Armenia and Georgia: two cradles of wine in eleven days

Two countries, both claiming the oldest wine on earth: Armenia’s Areni-1 cave in Vayots Dzor, the oldest known winery, around 4100 BC; Georgia’s pottery from Gadachrili Gora with wine residues of around 6000 BC. I built this route to taste the argument, not settle it: karas in Armenia, qvevri in Georgia, Areni Noir and Saperavi, and a table every evening.

Day 1: Yerevan#

Arrival day. My driver meets each flight at Zvartnots, twenty-five minutes from the centre, and takes you to a small hotel in Kentron near Saryan Street. We meet at 19:00 for a first dinner: lavash from the tonir, tarragon and purslane, khorovats over coals, and two Areni Noirs from Vayots Dzor, one from steel, one from karas, a reference point for the week. Yerevan Wine Days usually falls on the first weekend of June; if the 2027 dates hold, Saryan Street is one long table the night we arrive, and we walk it after dinner.

Day 2: Aragatsotn and the karas of Voskevaz#

North-west into Aragatsotn, forty minutes on the Ashtarak road under Mount Aragats. Saghmosavank first, a monastery of 1215 on the lip of the Kasagh gorge. Then Voskevaz Winery, a state plant of 1932 run since 1997 by the Hovhannisyan family, with the largest hall of working karas I have seen in Armenia. We taste the Karasi Collection Voskehat, fermented in clay and finished in oak: quince, a faint note of wet clay, honey without sweetness. Lunch at the estate restaurant, summer tolma in tomato and pepper. Back in Yerevan by 17:00; dinner is free tonight.

Day 3: Khor Virap, the Areni-1 cave and Noravank#

08:30, down the M2. Forty-five minutes south, Khor Virap sits on its rock in front of Ararat with vines at its feet; on a clear morning all 5,137 metres are there. Another hour to Areni at about 1,000 metres. The Areni-1 cave is a short climb: a clay treading basin draining into a buried jar, grape seeds, pressed skins. Lunch in an Areni courtyard, then eight kilometres up the Amaghu canyon to Noravank, its two-storey church finished in 1339. Two nights in a family-run hotel in Yeghegnadzor, twenty minutes on; dinner with the valley’s homemade wines.

Day 4: Rind and Zorah, then Yeghegnadzor#

Rind, twenty-five minutes up from the Arpa, at 1,400 to 1,600 metres; Zorah Wines is here; visits are arranged in advance. Zorik Gharibian planted Areni Noir from old village cuttings, ferments in concrete and large casks with native yeasts, then ages in buried village karas. Karasì, and if a bottle is open, Yeraz from own-rooted vines at 1,650 metres: sour cherry, white pepper, tannin like fine sandpaper. Lunch at a family table in Rind, khorovats on vine cuttings, wine from their vines in a jug. Dinner at Old Bridge Winery in Yeghegnadzor, five hectares of Areni and Voskehat, the Khalatyan family since 1998.

Day 5: Aghavnadzor, then the Vardenyats pass to Dilijan#

Trinity Canyon Vineyards opens at 11:00. Aghavnadzor is ten kilometres from Areni at 1,300 metres; the estate, founded in 2009, is described as Armenia’s first certified organic producer. Three lines: 6100, named for the age of the cave down the road; Ancestors, in karas; and the top wines from the modern cellar. Same grape, three decisions. After lunch at a village house, over the Vardenyats pass at 2,410 metres, past the Orbelian caravanserai of 1332, along Lake Sevan and down to the forests of Dilijan, about three hours. A hotel among the pines; spas and trout for dinner.

Day 6: Haghpat and the border into Georgia#

The long day, and the only one. From Dilijan at 09:00, two hours through Vanadzor to Haghpat, a 10th-century monastery above the Debed gorge, UNESCO-listed with its neighbour Sanahin. Lunch in a village house below the walls. The Bagratashen-Sadakhlo crossing is open around the clock; passport control on both sides takes twenty minutes to an hour. Tbilisi is another hour and a quarter; four hours of driving in all. A hotel in the old town, khinkali, and for anyone still awake a glass at Vino Underground, the Sololaki bar that qvevri winemakers opened in 2012.

