Kakheti Wine Tour — 3-Day Private Tour from Tbilisi

Tbilisi to Sighnaghi is about 110 km (1.5–2 h).

1. 09:00

   Pickup in Tbilisi; tone-oven bread stop at Badiauri

2. 11:00

   Bodbe convent (45 min)

   • BodbeDay 1: Bodbe convent, burial place of St Nino, above the Alazani Valley (45 min). The path down to her spring is steep.

     Day 1: Bodbe convent, burial place of St Nino, above the Alazani Valley (45 min). The path down to her spring is steep.

     Bodbe is a working convent 2 km from Sighnaghi in Kakheti, about 115 km (2 h) from Tbilisi, and the burial place of St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century. Her tomb lies in a small basilica first built between the 9th and 11th centuries, set among cypress trees and flower gardens with a wide view over the Alazani valley to the Caucasus. From the convent a long, steep path of steps leads down to St Nino's Spring, where pilgrims collect water and bathe.

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3. 12:15

   Sighnaghi walls and old town

   • SighnaghiDay 1: Sighnaghi's 18th-century walls and old town, a tasting at a small natural-wine cellar and sunset over the Alazani Valley. Night in Sighnaghi.

     Day 1: Sighnaghi's 18th-century walls and old town, a tasting at a small natural-wine cellar and sunset over the Alazani Valley. Night in Sighnaghi.

     Sighnaghi is a small walled town at about 790 m on a ridge above the Alazani Valley in Kakheti, about 113 km (2 h) east of Tbilisi. Its 18th-century defensive wall with towers looks across the vineyards to the Greater Caucasus. You walk a section of the wall, see Niko Pirosmani's paintings in the Sighnaghi Museum, taste qvevri wine in the town's cellars, and visit Bodbe convent, the burial place of St Nino, 2 km away. It works as a half-day stop or a relaxed overnight in wine country.

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4. 13:30

   Lunch (not included)

5. 15:30

   Tasting at a small natural-wine cellar (for example Okro's or Pheasant's Tears)

6. Evening: sunset over the Alazani Valley from the walls

7. Overnight: Sighnaghi (hotel or guesthouse, breakfast)

About 1.5 hours of driving in total.

1. 09:00

   Drive to Tsinandali (1–1.25 h); 10:15 house-museum and enoteca degustation

   • TsinandaliDay 2: the Chavchavadze family's house-museum and gardens at Tsinandali, with a degustation in the estate's enoteca (included).

     Day 2: the Chavchavadze family's house-museum and gardens at Tsinandali, with a degustation in the estate's enoteca (included).

     Tsinandali is the 19th-century country estate of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, about 10 km south-east of Telavi in Kakheti, with a house museum, a large landscaped park and one of Georgia's oldest wineries. A visit takes 1.5–2 hours: tour the family house, walk the park under old plane trees and cedars, go down to the enoteca, whose collection starts in 1814, and taste the estate's wines. In early September the estate hosts the Tsinandali Festival of classical music.

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2. 12:00

   Kbilashvili qvevri workshop in Vardisubani

3. 13:30

   Lunch and tasting at a family marani (included)

4. 15:30

   Telavi: Batonis Tsikhe and the giant plane tree

   • TelaviDay 2: the Kbilashvili qvevri makers in Vardisubani, a family marani lunch and an evening supra; night in Telavi. Day 3: Telavi market in the morning.

     Day 2: the Kbilashvili qvevri makers in Vardisubani, a family marani lunch and an evening supra; night in Telavi. Day 3: Telavi market in the morning.

     Telavi is the main town of Kakheti, Georgia's wine region, on the slopes of the Gombori range above the Alazani Valley, about 95 km (2 h) from Tbilisi. It is a practical base for the wine country: the Tsinandali estate, Alaverdi Cathedral, the Ikalto academy and the royal town of Gremi are all within 30 minutes. In town you see the fortress and palace of King Erekle II, the giant plane tree and a lively morning market, then spend the afternoon at family cellars and wineries.

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5. 19:30

   Family supra with a tamada and chacha (included); a polyphonic trio can be added

6. Overnight: Telavi (hotel or guesthouse, breakfast)

From Gremi back to Tbilisi over the Gombori pass is about 120 km (2.5 h); in snow we take the Sagarejo road.

1. 09:00

   Telavi market (best before 11:00)

2. 10:30

   Alaverdi Cathedral (20 km)

   • AlaverdiDay 3: Alaverdi Cathedral (11th century, about 50 m tall) inside its walled monastery, where the monks still make wine.

     Day 3: Alaverdi Cathedral (11th century, about 50 m tall) inside its walled monastery, where the monks still make wine.

     Alaverdi Cathedral rises over the vineyards of the Alazani valley in Kakheti, about 20 km north-west of Telavi and 2–2.5 hours from Tbilisi. The 11th-century church of St George, about 50 m tall, was the tallest church in Georgia until Tbilisi's Sameba Cathedral in 2004, and the monks still make wine in qvevri clay jars. Visitors walk the walled grounds, see the frescoed interior and can buy the monastery's own qvevri wine; it combines easily with Telavi and Tsinandali.

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3. 12:00

   Gremi church and royal tower

   • GremiDay 3: Gremi, the 16th-century royal seat of Kakheti, with its Church of the Archangels (1565) and a tower you can climb (museum about 10 GEL).

     Day 3: Gremi, the 16th-century royal seat of Kakheti, with its Church of the Archangels (1565) and a tower you can climb (museum about 10 GEL).

     Gremi is the citadel of the former royal capital of the Kingdom of Kakheti, on a hill above the Alazani valley about 20 km north-east of Telavi. Inside the walls stand the Church of the Archangels, built by King Levan in 1565 and painted with frescoes in 1577, and a three-storey royal tower with a small museum and a rooftop view over the vineyards to the Caucasus. The town below, destroyed in 1615, survives only as scattered ruins. A visit takes about an hour and fits easily into a Kakheti wine day with Nekresi and Kvareli.

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4. 13:30

   Lunch (not included); optional Khareba wine tunnel in Kvareli

5. 15:00

   Drive back over the Gombori pass; 17:30–18:00 in Tbilisi

   • Gombori PassBack to Tbilisi over the forested Gombori pass (about 2.5 h from Gremi); in snow we take the Sagarejo road.

     Back to Tbilisi over the forested Gombori pass (about 2.5 h from Gremi); in snow we take the Sagarejo road.

     The Gombori Pass (1,620 m) carries the shortest road from Tbilisi to Telavi over the forested Gombori range, about 95 km and 2 hours in all. On the way up from the Tbilisi side the road follows the Iori valley past Ujarma fortress; after the pass it drops in hairpins through beech and oak forest, with wide views over the Alazani valley and the Greater Caucasus beyond. We use it on Kakheti day trips as a scenic way in or out, with a short stop at a viewpoint or roadside stall.

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