Georgia. Kakheti: Alaverdi - Gremi - Georgian wine

Our day in Kakheti started from ancient fortress Ujarma, Telavi market and Ikalto academy.

Next stop was Alaverdi Monastery (ალავერდი მონასტერი). Parts of the monastery date back to 6th century. The present day cathedral dates to the 11th century.

The monastery was founded by the Assyrian monk Joseph Alaverdeli (Joseph of Alaverdi), who - along with Saint Shio, Saint Zenon of Ikalto and Saint David of Gareji - came from Syria ion the VI century and founded monastic life in Georgia. Their spiritual leader, Ioann of Zedazeni ordered them to go to various parts of Georgia and found a monastery. Saint Joseph settled in Alaverdi, then a small village and former pagan religious center dedicated to the Moon.

Such was his spiritual power that even wild animals did not touch the saint and does fed him with milk. A wealthy Kakhetian while hunting saw Saint Joseph praying and promised to build a church for him. He kept his word and a small church of Saint George was built. So many people were attracted to Alaverdi, that at the beginning of the XI century  Kvirike III of Kakheti built a cathedral that is today known as Alaverdi Cathedral. It remained the tallest religious buildings in Georgia until a few years ago. Its height of 55 meters was surpassed by the recently consecrated Tbilisi Sameba Cathedral. 

Monastery outer walls

Monastery outer walls

Ironically, the name of one the major centers of Christianity in Georgia comes from Arab words: Alaverdi derives from Allah-verdi - given by Allah. During one of Persian invasions the monastery was conquered and renamed into Allah-verdi, but after the Georgians regained the territory and reestablished Christianity, they decided not to change the name - maybe as a sort of irony?

We enter through the main gate.

On the monastery territory we see well-maintained vineyards and they are not just a decorative element: the monastery has long been a center of wine-making and bee-keeping. Until now it is the focus of the annual religious ceremony Alaverdoba - the celebration of fertility and new harvest that starts on September 14th and lasts for 3 weeks.

Unfortunately,  it is not allowed to photograph inside the temple so we only photographed frescoes from the outside. But the temple interior is truly impressive. When you look around there are not that many windows, but the light seems to be coming from everywhere and the entire temple is bathing in light. Also, from the inside it has such gracious proportions that the dome somehow seems higher than from the outside, sort of vertical and directed towards the sky.

Vadim reminds us that until now people in Georgian villages live in very modest one-story houses, let alone back in the XI century. So if the height of the Cathedral is so impressive even for us, can you imagine how it stupefied medieval people?!

Mural by the entrance, of course depicting Saint George

Murals by the entrance 

The monastery is surrounded by a fortified wall and contains various outbuildings. Three-story monastic quarters are not open to public as the monastery is active (nowadays there are only 9 monks together with archbishop). Some historians state that in the  XVII-XVIII centuries this building housed nuns of royal family - apparently here, like in Nun's valley in Madeira, blue-blooded ladies could not find a proper match neither. Also - along with Pirita convent in Tallinn - it could be an example of a monastery accommodating both monks and nuns.

Starting from the XI century Kings of Kakheti were buried here - while the kings of united Georgia (Kartli) were buried either in Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta or in Gelati monastery.

Of interest to religious people are the relics of Saint Ketevan - Queen of Kakheti who tried to convince Persians not to conquer her country but was instead kept as an honorary hostage. Later she was asked to renounce Christianity and when refused was tortured to death with red-hot pincers. Her relics were clandestinely taken to her homeland by the St. Augustine Portuguese Catholic missioners, eyewitnesses of her martyrdom.

The far part of the monastery obviously contained wine-making facilities - the exhibition of kvevris of all sizes (the biggest one can easily contain several tons) attests to that. 

This octagonal building served as a residence of Persian governor while Alaverdi was under their rule.

It is a shame we could not photograph the Cathedral from the inside but it definitely makes a strong impression - both from religious and architectural point of view.

Next stop was Gremi (გრემი) - founded by Levan of Kakheti, once the Kings residence, big trade center on the Silk Road  and Kakheti capital in the XVI-XVII century. But after the "friendly visit" of infamous Shah Abbas who destroyed among others Ikalto academy, David-Gareji monastery and Vardzia temple it could never regain its past prosperity and the kings of Kakheti transferred their capital to Telavi in the mid-17th century.

In its prime Gremi occupied the area of approximately 40 hectares  and consisted of  three principal parts – the Archangels’ Church complex, the royal residence and the commercial neighborhood. Nowadays, the fortress with former King's residence and the Archangels' church with the burial of King Levan are all what is left of this once mighty city.

