Where wine was born and the local cheeses are prized: Alaverdi, Georgia

In 2017, the US’ Nation­al Academy of Sci­ences con­clus­ively determ­ined that wine ori­gin­ated some 8,000 years ago in Georgia. 

I was already work­ing in Geor­gia and was invited to vis­it the tiny vil­lage of Alaverdi in the heart of Georgia’s Alazani River val­ley, a vast wine­mak­ing area. 

With a pop­u­la­tion of few­er than 200, Alaverdi is one of 14 vil­lages in the Akh­meta dis­trict of Kakheti province. 

Regard­less of wine’s ori­gin story, we, togeth­er with our stra­tegic part­ner Bridge Innov­a­tion & Devel­op­ment, wanted to include Alaverdi in a net­work of rur­al Black Sea des­tin­a­tions that are ded­ic­ated to sus­tain­able tour­ism; our Black Sea Sus­tain­able Rur­al Tour­ism Pro­gram. 

The inside track

Richard Shep­ard is the founder & trust­ee of Sus­tain­able Rur­al Devel­op­ment Inter­na­tion­al, which is imple­ment­ing the Black Sea Sus­tain­able Rur­al Tour­ism Pro­gram in Ukraine, Geor­gia, and Turkey.

The primary reas­on for my 2019 vis­it was to view the house that our part­ner was restor­ing for use as a small guest house and mini con­fer­ence centre. 

I was picked up from my apart­ment in Tbil­isi in the morn­ing and we drove north for a little over two hours through Geor­gi­an hill­sides and forests, passing through small vil­lages along the way, until the road des­cen­ded into the Alazani River valley. 

As we neared our des­tin­a­tion, we passed Alaverdi Mon­as­tery, one of the old­est mon­as­ter­ies in Geor­gia and the largest cathed­ral out­side Tbilisi. 

The road we fol­lowed from Tbil­isi is the main route to Tush­eti in the high Cau­cas­us. Two lanes … more or less. Keep fol­low­ing this road for anoth­er four hours past Alaverdi and you’ll arrive at one of the most spec­tac­u­lar places in the Cau­cas­us: Tusheti.

About five minutes after passing Alaverdi Mon­as­tery, we turned through a gate into the grounds of the house. Car­penters, stone masons, and elec­tri­cians were busy with res­tor­a­tion work. It was clear that this was going to take time as the entire struc­ture needed work to bring it up to mod­ern accom­mod­a­tion standards. 

Also see Richard Shep­ard’s con­tri­bu­tions to The “Good Tour­ism” Blog

The view from the bal­cony of the house was of a val­ley of vine­yards stretch­ing to dis­tant moun­tains high enough to make them seem closer than they are. The Alazani River splits Alaverdi off from its nearest neigh­bour, the lar­ger vil­lage of Kvemo Alvani. 

Upon arrival in Alaverdi, to stretch our legs, we walked back to the mon­as­tery where behind its high walls we wandered around well-main­tained gar­dens. Inside the cathed­ral, the stone-cool air and vaul­ted ceil­ings evoked a feel­ing of hav­ing wit­nessed a thou­sand years of history. 

Across the road, at the mon­as­tery-owned res­taur­ant, we enjoyed a very tra­di­tion­al Geor­gi­an lunch paired with a truly excel­lent mon­as­tery wine. 

The monks at this mon­as­tery have had time to per­fect their wines. They’ve been fer­ment­ing grapes from the sur­round­ing vine­yards since the 11^th century. 

But that’s rel­at­ively recent. Geor­gi­ans have been mak­ing wine for 8 mil­len­nia. The earli­est evid­ence of wine-mak­ing in the world, circa 6,000 BC, has been found in Geor­gia; in frag­ments of the same type of giant under­ground ceram­ic urn, or qvev­ri, used today.

The monks of Alaverdi Mon­as­tery make some of their wine in these qvev­ri. To say that this is a tra­di­tion is an understatement. 

Alaverdi Mon­as­tery is also a fort­ress. Its but­tressed walls were built in the 11^th cen­tury for good reas­on. Inva­sions were reg­u­lar occur­rences up and down the val­ley. The Alazani val­ley is a nat­ur­al inva­sion route. Clans in mod­ern-day Azerbaijan and Geor­gia fre­quently fought each other. 

The mon­as­tery was foun­ded some 500 years earli­er, in the 6^th cen­tury, by a monk from Anti­och. Now, in the 21^st cen­tury, its res­taur­ant, trav­el­ler fees, and sales of wine and honey, sup­port the place.

Earli­er this year, 2022, our part­ner com­pleted res­tor­a­tion of the house. Alaverdi Blue is open for busi­ness with mod­ern rooms and a small yet advanced con­fer­ence facility. 

They also designed a full-day Com­munity Exper­i­ence excur­sion which is included in a two-night book­ing. Vis­it­ors get to sup­port two non-profits and an entire com­munity while exper­i­en­cing the unique cul­ture, eco­logy, and rur­al life of east­ern Georgia.

Stay longer. Alaverdi makes a great base from which to explore the region. Launch excur­sions into the moun­tains, or wine-tast­ings in Tel­avi and Tsin­an­dali, and then return to peace and quiet. 

The loc­al cheeses of this region are also highly prized in Geor­gia, so cheese lov­ers at least have a reas­on to stay a while longer.

Indeed, Alaverdi Blue’s pro­pri­et­ors have ini­ti­ated a pro­gram to sup­port loc­al cheese­makers, estab­lish­ing cold stor­age rooms and pro­cesses that they hope will deliv­er more income and a bet­ter stand­ard of liv­ing to home pro­du­cers, shop­keep­ers, and dairy farm­ers in the val­ley and the mountains. 

If you are truly adven­tur­ous and head­ing over­land from Tbil­isi to Tush­eti — a long drive that includes some truly start­ling switch-back moun­tain roads — Alaverdi is a great place to break up the trip. 

For many, Geor­gia is ‘undis­covered’. Its nat­ur­al set­tings, wel­com­ing people, and amaz­ing cuisine make it a des­tin­a­tion that every­one should put on their buck­et list. 

Wel­come to Georgia!

Where is this?

The pin rep­res­ent­ing this “GT” Travel Exper­i­ence on the “GT” Travel map below points to Alaverdi Blue, which is part of the Black Sea Sus­tain­able Rur­al Tour­ism Pro­gram and is avail­able for book­ing.

The BSST Pro­gram is oper­ated by Sus­tain­able Rur­al Devel­op­ment Inter­na­tion­al Lim­ited, a UK non-profit social ven­ture for which Richard Shep­ard is the Seni­or Trustee. 

Alaverdi Blue is owned and oper­ated by Bridge Innov­a­tion & Devel­op­ment, a Geor­gi­an non-profit, stra­tegic part­ner of SRDI, and the Nation­al Office of the BSST Program.

Fea­tured image (top of post): All images © Richard Shepard.

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