We are in wine country. This land has been producing wine for 8,000 years! Everywhere we look: mountains and vineyards!
The Alexandar Chavchavadze Museum, which is his 19th century family estate. He was an aristocrat and poet whose home was the center of the intellectual life of the time. Here, he and his father founded the first and foremost winery in the country which still produces wine.
The Gardens
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A labyrinth which takes you to this tree, which people tie ribbons onto for good luck
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Inside the tree!
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The wine cellar containing wine from the 1860s!
Telavi is a small city of about 20,000 people with a 900 year old Plane Tree (from the Sycamore family) in the center of town:
Telavi Farmers Market:
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Smoked bacon
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| cheese |
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nuts and spices
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| walnuts |
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pigs head!
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another pigs head!
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Churchkhela - what we made in our cooking class yesterday!
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| mushrooms |
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more mushrooms
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| chicken! |
A word about dogs in Georgia: They are everywhere! And they are not considered stray dogs; they are called "city dogs." They are mostly mid-sized to large dogs, shepherds and hounds, and mutt mixes. They are calm and peaceful and clean and mostly well fed. Some are friendly, but mostly they co-exist with the people. It's lovely!
Lagazi Family Winery in the village of Alvani. Shota is a fourth generation wine maker who makes wine on his property in a completely natural process without chemicals. We had a spectacular lunch with two different wines. (We are taking day drinking to a whole new level on this trip!)
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There are grape skins fermenting in there to make moonshine!
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The holes in the ground where they ferment the grapes
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Where they store the wine for bottling
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This is how saffron grows!
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Shota in front of his house
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Another church and monastery behind a fortress wall:
Qvevri are enormous earthen jars, 200-900 gallons, made by hand and used for fermenting and storing Georgian organic wine. (Do you see the theme here?) They have been used traditional wine-making in this region for more than 8,000 years. With the growing popularity of Georgia's natural wines, there has been increased demand for qvervi as well. We visited a master qvevri maker who, again, makes these at his home. He has a waiting list that is years long to purchase his qvevri.
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With Diane and Marie Jo for scale
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The oven - they have to take the front of it apart to get the qvevri in and rebuild it brick by brick every time! They stay in the oven for 2 weeks and then 4 days to cool.
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The end of a long day... Goodnight moon!
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