A touch of Tuscany in Georgia’s Kakheti wine region

During our recent visit to Georgia, we loved our little touch of Tuscany – in one of the Caucasus’ best known wine regions.

For those who don’t know, Georgia is well known for its wine, and especially its robust reds. Although, I still chuckle when I think about how a sommelier asked me what my preferred wine was, and when I responded robust, dry reds, he looked horrified and said that women “should like sweet red wines.” Not happening, but that’s the fun of travel…

Kakheti is the wine region east of the Georgian capital of Tblisi.

The striking Caucasus mountains you can see from these vineyards delineate the border between Georgia and Russia (Dagestan). The mountains were beautiful in the changing light of day.

The history of wine in this region is fascinating. Georgia and Armenia both have claim to being the first wine producers in the world…. thought to date back an impressive 8000 years.

In Kakheti, we learned about the ancient tradition of creating wine – in qvevri. These are large clay vessels that would be buried underground to ferment. Today in Georgia, they produce both classic/western wine and traditional Georgia wine, produced in qvevri. Both  were fabulous!

We travelled a lot around the region, but always enjoyed returning to our hotel, the Chateau Mosmieri.

It was a lovely spot among the vineyards of this wine-producing label, and we loved having breakfasts and dinners here and enjoying the various wines they produced.

As an avid swimmer, I also ended (or started) each day with laps in the lovely pool. And yes, enjoying a nice poolside glass of wine – rigorously “Kilometer Zero”, of course…

After Kakheti, we set out on a more exhausting cross-country trip, but this brief respite among the vineyards was a wonderful starting point for our adventures.

When you’re in Georgia, I highly recommend a visit to the beautiful Kakheti region – Georgia’s Tuscany.

You’ll love spending time in this relaxing, picturesque region.