As you see today's Gremi reminds more of a village than the city with a lot of greenery and grazing cows. Behind these mountains live Northern Caucasus tribes - namely Chechen - fearless warriors, who used to cause a lot of trouble to those leaving near the border...

Past a lonely lady celling souvenirs we go up the hill. The hill-top complex consists of the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, a three-story castle, a bell tower and a wine cellar (marani).

The Church of the Archangels was constructed at the behest of King Levan of Kakheti in 1565 and frescoed during the next 12 years, by 1577. Much of the murals have survived until now and also make a stunning impression. The dome sits on an arcaded drum punctured by eight windows with the depictions of saints between them.

In the united Kingdom of Georgia they had King David the Builder. Here, in Kakheti, they had King Levan the Builder, the founder of Gremi. His depiction can now be seen on the western wall (on your right as you enter). It is easy to identify Levan - he is holding the scaled model of Gremi in his hand.

King Levan the Builder

The Archangels themselves guard one of the entrances (the temple has three).

Archangel Gabriel

Archangel Michael

Georgian tradition manifests here with all plenitude: the temple is covered with frescoes from floor to ceiling. And even though many faces and or eyes are scratched off, it is still a miracle that Shah Abbas did not destroy them.
The altar partition is one level allowing to see the murals in the apsis.

After the church we go to King's residence: it houses several  archaeological artifacts. On the ground floor the walls are adorned by a series of portraits of Kakhetian Kings - an artistic notion, of course. 

You can see some fragments of King's life - rather modest by modern standards - for example, King's bathroom.

From the bell tower, considered one of the tallest in Georgia, you can see the Cathedral dome...

...Vadim sitting on the steps down below...

...Kakhetian landscape, Caucasus mountains with Russian border behind it...

...and Gremi village.

One the way out we see another tower on the hills

Last look at the Gremi fortress.

Leaving Gremi we head towards Kvareli where we are supposed to discover Georgian wine.

Interesting is the fact that in most European languages the word wine sounds pretty much similar: French vin, Spanish vino, Latin vinum... In ancient Greece the wine was called oinos  (οίνος). In Georgian wine is  ღვინო - khvino. Georgians like to believe that since they were the first ones to make wine, this word penetrated other languages from Georgian. Archaeologists confirm: Georgia was the source of the world's first cultivated grapevines and neolithic wine production over 8,000 years ago, so why not?  Of course, it is also possible that this word originates from some ancient Indo-European language but let the Georgians take credit for that, shall we?

The main regions of viticulture are Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, but of course, Kakheti is the principal region producing seventy percent of Georgia's grapes. Traditionally, Georgian wines carry the either name of the source region, district, or village, much like French regional wines such as Bordeaux or Burgundy or the name of the grape variety.

The wines are until now made in every village house - for everyday use. Even city men buy large quantities of wine and - better or worse - produce their own wine at home.
We first had a chance to taste local home-made wine during our first visit to Kakheti, on the way from David-Gareji to Sighnaghi. We bought it by the roadside and were first amazed by its color: not white at all, this amber-like color reminded more of light beer than of wine. Not the light clear color of your usual whites. The taste is also unique, roughish with slightly bitter undernotes - far from European type of wines we are used to. But it was truly enjoyable and was perfect match to afternoon heat.

Locals do not favor bottles and buy and sell wines by these 5 liter bottles or by 10 liter canisters. When we tried to buy 1 liter of wine, a local farmer did not even take money for that: he said that is embarrassing to take money for such little quantity.

White Rkatsiteli on sale

When it comes to wine-making, Georgia is truly blessed with climatic conditions: summers are warm and sunny with winters being mild and frost-free, extremes of weather are unusual. There are many natural springs and the mountain rivers bring mineral-rich water into the valleys. Even Georgia's air, influenced by Black Sea is moist.

Traditional Georgian grape varieties are little known in the West (and their names are hard to pronounce). In the beginning of the XX century there were over 500 indigenous grape varieties here. Under the Soviet rule it was ordered to cut the number of grape varieties down to 30. Why it was needed - nobody knows, one of the socialism mysteries. Apparently, it was easier to identify, control and manage wine industry this way. For simple wine-makers it was the collapse of their lives and they did not want to cut down the vines their families had been cultivating for generations, so sometimes the force was used. Kakhetians were resisting in their own way: planting the grapes in their backyard or even in the forest. It was then passed down to generations where the clandestine grape was growing. Nowadays Georgian wine-making companies appealed to Kakhetians asking to bring these rare varieties in order to identify and revive them (reference books describing all 500 varieties in detail have preserved). Nowadays with joint efforts of various companies over 40 indigenous grape varieties have been recovered. Kindzmarauli Corporation that we visited is responsible for recovery of 13 of these grapes.

