The place#
Racha-Lechkhumi is the mountain corner of western Georgia: the upper Rioni, between Imereti and the main ridge of the Greater Caucasus. Racha is the eastern half, around Ambrolauri at about 550 metres; Lechkhumi the western, around Tsageri, where the valleys narrow into gorges. It is the smallest wine region I visit anywhere, and the one with the longest approach for its size.
The name most people know is Khvanchkara, a village about 10 kilometres north-west of Ambrolauri on the right bank of the Rioni. It gave its name to the semi-sweet red that was among the best-known wines of the Soviet Union, associated with Stalin and therefore much imitated: far more Khvanchkara was poured in Moscow than two villages could have grown. Before that the wine was sold as Kipiani, after the noble family who made it, documented under that name in 1907 and renamed for the village when the state took the vineyards over.
Two churches sit on the road to the cellars: Barakoni, built in 1753 above a bend of the Rioni at Tsesi, and Nikortsminda, an 11th-century cathedral with carved facades south of Ambrolauri.
Terroir: altitude, rain and cold autumn nights#
The vineyards sit between 450 and 750 metres on the slopes above the river, most of them on the right bank, where the sun stays longest. That is modest next to Vayots Dzor in Armenia, but the mountains around Racha are not, and they make the weather. Ambrolauri receives about 1,055 millimetres of rain a year, mountain weather rather than the dry heat of Kakheti; winters are cold, summers hot, and autumn arrives early and sharply.
The slopes are clay and clay-loam with limestone beneath; I have not seen a proper soil survey and will not claim more than that. Many older vines are trained high on pergolas, the old habit of the wet west, keeping fruit off the ground and air in the canopy.
The cold autumn nights are the whole story of the wines. Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli ripen late, into October, and a fermentation in an unheated cellar, or in a qvevri under the floor, slows and stops as the temperature falls, leaving sugar in the wine. That is how Khvanchkara and the white Tvishi became semi-sweet: not by adding anything, but by the mountain switching the yeasts off. Today most producers arrest the fermentation by chilling, and the PDO fixes the range at 10.5 to 12 percent alcohol with 3 to 5 percent residual sugar.
Aleksandrouli, Mujuretuli and Usakhelouri#
Aleksandrouli is the senior partner in Khvanchkara: dark-skinned, moderate in acidity, with raspberry and red-plum fruit that stays fresh even with sugar behind it. Mujuretuli is the blending grape, deeper in colour and firmer; the pair are usually picked and fermented together. Khvanchkara done well is dark ruby and velvety, raspberry first, then a faint bitterness at the end that keeps it from being a dessert wine. Done badly it is jam; I taste before I buy.
Dry Aleksandrouli is the region’s newer idea and, to my palate, its more interesting one: a mid-weight red of red fruit and forest floor, not far from a warm-climate Pinot Noir, and where I expect the next generation here to make its name.
Usakhelouri means “nameless”, and it is the rarest grape I pour anywhere. It grows in a handful of villages around Okureshi in Lechkhumi; the whole country’s crop is about three tonnes a year, a thousand or so bottles. It makes a semi-sweet red with 18 to 45 grams of residual sugar, lighter and spicier than Khvanchkara, with a wild-strawberry note I do not find elsewhere in Georgia. The Okureshi Usakhelouri PDO was registered in 2022; Racha and Lechkhumi themselves followed as PDOs in 2025.
Tsolikouri, the west’s main white, makes Tvishi around Tsageri, a naturally semi-sweet white with pear and honey, increasingly dry too. Tetra, a rare white, survives in a few family plots. Everything here is small; the Khvanchkara zone itself is two villages, Khvanchkara and Bugeuli.
Producers to know#
I have not yet written a story about a Racha cellar; the route’s Imereti days are told in Ramaz Nikoladze and Baia Abuladze. Here are the Racha cellars I visit.
Royal Khvanchkara, in Ambrolauri, was established in 2015 on the Kipiani legacy of the 1870s and farms about 18 hectares across five villages. The winemaker is Lado Uzunashvili, whose team also makes the wines at Vazisubani Estate in Kakheti; Aleksandrouli, Mujuretuli, Usakhelouri and Tsolikouri go into steel and oak, with some qvevri. It is the polished, classic face of the region, the place to taste the PDO wine and a dry Aleksandrouli side by side.
Khvedeliani’s Marani, in Ambrolauri town, works with ancestral qvevri and what it calls the traditional Rachian method, from vineyards in Khvanchkara and Ambrolauri. Lomtadze Family Wine, in Khvanchkara village itself, has a single hectare of Aleksandrouli, Mujuretuli and the rare white Tetra, all in qvevri. Between them the three cover the region’s spread: one professional team, two small cellars working in clay.
Most small cellars publish nothing about sulfur or yeasts, and I do not guess. A wine with 40 grams of sugar in it wants to referment, and every producer here has to decide how to stop it: cold, filtration, sulfur, or some combination. I go into that trade-off in sulfites in wine; here it is a more honest conversation than natural versus classic, because everyone makes the same compromise in different proportions.
What a day here looks like on tour#
Racha is the mountain day of my western Georgia route, out and back from Kutaisi or with a night in Ambrolauri: the day guests ask most about beforehand and complain about least afterwards. We leave Kutaisi after breakfast and follow the Rioni up its gorge; the road climbs slowly and the river gets louder. We stop at Barakoni for the view down onto the river bend, ten minutes, no lecture.
The first cellar is in Khvanchkara or Bugeuli before lunch, when the palate is sharpest for sugar. I pour the semi-sweet wine first, on its own, then with a slice of Rachuli lori, the local smoked ham, the pairing that turns most sceptics. Then a dry Aleksandrouli, so the grape can be judged without the sugar. The vessel itself I explain in qvevri, karas and amphora.
Lunch is at a family table: lobiani, the bean bread Racha fills with bacon, and shkmeruli, chicken in garlic and milk. In October there are grapes in crates by the door and fermentation smells from under the floor. Then a second, smaller cellar, and the road back down to Kutaisi, or a guesthouse in Ambrolauri if we are staying over, which I recommend at picking time.
Practical#
From Kutaisi, Ambrolauri is about 80 kilometres and 1 h 15 min to 1 h 45 min depending on the road; Khvanchkara village is another 10 kilometres. From Tbilisi it is a full day’s drive. Kutaisi airport (KUT) has seasonal non-stop flights from Prague and Vienna, about 3 h 30 min. Cards work in Ambrolauri; carry cash for the villages.
The best months are June, when the valley is green and the roads dry, and late September to mid October, when Aleksandrouli is picked. Early snow can close the passes after mid October, so I do not schedule Racha later. The roads are slow and winding; anyone prone to car sickness should take the front seat.
If you want more than a day here, a private tour can give Racha two or three nights and reach the Usakhelouri villages of Lechkhumi, which the scheduled route cannot. In Kakheti the semi-sweet red is Kindzmarauli, from Saperavi; tasting the two a week apart is the best argument I know for Georgia having more than one wine region.
