Tea tours in Georgia | Wine tasting off the beaten track
Along with my adventures exploring the hidden secrets of Georgia, I also help run a small business exporting Georgian tea, called Nela Nela. Our business provides small-scale, local and artisanal teamakers the chance to bring their products to market in Europe and the United States. I am proud to be able to offer visits to teamakers as an element or a focus of a trip to Georgia. You will have the opportunity to travel to idyllic villages in the Georgian countryside, completely off the typical touristic routes, partake in genuine Georgian hospitality at the family homes of our teamakers, learn about traditional teamaking techniques, and sample a wide variety of small-batch natural teas. Our teamakers, who we have met over years of traveling in Georgia’s tea regions – Guria, Lechkhumi, Samegrelo and Imereti – prepare black, green, and oolong teas of the highest quality as well as unique fermented herbal teas from fruit leaves such as blueberry, blackberry, quince, and mulberry. To learn more about Georgian tea and what you can experience on tea tours in Georgia, feel free to get in touch directly or visit the Nela Nela website for more details.
Of course, Georgia’s most famous drink is wine. According to archaeological studies, Georgia was most likely the first place where grape wine was ever made; wine-making has a history in this land going back for eight thousand years. One consequence of this rich history is that Georgian grapes have the widest genetic diversity in the world; in the 19th century, more than 500 varieties of grapes were identified here. Although Soviet-era collectivization caused the loss of a large part of this diversity, you will still find completely different wines in every region of Georgia you travel to.
Although Kakhetian wine is the most famous and plentiful in Georgia, renowned for the bold colors and tannic taste coming from the local tradition of skin contact during fermentation and aging, I prefer the rarer, more delicate flavors of Kartli and the western regions – Imereti, Racha, Lechkhumi, Guria, and Samegrelo. If you are a wine lover, it’s possible to visit wine cellars anywhere in the country, but don’t get sucked into the mass tourism at the megawineries. It’s much more interesting – and you will taste much better wine – at the homes of artisanal, local producers. Of course, many of my personal friends and acquaintances are making excellent wine, and I will be happy to arrange tasting (and toasting) visits along any of the routes you might be interested to take through Georgia.
Wine is, in many ways, the spiritual basis of Georgian culture; you will hardly find a family anywhere across the country which does not make at least a few liters every autumn. Even in the cities, grapevines dangle over trellises and climb the sides of houses. It all emerges at the supra, the quintessential Georgian party, laden with food and drink, which takes place every holiday (of which Georgia has copious amounts), birthday, anniversary, wedding, funeral, or any other occasion, and it’s always a point of pride for the host to be able to offer their own wine. At supras, it’s traditionally required that every drink of wine requires words to be spoken, and an entire ecosystem of traditional toasts exists to fulfill this requirement, which is more elaborately or loosely adhered to as the occasion calls for. My favorite supras are the ones where the traditional rules are relaxed a little bit, and the feast becomes a philosophical symposium where the toasts become poetic explorations of topics of common praise, and the wine-glass becomes a vehicle for the discovery of the beautiful things that bring a group of people together.
This kind of connection is deeply important for me; I run tours in Georgia because it makes me happy to be able to make connections between my guests and the local culture. One of my favorite things to do with guests is to arrange their personal visit to an ordinary Georgian family, where they will be able to experience a small supra in their honor and enjoy the warmth of genuine Georgian hospitality. If that sounds like something you would be interested in, I’d love to hear from you!
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A tea plantation in Naghomari, Guria.
Another tea plantation in Naghomari, Guria.
An overgrown tea plantation in Naruja, Guria. Many old plantations in West Georgia are currently lying dormant, waiting for the next tea master to take care of them.
Usakhelouri grapes in Okureshi, Lechkhumi.
Tsolikouri grapes in Laskhana, Lechkhumi.
A view over Okureshi’s vineyards near harvest time.
A small family vineyard in Ukhuti, Imereti.