Georgian Wine Tours: Kakheti, Qvevri and Georgia (the Country)
Forty tours from 12 to 269 EUR, median 82.5: the cheapest country on this site. All leave Tbilisi for Kakheti, and one tour holds 45% of the reviews.
Georgia here is the country in the Caucasus, not the American state, and Georgian wine tours are the cheapest of the 13 countries on this site. The 40 listings run from 12 to 269 EUR with a median of 82.5, against 110 for Spain, 125 for Portugal and 242 for the United States. Every one of them is in Kakheti, the wine region two to three hours east of the capital, most leave from Tbilisi, and 25 of the 40 are private.
This page puts the country in proportion: what the UNESCO listing really covers, where the famous "8,000 years" comes from, why the numbers here look so different from Italy or France, and what lies outside the one region the tours visit. The region itself, with its towns, its transport and its prices, is on the Kakheti page.
A warning about the name. Searches for "Georgia wine tours" often return Atlanta and North Georgia. Nothing here is in the United States: the listings leave from Tbilisi, and the wine is Saperavi and Rkatsiteli, not Muscadine.
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Wine Tours Experiences in Georgian Wine Tours
Fully Private Full-Day Kakheti Tour: Sighnaghi, Bodbe and Khareba Wine Tunnel
The Khareba wine tunnel, a 7.7 km cellar cut into the Caucasus, ends a private day that also covers Bodbe Monastery and the city walls of Sighnaghi town.
Kakheti Day Tour from Tbilisi: Bodbe, Sighnaghi, Family Winery Lunch and Telavi Drive
Lunch with Alazani Valley views, wine, chacha and cognac at a family winery, after Badiauri bakery tastings, Bodbe and Sighnaghi, with a drive through Telavi.
Kakheti Day Tour from Tbilisi: Family Wine Cellar, Bodbe, Sighnaghi and Shoti Bread
A family cellar with free tasting of homemade wine and chacha, Shoti bread baking, the Pirosmani museum and Sighnaghi's 18th-century walls with Alazani views.
Kakheti Day Tour from Tbilisi with Chronicles of Georgia and Two Wine Cellars
A 19-seat bus day trip from Tbilisi to Bodbe, Sighnaghi and two Kakheti wine cellars with tastings, plus bread and cheese in Badiauri and a Churchkhela class.
Kakheti Day Tour with Georgia Travel Adventure: Bread, Wine Cellar and Qvevri Master
Day tour with a family-hosted 18th-century wine cellar, bread baking in a traditional oven and a qvevri workshop with two wines poured from the vessel.
Kakheti Day Trip from Tbilisi: Bodbe, Sighnaghi, Qvevri Wine and Nine Tastings
A Tbilisi departure at 08:30 covering Bodbe Convent, Sighnaghi and a Qvevri family cellar, plus a KTW Winery tour and tastings of Georgian wine and chacha.
Kakheti Day Trip from Tbilisi: Bread Class, Bodbe, Signagi and 7 Wines
A nine-hour Kakheti day from Tbilisi with a Georgian bread class, Bodbe Monastery, Signagi and seven wines plus chacha at a local winery, lunch on your own.
Kakheti Day Trip from Tbilisi: Sighnaghi Wall Walk, Telavi Plane Tree and Wine Cellar
A guide leads the walk along Sighnaghi's fortress wall, with bread making in Badiauri, Telavi's giant plane tree and a final cellar stop for wine and chacha.
Kakheti Full-Day Private Tour: KTW, Badiauri Chacha, Sighnaghi and Khareba Tunnel
Bread, cheese and chacha in Badiauri, a KTW visit, Bodbe and Sighnaghi, then a guided walk through the 7.7 km Khareba cellars close this full private day.
Kakheti Group Day Tour: Badiauri Bread, Bodbe, Sighnaghi and Telavi Wine Cellar
Group day trip to Kakheti from Tbilisi: bread masterclass in Badiauri, Bodbe, Sighnaghi's wall, Telavi's 900-year-old tree and a cellar wine and chacha tasting.
