Ruta del vino georgiano: 7 días, privada, Kajetia y Kartli

El rey Vakhtang Gorgasali fundó Tbilisi en el siglo V sobre las aguas termales que aún alimentan los baños de azufre abovedados del casco antiguo. Sube a la Fortaleza de Narikala para disfrutar de vistas panorámicas, recorre los callejones adoquinados y los ornamentados balcones de madera del Viejo Tbilisi, luego cruza el iluminado Puente de la Paz hacia la gran Avenida Rustaveli. Las noches traen khinkali, khachapuri y vino de una de las tradiciones más antiguas del mundo, a menudo acompañados de canto polifónico georgiano.

A 19th-century palace and winery of the Mukhranbatoni princes in the Mukhrani valley of Kartli, restored as a working wine estate. It offers cellar tours, tastings and meals, and pairs well with a morning in Mtskheta.

Telavi is the heart of Kakheti, Georgia's wine country, where vineyard-covered valleys meet centuries of royal history. A royal seat of the Kakhetian kings, whose Batonis Tsikhe fortress was King Erekle II's residence in the 18th century, it surrounds you with sights like the towering Alaverdi Cathedral, the Ikalto academy, and the Chavchavadze estate and cellars at Tsinandali. Days here move from castle walls and monasteries to long tables of mtsvadi, fresh shoti bread, and deep-red Saperavi poured straight from the source. Come in autumn for the grape harvest and you'll taste the region at its most alive.

In the heart of Kakheti, Tsinandali centres on the elegant Chavchavadze Estate of the poet Alexander Chavchavadze, who built a winery here in the 1830s that blended European and Georgian methods. Stroll the English-style gardens, tour the house museum, and descend into the enoteca, whose collection holds bottles from 1814, including the famous 1841 Saperavi. With concerts and harvest celebrations through autumn, it pairs aristocratic history with the easy pleasures of Georgian wine country.

Rising over the vineyards of Kakheti, Alaverdi's cathedral has stood since the 11th century, when King Kvirike III raised it on the site of a monastery founded in the 6th century by Joseph of Alaverdi, one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers. At about 50 meters it was the tallest church in Georgia until 2004, and the monks here still keep a living wine tradition in their own cellar. Visit in September for the Alaverdoba festival, then continue to the nearby wine towns of Telavi and Tsinandali.

Ciudad amurallada en lo alto de una colina en el país vinícola de Kakheti, Sighnaghi conserva una de las murallas de fortaleza mejor preservadas de Georgia, cuyas 23 torres dominan el valle de Alazani cubierto de viñedos con vista hacia el Cáucaso. Pasea por las almenas, prueba el vino de qvevri elaborado a la manera ancestral en Pheasant's Tears y contempla las pinturas de Niko Pirosmani en el museo de la ciudad. El cercano Monasterio de Bodbe alberga la tumba de Santa Nino, atrayendo a peregrinos a sus jardines de ladera.

A late-5th-century basilica in Kvemo Kartli and one of the oldest surviving churches in Georgia. Its building inscriptions, from the 490s, are among the oldest dated texts in the Georgian script.