Kakheti's vineyards include the Alazani and Iori basins, at 400 to 700 metres above sea level. Soils include humus-rich calcareous ground, black soils and river deposits. Rkatsiteli, Mtsvane Kakhuri, Kisi, Khikhvi and Saperavi are important grapes. Producers use both conventional cellar methods and traditional qvevri, egg-shaped earthenware vessels buried in the ground. In the traditional method, grape juice ferments with skins, stalks and pips and can remain in contact with them for five to six months. This contact extracts colour, flavour and tannin, the compounds that give wine a drying grip. Wine is then drawn off the sediment and may age for about a year. Families, neighbours and communal harvest work pass the method on. UNESCO inscribed traditional qvevri winemaking on its Representative List in 2013.
1 named area
Inside the region
Explore the wine-growing areas of Kakheti.
Producer profiles
Producer profiles
Every producer profiled in Kakheti so far.
- MildianiFounded in 1991, Mildiani is a family-founded Georgian wine company with a base in Tsinandali, vineyards across several wine zones, and a range that moves between stainless-steel wines and traditional qvevri bottlings.
- The Spirit of GeorgiaA Telavi winery founded in 2014, with Vine Ponto wines spanning qvevri and oak-cellar production.
- Twins Wine House in NapareuliFamily winery in Napareuli, Kakheti, run by twin brothers Gia and Gela Gamtkitsulashvili.
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- Vazisubani Estate LtdKakheti estate farming 35 hectares of indigenous Georgian varieties under an 11th-generation winemaker, producing amber qvevri wines and European-style whites from the same ground.