So we were in Kvareli at JSC Kindzmarauli Corporation factory, store and wine-tasting room. Its history goes back to 1533 when according to decree of King Levan Didi Kvareli fortress was constructed along with marani - royal wine cellar. Ice first time in 1918 it was renamed Kvareli wine cellar, which became the successor of traditional production t changed names over the centuries but after Georgia was annexed by Communist Russia, all farmers' lands were nationalized and united in kolkhoz (collective farm). In Kvareli was established grape collecting point were all the grapes were brought and processed. In the 30's Soviet authorities constructed wine cellar and this is where Kindzmarauli corporation is now located. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the former workers formed a Joint Stock company and nowadays produce wine, cognac and chacha (a Georgian grape vodka or moonshine) that gain prizes at local and international world competitions.

So what does the name Kindzmarauli mean? It is wine made of Saperavi grape (საფერავი) meaning  "paint, dye" due to its intensive dark-red colour) - opaque, more black than red. Saperavi is grown all over Kakheti but only in one area (micro-region, as we would say today) is it suitable to make Kindzmarauli. Since ancient times wine-makers have been trying to understand why this particular area gives such unusual taste to this quite common grape. Once it was noticed that wild coriander (kindza in Georgian) grew between the vine lanes. The unusual properties of wine were attributed to the presence of kindza and thus the wine was named.
Later on it proved wrong, but we will get to it in a moment.

In the tasting room we were given 5 sorts of wine, red and white, as well as cognac and chacha. We were instructed on how the vine tasting should go and we compared the color against the white paper, swirled, sniffed and sipped.

So, the first grapes and the first roots of viticulture go back to VI century BC. At that time peoples of South Caucasus discovered that wild grape juice turned into wine when it was left buried through the winter in a shallow pit. With centuries of experience the Georgian wine-making was born: starting from IV century BC Georgians were cultivating grapes and burying clay vessels, kvevris, in which to store their wine ready for serving at perfect ground temperature. Since ancient times kvevris have been a crucial part of Georgian pottery: potter's wheel is not used due to their huge size (some kvevris can hold up to 4 tons!). Kvevri-makers use special templates allowing to make it symmetrical and make it by hand adding palm-height band every two days.
The importance of wine-making (and wine-drinking) is reflected in Georgian art with many ancient artifacts containing imprints of vine, grape clusters and leaves. Wine cups and pitchers made of precious metals dated to the second millennium BC were found in ancient tombs. And of course, there is a statue of Tamada in Tbilisi - man holding a drinking horn - modeled after an ancient statuette of VII century BC!

Christianisation of the country brought even further importance to wine: Saint Nina came to Georgia with grapevine cross so grapes and leaves are often used in temple decoration.


So, what exactly Georgian wine-making is all about? What makes it so special?

In European or we can even call it international wine-making, typically white wines are fermented without skins. The grapes are crushed and the juice is moved off the skins into the fermentation vessels. The skins containing color pigment, phenols and tannins are considered undesirable for white wines (while they give color, flavor and texture to red wines). In traditional Georgian wine-making the grapes spent some maceration time in contact with the grape skins. This results in  their darker, slightly orange tinge as well as unusual rough taste.
Big Georgian wine-making companies adopted international technology as these wines will be more understandable for foreigners and thus easier to export. Plus, traditionally made wines do not survive transportation - so you have no choice but to taste it on the spot!
Traditional technology was till recently used only in private households but now even big wine-makers start to revive the ancient method...

Before rtveli - Georgian celebration of wine harvest - certain preparations are needed. As Georgian wines are made and kept in  huge clay amphora - kvevri (sometimes also called qvevri) it needs to be cleaned: brushed from the inside with a special brush made of cork. As the kvevri-cleaner needs to clean the vessel from the inside, his skinny shape is of utmost importance for the entire village well-being. Therefore, the designated kvevri-cleaner may choose not to grow anything: the entire village will ensure he is well-provided for so that he can perform his important and honorable duty once a year.


The grapes are collected 4 times: on the earliest stage the grape collectors walk along the aisles, pick the grape clusters they consider bad and throw the on the ground so that the good clusters will have more sunshine and useful substances. Next harvest collects grapes for regular table wine. The third harvest bring grapes for higher class wines and after it only 1 best cluster is left on each vine. They try to keep it on the vine as long as possible and it is collected right before the first night frosts. This last bunch of grapes accumulates maximum sunlight and is used to make elite wines.