Kakheti Tour from Tbilisi: Shoti Bread, Churchkhela Masterclass and KTW Winery Tasting
Two hands-on masterclasses, Shoti bread in a clay oven and Churchkhela with grape juice and walnuts, plus tastings of 10 local wines, cognac and chacha.
Kakheti Wine and Monastery Day Trip from Tbilisi: Qvevri Family Winery and Telavi
A family qvevri winery and a bread-making masterclass come before Bodbe and Sighnaghi, and the day closes in Telavi with King Erekle II's palace and a market.
Kakheti Wine Day Tour from Tbilisi: 10 Tastings, Bodbe, Sighnaghi and Sunset Stop
An 11:00 AM start at the Giant Bicycle Monument, with wine and brandy at KTW Warehouse, Vineria cellar, Bodbe, Sighnaghi and a weather-permitting sunset stop.
Kakheti Wine Day Tour with Friendly.ge: Ujarma, Gremi, Telavi, Kvareli and Sighnaghi
Door-to-door day tour through the Gombori Pass with Ujarma, Alaverdi, Gremi, a wine tasting at the Khareba tunnel winery in Kvareli, Bodbe and Sighnaghi.
Kakheti Wine Day Trip: Sighnaghi, Bodbe and Kindzmarauli Cellars in Kvareli
Full-day Kakheti trip with lunch in Sighnaghi, a four-wine tasting at Kindzmarauli Corporation in Kvareli and a churchkhela class on the road back to Tbilisi.
Kakheti Wine Tour by White Minibus from Tbilisi: Bodbe, Sighnaghi Museum and Telavi
A white minibus waits in front of the SPAR market. Free tastings of wine, chacha, cognac and honey, plus the Sighnaghi Museum, Telavi and Ujarma Fortress.
Kakheti Wine Tour for Beginners: Old Wine Factory, Family Winery and Artisan Cellar
Three wineries in one day: an old wine factory, a family winery and an artisan cellar, plus Shoti bread, Guda sheep cheese and stops at Signagi and Bodbe.
Kakheti Wine Tour from Tbilisi: Bodbe, Sighnaghi, Telavi and Ujarma Fortress
Adds Telavi with its 900-year-old tree, the Gombori Pass and Ujarma Fortress to Bodbe and Sighnaghi, with free tastings of wine, chacha, cognac and honey.
Kakheti Wine Tour from Tbilisi: Sighnaghi, Bodbe, Shoti Bread and 7 Tastings
Hands-on stops set this tour apart: a Churchkhela master class, Shoti bread baked in a clay oven, and Qvevri winemaking at KTW with Saperavi, chacha and brandy.
Organic Wine Tour of Kakheti: Qvevri Maker, Mosmieri Lunch and Ruispiri Biodynamic Winery
Wine straight from a qvevri, lunch on the Mosmieri chateau terrace, Telavi farmers market and a biodynamic winery tasting in Ruispiri, with a stop at Alaverdi.
Private Day Trip from Tbilisi: Sighnaghi Walls, Bodbe Spring and Winery Tasting
The day includes a winery tasting, a steep 800 m path down to the healing spring at Bodbe, and a visit to Sighnaghi, a town ringed by a four-kilometre wall.
Private Full-Day Kakheti Wine Tour: Okros Organic Winery, Family Lunch and Khareba Tunnel
Private 9-10 hour day with organic, family and conventional wineries: Okros terrace, a winemaker's home lunch and Khareba's Soviet-era tunnel, plus shoti bread.
Private Hands-On Kakheti Day Tour: Bread Baking, Churchkhela Class and Sighnaghi Walls
Bake Georgian bread, make your own churchkhela and taste wine at a small Manavi winery on a private day that also covers Bodbe and the walls of Sighnaghi.
Private Kakheti Day from Tbilisi: Badiauri Bread Baking, Bodbe and Sighnaghi
Bread baking in Badiauri opens this private full day, followed by Bodbe and Sighnaghi. A tasting at Vineria Winery and a local lunch are optional extras.
