Georgian Wine Is 8,000 Years Old and Nothing Like What You're Used To

You order a glass of white wine in Tbilisi. What arrives is deep amber, almost the colour of apple juice, with a smell somewhere between dried apricot and walnuts. You take a sip and it’s tannic, which white wines aren’t supposed to be. It tastes nothing like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. It tastes like something much older.

It is. Georgian wine is the oldest continuous winemaking tradition in the world, 8,000 years of it, and it hasn’t converged toward the European style the way every other wine region has. If you go to Georgia and drink the conventional, European-method wine, you’re missing the point.

Here’s what’s actually happening in the glass.

The Thing That Makes Georgian Wine Different

In most of the world, white wine is made by pressing grapes and fermenting just the juice. Skins go in the bin. This gives you something pale and clean.

Georgian winemakers (the traditional ones) don’t do that. They crush the grapes and put the whole lot into a qvevri: a large egg-shaped clay vessel that gets sealed and buried underground for months. Skins, stems, seeds, juice, all of it together. The earth keeps the temperature stable. The egg shape circulates the juice. The pointed base collects sediment.

White grapes fermented this way, with extended skin contact, come out amber. Deep amber. The skins contribute tannins (that drying sensation you get from red wine), colour, and a complexity that straight-pressed white juice doesn’t have. The result is what Georgians call amber wine or skin-contact wine. The rest of the world has started calling it orange wine.

It has been made this way for 8,000 years. UNESCO added the qvevri method to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2013.

Two Completely Different Georgian Wine Traditions

Georgian wine comes in two distinct styles and you can order both in the same restaurant.

Conventional style: Modern wineries making wine the European way, pressing and fermenting in steel tanks or oak barrels. Clean whites, structured reds. Fine, often good, and familiar to anyone who drinks wine. Many larger Georgian brands export this style.

Traditional / qvevri style: Skin-contact fermentation in buried clay vessels. Amber whites that taste tannic and complex. Reds with more structure and earthiness than their European counterparts.

When you’re at a wine bar or restaurant and they ask if you want “qvevri wine,” that’s the traditional style. The default for white wine is often conventional unless you ask.

The Grapes

Georgia has over 500 native grape varieties. You don’t need to know all of them. These are the ones worth learning:

Saperavi (red): Georgia’s main red grape. Deep ruby, full-bodied, high tannins. Black cherry, plum, dark chocolate, tobacco. It ages well and a good Mukuzani or Kvareli will hold up next to anything from the Rhône.

Rkatsiteli (white/amber): Georgia’s most planted grape, 43% of all white vines. Made conventionally it’s crisp and appley: quince, pear, citrus zest. Made traditionally in qvevri, it becomes golden amber with walnut and dried fruit notes and a tannic finish. Same grape, totally different wine.

Mtsvane (white): Citrus and herbal, more aromatic than Rkatsiteli, good aging potential. Often blended with Rkatsiteli in qvevri wines.

Chinuri (white): Lighter, green pear and mineral, lively acidity. Georgia’s best natural sparkling wines (pet-nat) are often made from Chinuri.

Tsolikouri (white): From western Georgia’s Imereti region. Floral and fresh, noticeably lighter than the eastern Kakhetian style.

What to Actually Order

If you’ve never had Georgian wine before, start here:

1. A glass of Saperavi. Any Saperavi by the glass at any wine bar will give you a clear sense of the main red. Recognisable as red wine, just earthier and more tannic than you’d expect from something inexpensive.

2. A glass of qvevri Rkatsiteli. Ask specifically for qvevri (traditional method). The amber colour, the tannins, the walnut-dried-fruit character. Give it a minute to open up. Don’t judge it against European whites.

3. A Kindzmarauli, if you want something approachable. Semi-sweet red from Kakheti, made from Saperavi. Soft and a little fruity. Georgians drink a lot of it.

Try the amber wine. Even if it’s not for you, you won’t find it anywhere else made quite like this.

Where to Drink It in Tbilisi

8000 Vintages is the best wine shop in the city, possibly the country. Three locations (Old Town on Tabukashvili Street, plus Vake and Saburtalo). Over 1,000 Georgian labels, selected through blind tasting. Also operates as a bar, so you can taste before you buy.

DADI Wine Bar (just off Freedom Square) does a five-wine tasting flight with charcuterie for around 20 GEL. Good starting point if you want someone to walk you through it.

Reserve Wine Tasting Shop (near Parliament) uses a card-based tasting system: load a card, try whatever you want. About 30 wines by the pour.

Georgian Kalata on Orbeliani Square focuses on natural wines with artisanal food products. Worth a stop if you’re in the area.

For a glass with dinner rather than a dedicated tasting, any neighborhood dukani (local restaurant) will have house wine by the glass for 6–12 GEL. Usually qvevri-made and usually very good.

Avoid the wine bars on Rustaveli Avenue and Shardeni Street. Tourist prices for the same bottles.

Kakheti: The Wine Region

Most of the grapes and most of the wineries are in Kakheti, Georgia’s eastern wine region, about two hours from Tbilisi. It produces around 70% of the country’s wine.

The main towns are Telavi (the regional hub), Sighnaghi (a small walled city on a hill, good for a night if you want to stay over), and Kvareli, where the Khareba winery has 7.7km of underground tunnels carved into a cliff.

Most wineries offer free or cheap tastings. The bigger producers (Tsinandali Estate, Khareba) run organised tours. For smaller family operations, you often just show up.

The Rtveli harvest festival happens every autumn, usually late September into October. Winemakers across Kakheti invite visitors to help pick grapes and watch the wine go into the qvevris. It’s a real event, not a tourist simulation. If your trip overlaps with it, go.

One Thing That Will Confuse You

Georgian wine labels are often in Georgian script (მხედრული), which looks like nothing in the Latin alphabet and gives no hints about pronunciation. The wine bars will have descriptions in English. When in doubt, ask what’s in the qvevri that week. There usually is something.

Chacha is not wine. It’s Georgian grape brandy: high-proof, often homemade, frequently offered by hosts as a welcoming gesture. Accept it if offered in someone’s home. In a tourist bar it’ll be watered down and overpriced.

The Short Version

Georgia makes two kinds of wine. The conventional kind is fine. The qvevri kind is unlike anything else you’ll drink anywhere. Start with a glass of amber Rkatsiteli. It will be tannic in a way white wine normally isn’t. Give it a minute.

The best bottles cost under $15. The worst still cost under $5.

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