The collected grapes are crushed together with stems and seeds. This mass is then placed in kvevri  buried in the ground so its temperature remains stable year round: around 14-15 degrees Celsius. It ferments there for 3 to 4 months.
3-4 months later the liquid is spooned out of kvevri and placed in another kvevri. When filled with the fermented juice, the kvevris are topped with a wooden lid and then covered and sealed with earth. Kvevris are kept in a special wine cellar - marani (unlike French wine cellars there are no bottles in marani, only buried kvevris).  It is then the responsibility of the youngest in the family to go to marani every day and water the clay lids. Some may remain entombed for up to 50 years.
The sediment of skins, stems and seeds is then used to make grape vodka (or moonshine) called chacha - nothing goes to waste!
As a result of this process a lot of extractive substances and tannins come out of skins, stems and seeds into wine accounting for the unusual raw color and aroma. In European technology the tannins are brought into wine from the oak barrels and they would consider Georgian technology barbarian. But the content of polyphenols in Georgian wines is higher and therefore Georgians believe their whites have more health benefits. The rawer the taste is, the more beneficial it is considered.

Imeretian technology is sort of mix of both: it ferments for a shorter period of time - 1.5 to 2 months, also together with seeds and skins, but without stems. As a result, Imeretian wines are less rough with their taste being more  smooth and even.

Kindzmarauli corporation is among the wineries that revive this ancient technology: they have this newly-built marani with  entombed kvevris. Behind you can see an ancient wine press where the initial grape crushing used to be performed.

Marani with entombed kvevris

Entombed kvevris

Among whites Rkatsiteli (რქაწითელი) seems to be the favorite variety in Kakheti (while Imereti for example, favors Tstitska and Tsolikauri). The word rkatsiteli (pronounced "rkah-tsee-tely" literally means "red stem"). This variety was popular in Soviet Union prior to its fall and was used to make everything  from table wine to liqueurs to Sherry-like fortified wine. Before Gobachev's 'prohibition' of 1980's  it was one wolds' mostly planted white wine grapes, but after this anti-alcohol campaign many vineyards were cut down.

Even though during Soviet times Georgia was second in terms of quantity (after Moldova), it was always highly sought-after in terms of quality. Until now, a lot of people in former Soviet Union feel nostalgic for the 'ole good times' and buy wine that they drank at the student parties or when they lost virginity. Unfortunately, political situation resulted in Russian embargo of Georgian wine (well, official reason states that Georgian wine is often mislabeled and counterfeited, but we strongly believe that political reasons are behind it).
Georgia did not want to be constantly blamed for producing fakes and took radical measures. Nowadays Georgia does not export wine by cisterns: only labeled bottles. Labeling is also controlled and wine-makers cannot exploit popular brands: similar to French AOC appellation d'origine contrôlée - controlled designation of origin, the wine can only bear the well-known name if its produced from the right grape in the right micro-region.

Kindzmarauli is definitely one of the popular brands - rumor has it, it was the favorite wine of Comrade Stalin himself (which does not make this excellent wine any worse!). So only wines made of Saperavi grape and only grown in Kvareli micro-region can bear this name.
So what makes Kindzmarauli so special? Not wild kindza, of course. Kvareli lays in the valley of Duruji river. This quick mountain river brings pieces of rocks that sometimes block the riverbed. Duruji then creates a new riverbed. This process has been ongoing for centuries so the entire valley had at some point been riverbed. Duruji is an unusual river: it brings a lot of useful substances from the mountains - metals, quartz, even gold and diamonds. As the grapevine roots go very deep, they suck these substances from the hidden layers of former riverbed thus creating the unusual taste of Kindzmarauli.
Armed with this knowledge, we visited the nearest supermarket back in Estonia and were surprised to see on sale Kindzmarauli produced in... Spain. The label stated that the wine was made of 'grapes grown in various places of European Union'. Unfortunately, even though Georgia tries to control its own wine production, there are not very honest people that continue using known brands and produce counterfeit thus ruining the reputation of Georgian wine.
So beware, only Kvareli valley of Duruji river is allowed to produce real Kindzmarauli!

Look at Duruji valley: the dark gray between the lake and the mountains is not asphalt but the riverbed. This unusually dark color attests to the fact that its chemical components are different from other rivers. 

Ilia lake and Duruji valley

This view opened up from the terrace of a hilltop restaurant next to Ilia lake that was recently converted into a popular recreation area for locals. It was so crowded that even police tried to control the number of cars by the lake: we were even stopped and asked whether we had reservations! Of course, traveling with Vadim we did not have to worry about these technicalities.

The terrace also allowed to see the rest of the valley with cypress trees, sheep farms and, of course, vineyards. Surprisingly, the vineyards do not occupy 99 percent of territory: the land here is so precious for wine production that it would be more profitable to grow grape rather than herd the sheep, they can graze in any other valley!

While we were enjoying the view, shashlik expert was already roasting meat on the skewers and its mouth-watering smell was reaching our nostrils.

But let us not mix too many things together: in the next post will finally talk about Georgian food.

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