Ratings collected by Viator, Tripadvisor and Civitatis
Georgian wine tours are the cheapest on the site
Put the 13 countries side by side and Georgia is at the bottom. Its median is 82.5 EUR, and the gap to the next country, Chile at 108, is larger than the gap between Chile and Spain. The reason is one format. A quarter of the listings cost 23 EUR or less, because a nine-hour minibus day from Tbilisi with seven to ten tastings is sold at 12 to 35 EUR, and they hold the bulk of the reviews. Private days with a driver sit at 54 to 269 EUR.
The chart shows the usual shape of a bargain. The middle half of Georgian listings runs from about 23 to 135 EUR, wide for a country this cheap, because it holds two kinds of tour with almost nothing in common. Compare it with Greece, where the middle half is narrow and high. There is no Georgian equivalent of a standard price.
| Country | Tours | Median price | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 40 | 82.5 EUR | One destination, Kakheti. 62% private |
| Chile | 40 | 108 EUR | The next cheapest |
| Spain | 93 | 110 EUR | Two destinations |
| Portugal | 112 | 125 EUR | Two destinations |
| Greece | 20 | 173 EUR | Santorini only |
| France | 211 | 232.5 EUR | The second-biggest catalogue in Europe |
What UNESCO recognised, and what it did not
The method, not the wine
In 2013 UNESCO inscribed the "Ancient Georgian traditional Qvevri wine-making method" on its list of intangible cultural heritage. The entry is about a practice: crushed grapes, with their skins and seeds, go into a large clay vessel that is sealed and buried, and ferment there. Georgia's National Wine Agency describes red fermentation in a qvevri as lasting seven to ten days, with the buried jar holding 13 to 15 degrees, and dates the vessel's current shape to the third millennium BC.
It did not recognise Georgian wine as a whole, the region, or a particular bottle. Plenty of Georgian wine is made in steel as well. Some cellars on the tours, such as Khareba, make wine both ways.
The listing protects how a wine is made. It says nothing about whether a given bottle is good.
Where "8,000 years" comes from
The figure is repeated in almost every brochure. It rests on one study: a 2017 paper in PNAS by Patrick McGovern and colleagues, which found tartaric acid residues in fragments of clay jars at two Neolithic sites, Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveri Gora, dated to 6000 to 5800 BC. The authors called it the earliest chemical evidence of winemaking published so far. That is a careful claim, and a good deal narrower than "the oldest wine in the world".
Note also where the sites are. They are in Kvemo Kartli, about 50 km south of Tbilisi. They are not in Kakheti, where every tour goes. The winemaking tradition and the wine route are, in this sense, two different places.
Georgian wine on a timeline
Dates with a public source, not legends.
The origins
6000-5800 BC
Residues in clay jars
Tartaric acid found in jar fragments at Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveri Gora, Kvemo Kartli.
3rd millennium BC
The qvevri takes its shape
The National Wine Agency dates the present form of the vessel to this period.
The growth
2005
The first appellations
Khvanchkara on 14 July, Tsinandali, Mukuzani, Akhasheni and Gurjaani on 30 August.
2007
Kakheti as an appellation
The Kakheti denomination and several smaller ones are registered on 10 December.
Today
2013
UNESCO listing
The qvevri method joins the list of intangible cultural heritage.
2025
2.6 million hectolitres
A trade report counts about 3,000 registered cellars and exports of 90 million litres worth 286 million US dollars.
Georgian wine words you will meet on a tour
| Word | What it is | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Qvevri | The buried clay vessel in which the grapes ferment | At a family cellar, in front of the jars |
| Marani | The wine cellar, often the room where the qvevri are | Named in private tour itineraries |
| Saperavi | The main red grape | Common on tasting lists |
| Rkatsiteli | A white grape, widely planted, often made with skin contact | Sampled at a family winery on a day trip |
| Amber wine | White wine fermented on its skins, hence the colour | Kakheti whites made in qvevri |
| Chacha | Grape spirit, offered as a bonus after the wine | Several listings, including the 12 EUR ones |
| Churchkhela | Walnuts threaded and dipped in thickened grape juice | Master classes on cheaper days |
| Rtveli | The harvest, in September and October | The season trade sites recommend |
Two kinds of Georgian wine tour, and how to tell them apart
Look at the price before anything else. The listings fall into two families with very little in between, and the table sets out what each one typically is, using the listings we opened. Some 14 of the 20 day trips in Kakheti cost 35 EUR or less, and then nothing until 85.
