3. Go wine-tasting (not only once)
I discovered a new trend of natural wines in Paris earlier this year – shout out to my friend Seth, who hosted me and brought me to a house party with his friends who were either wine or cheese retailers.
I learnt that the oldest evidence of winemaking has been found in Georgia. I was amazed at the number of vineyards cultivated in houses, and I have no doubt they have ancient techniques of winemaking – without sulfites. I had the opportunity to spend some time with a native family – Georgians are very welcoming. They were quite conservative and devout to religion, they had a sort of ritual before drinking wine – I honestly could not understand what they said. For them, wine is a metonym of the blood of Christ, they treat wine with due respect.
In France, it is appreciated when you bring a bottle of wine to a catch-up with friends, in Georgia, you should never do that. It is considered disrespectful – Isn’t their wine good enough? They might think.
I used Couchsurfing Hangouts several times, using catchy titles led me bringing like-minded people together. One of our hangouts started in Vino Underground, the cradle of natural wine bars in Tbilisi. It is well located, very cosy and has a great curation of wine varieties – Essentially amber, rosé and red wine.
My favourite wine was Archil Guniava Kvaliti Otskhanuri Sapere – Tsolikouri 2015. Medium-long with a sweet red fruit aroma, slightly earthy, perfect balance of tannins and fruity acidity. Probably the only blend of this kind on the planet.
Other places I recommend for wine-tasting are Lerika Wine Cellar (Giorgio Mazniashvili Street) and Wine Gallery (Mikheil Tsinamdzgvrishvili Street). I didn’t find information about them on the internet, I’m glad I came across them by coincidence.
The average price of a glass of wine: 5 GEL (~1,5 €).
“Chacha” or vine vodka is a local speciality I recommend to try.