Day 7: Chardakhi and Mukhrani#

Kartli begins forty minutes from the hotel. In Chardakhi, Iago Bitarishvili farms two hectares of sixty-year-old Chinuri, organic since 2005, the first in Georgia. Grapes into qvevri, nothing added, two wines from one grape: one without skins, pale and saline, one with six months on skins, amber, pear, dried herbs. Lunch from the family kitchen: khinkali, shkmeruli. Fifteen minutes on, Château Mukhrani is the other pole: a palace of 1885, first vintage 1878 under a prince trained in Bordeaux and Champagne, replanted from 2002, 102 hectares, steel and oak. Taste the Shavkapito and the Goruli Mtsvane, then back to Tbilisi for the night.

Day 8: Sighnaghi and Pheasant’s Tears#

East into Kakheti, two hours, to Sighnaghi at 836 metres, a walled town of 1762 above the Alazani valley. Pheasant’s Tears, founded in 2007 by the painter John Wurdeman and the grower Gela Patalishvili, has its restaurant here and its cellar in Tibaani. Qvevri first: wild yeasts, skins from a day to six months, sulfur low to none. A long lunch of pkhali, aubergine rolls with walnut and mtsvadi, with Rkatsiteli, amber, dried apricot and tea tannin, and Poliphonia, a field blend of over a hundred varieties. Bodbe at dusk, then a guesthouse inside the walls.

Day 9: Kisiskhevi and Tsinandali#

An hour and a quarter north-west to Kisiskhevi, 620 metres. Schuchmann Wines, founded in 2008 with winemaker Gogi Dakishvili, puts the two Georgian schools under one roof: the Schuchmann range in steel and oak, and Vinoterra, fermented on skins in qvevri and finished in oak. Saperavi both ways, then Vinoterra Kisi, apricot and walnut, tannin like strong tea. The afternoon at Tsinandali, ten minutes away, where Alexander Chavchavadze bottled a Saperavi 1839 in 1841, the oldest documented Georgian bottle. Dinner at the estate restaurant, mtsvadi over vine cuttings; we sleep at its hotel among the vines.

Day 10: Alaverdi, then Tbilisi#

Half an hour north of Telavi, Alaverdi Monastery has an 11th-century marani with qvevri in the floor, restored in 2006; monks make wine again. An hour, and a taste if the cellar is open. Then the Gombori pass back to Tbilisi, two hours when the road is clear; roadworks have lately forced the long way through Gurjaani, I check the week before. Afternoon free: sulfur baths in Abanotubani, the Dry Bridge market, a nap. At 19:30 the farewell supra with a tamada: satsivi, khachapuri, churchkhela to close, and both countries’ wines side by side one last time.

Day 11: Tbilisi#

Breakfast late. Transfers to Tbilisi airport, about half an hour from the old town, run according to your flights. If yours is in the evening, the morning is good for the Georgian National Museum, the old town’s balconies, or a last khachapuri. Bottles travel well in checked luggage wrapped in a jumper; ask at each estate whether they ship, some can. Then home, with a clearer idea of what six thousand years in clay taste like, and an opinion on which clay you preferred.

Who this tour is for#

For people who want both countries and are curious what clay does that steel and oak do not. Eaters more than collectors; every day ends at a table. Expect one long driving day, a border and two short climbs; nothing is a hike. With only a week, the Armenia route and the Kakheti route each stand alone; for your own group or dates, see private tours; other questions are in the FAQ.

Practical notes#

Fly into Yerevan (EVN) and out of Tbilisi (TBS); Vienna has non-stop flights to both, about four hours. EU passports enter both countries visa-free. Dram and lari; cards in cities and larger estates, cash in villages.

June: 22 to 30 °C in the cities, cooler in Rind at 1,400 metres, apricots on every table. The October group arrives the day after the Areni Wine Festival, mid-harvest in Vayots Dzor, and reaches Kakheti as Saperavi is picked. Pack layers, a rain jacket, shoes for uneven ground and something warm for cellars. If early snow closes the Vardenyats pass, we go round by Yerevan and the northern motorway to Dilijan.