| Format | Price | What the day looks like | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group day by minibus | 12 to 35 EUR | 9 to 10 hours. Bread and cheese stop, Bodbe monastery, Sighnaghi, two cellars, 7 to 10 tastings | Lunch and some extras are often not included. The guide asks for cash |
| Small group with lunch | About 180 EUR | 9 hours, up to 10 guests, a meal chosen by the guide. Three wineries in the inclusions, four or more in the highlights | Read the inclusions: alcohol beyond the tasting is extra |
| Private day | 54 to 269 EUR | 7 to 12 hours, a driver and a guide, a family cellar lunch, sometimes a detour to David Gareja | The price may be for the vehicle, up to 8 or 10 guests |
The 12 EUR listing is real, and worth understanding before you dismiss it. It is a nine-hour day in a 19-seat minibus, with tastings and a churchkhela lesson, and its inclusions say that food is not included. You are buying transport and a guide. That can be a sound purchase if you only want the road, the monastery and a few glasses. It is a poor one if you were counting on lunch.
Georgia beyond Kakheti
Every listing on this site goes to Kakheti, which is why the page for the country has one child. Kakheti is the centre of Georgian wine, and the names you will read on labels from the tour cellars, Tsinandali, Mukuzani, Kindzmarauli and Napareuli, are all appellations inside it. But it is not all of Georgia. Khvanchkara, a semi-sweet red with its own appellation, comes from Racha, in the north-west. No tour we list goes there.
The figures that circulate say Georgia has more than 500 indigenous grape varieties and Kakheti about three quarters of the vineyard. Treat those as the trade's own numbers, not official ones: we could not check them against the agency's latest release. What the listings do show is where the demand is. Three tours hold 69% of the reviews, and all three are group days from Tbilisi priced between 17 and 35 EUR.
If you want more of the country than a day from Tbilisi gives, the Kakheti page lists the towns, how to get there on a marshrutka, and what a private driver adds.
Start with Kakheti
The one region with tours on this site: Telavi, Sighnaghi, Kvareli and Tsinandali, from Tbilisi, with prices and transport compared.
Questions about Georgian wine tours
How much does a Georgian wine tour cost?
The median across 40 listings is 82.5 EUR, from 12 to 269. Shared days by minibus start at 12 EUR; private days start around 54 EUR and pass 250 for the longest. Food and tips are often extra on the cheapest.
Is Georgia the oldest wine country in the world?
It has the earliest chemical evidence published so far, from residues in jars dated to 6000 to 5800 BC in Kvemo Kartli. That is a careful claim about a study, not a ranking.
What did UNESCO actually recognise?
The traditional qvevri winemaking method, in 2013, as intangible heritage. It recognised a way of making wine and not a region or a bottle.
What is amber wine?
White wine fermented with its skins in a qvevri, which gives it its colour and a grip close to red wine. It is the style the tours lean on, although many cellars also make ordinary white and red.
Where do the tours go?
To Kakheti, in the east, from Tbilisi. There are no listings in Racha, Imereti or other regions, so a wider Georgian wine trip has to be planned separately.
Can I drive between Georgian cellars?
Car rental guides report a legal limit of 0.3 per mille for ordinary drivers. Confirm the current limit before you rent, and remember that a tasting flight is often more than one glass.
Plan your trip
Guides that apply to this destination.
Choose your wine region
Pick a region by the city you start from, and compare the ones that sit close together.
When to go
A month-by-month climate matrix for 28 wine destinations, with the harvest windows we could verify.
Georgian qvevri wine, explained
How the clay vessel works, what amber wine tastes like and what a cellar visit shows.
Data verified on. Prices, ratings and counts from the 40 listings on this site, read 30 September 2026. UNESCO 2013, National Wine Agency registry, PNAS 114(48), 2017.