouhrani. This whole idea belongs to Ivane Mouhrambatoni Bagrationi, prince from royal family of Georgia, Bagrationi family. And he knew Georgian wine had very big potential to be near to European wines. But because of structural quality, foreigners don't like our wine because it was too heavy for them. That's why he decided to go to France, in Champagne and Bordeaux regions, and discovered this Chateau idea. And in 1878, they made their first wine and building of the castle was finished. Then in the world happened phylloxera and his son Konstantin had to sell the castle to Russian royal family of Romanovs. But then also happened one more revolution and Bolsheviks came. So, they had offices in the castle, some seats, they started to make sparkling wine after World War II. But also soon they made a dry law, Mikhail Gorbachev did it, and they were destroying all the vineyards and cellars in whole Soviet Union. In our case, they destroyed all the rooftops of our vineyards and soil got down. And the castle was burned down in the end of the 20th century because they were hiding Georgian bandits, known as Mkhedrioneli. And when they were discovered, they burned the castle down to hide their evidences of being here. Rebuilding of castle was started back in 2002 by two Georgians and one Swedish investor. And we started to make wine from 2007. Wow, quite a story. Now, this estate is really big. You got stables, horses... We have almost everything what you had back in the 19th century. Also, our vineyards were big, we have 102 hectares of them, and we make half a million bottles per year. Half a million bottles per year? Yeah. And 60% goes to export, mostly in China. Wow, that's interesting. China? Yeah. 60% of that. Thank you. Thank you, Alessandro. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. We are in Chateau Mukhrani, and this restaurant, by the name of Samir Pomerani, was built all the way in 1878. Can you believe that? Let's walk inside and see what it's like on the inside. So today, unfortunately for us and unfortunately for them, they have a big event happening, and so there was no one to give us a tour of wine and everything. We couldn't even eat at the restaurant, but it looks amazing. So let's walk inside this wine cellar. This is what it looked like back in the day. The wine cellar of Chateau Mukhrani. So many barrels of wine. It even smells of wine. Can you smell it? It smells like wine. Maybe one of the barrels is leaking. This is such a huge estate, and it gives you just the appreciation of the scale that they had in the 19th century over here. Kind of the king's life, you know? Stables and restaurant and palace and everything else. We're sitting in what is called Georgian Corner. Winemaking has been a thing in Georgia for centuries, if not thousands of years. And then how did the Soviet period affect winemaking in Georgia? Well, very negatively. In a way that during the Soviet times, they only cared about the amount of production. They wanted to produce more and more and more. They did not care about quality as much. They did not care about the different varieties. So they have different sorts of grapes in Georgia, like 500 different sorts of grapes. Well, that was limited during the Soviet time to like 8 that were mass-produced. So now Georgia has a lot of catching up to do to be on par with European winemakers. And the final winery for today, it's actually the same one I went to with Dari, Sofia and Zach, Mosbieri Kahedi Wine Center. It's been a day full of activities. Yeah, it was really interesting. A long day, yeah. It started with a degustation of wine, Georgian wine. I love it. And then we visited step by step different wineries. And all of them exclusive, unique and can offer you the best. So this day is coming to an end. What a beautiful way to end this with a glass of wine. This is Kinsmare Willy. We got to see a few wineries. A lot of them are so big, they're turning into major resorts with spas and swimming pools. And we learned the difference between European winemaking and Georgian winemaking in those huge clay pots that they're using. I see that you ordered something real substantial. What is that? This is Chahabili from chicken. No, not from. This is chicken Chahabili. Yeah, Chahabili. It's juicy. Can you please tell me about this place? First of all, welcome to Chateau & Winery Mosbieri. We opened our winery in 2015 and decided in 2017 to create this beautiful restaurant with a huge terrace with the most beautiful view in Kakheti. Our main point is to have delicious meals and our guests will be satisfied. Also in 2019, we opened the Chateau. It's 23 rooms, two types of rooms with a swimming pool, beautiful gardens, beautiful atmosphere, friendly employees and a warm heart. So welcome to Mosbieri. To start this place, someone had to have the vision. So where did that come from? The owner is Jorg Matthies. He's German and working for several years in Georgia. So he loved Kakheti and when he discovered this place, the whole project is his project. He decided to create a little Toscana in beautiful mountains. And people love it. And for him, it's most important to have delicious meals and in our kitchen, in our beautiful restaurant, it's only real Kakhetian best meals. And great wine, delicious meals, beautiful view and warm hearts. What else do you want? Thank you very much. But wait, before we end this video, let's finish the wine tasting that we started at the first winery and try the legendary Kinsmarauli wine. And then we'll try the Georgian grape vodka. Cha-cha. Cha-cha. Let's try. Cha-cha. No. Cha-cha. Let's try. Cha-cha. What's the difference between other spirits and cha-cha? For example, vodka, you know, yes, can be distilled from various different products like cereals, maybe grain, maybe ice, wheat, maybe cha-cha. It's 100% pure grape, grape product. That's why, you see, how many aromas you can find, grape aromas inside. Thank you that you came here, that you are my guest today. Maybe you find out something new here and I wish you that all your trip in Georgia will be very successful and with many, many good emotions and good experience. So, to us, to you. St. Toast is a big part of the Georgian wine culture. And to that I reply, which means, so that we come out victorious. Cheers to that. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I think it was very beautiful. See you in the next one. And also, let me know if you've ever tried Georgian wine and what's your favorite.