The guide
Telavi, from a house in the middle of it
Most guides to Kakheti are written from Tbilisi. This one is written from Rustaveli Avenue, about four hundred metres from the palace.
What Telavi actually is
Telavi is the capital of Kakheti and it is small — under seventeen thousand people, on a hill, with the Alazani valley spread out below it and the Caucasus behind that. On a clear day you can see the snow line from the edge of town.
It matters because of what is around it. Kakheti makes roughly seventy per cent of Georgia's wine, and Georgia has been making wine in buried clay qvevri for about eight thousand years — longer than anywhere else on earth, which is not marketing, it is the archaeological record. There are over five hundred indigenous grape varieties in this country and a great many of them grow within an hour of this house.
What that means practically is that Telavi is a base, not a destination. The town is worth half a day. The region is worth a week.
The town in half a day
Batonis Tsikhe is the walled royal residence in the centre — seventeenth and eighteenth century, and the seat of Erekle II, the king who spent his reign trying to keep Kakheti from being swallowed by larger neighbours. The palace, the bath house, two churches and the walls are all inside. It is a six-minute walk from our door.
The Giant Plane Tree is five hundred metres away and is around nine hundred years old. It takes something like fifteen people holding hands to get round it. It has been there longer than the palace, longer than the walls, and longer than most of the countries that have tried to take this valley.
The market is the other thing to do, and it is best before ten in the morning: churchkhela hanging in ropes, sacks of dried spices, cheese by the wheel, and whatever fruit is at its peak that fortnight.
If you have exactly two days, here is how we would spend them.
Wine: where to go and what to ask for
Two grapes carry the region. Saperavi is the red — deep enough to stain the glass, one of the very few grapes in the world with red flesh as well as red skin. Rkatsiteli is the white, and in Kakheti it is usually made the old way: whole bunches into a qvevri buried in the ground, skins and stems included, left for months. What comes out is amber, tannic and nothing like a European white. Ask for it as qvevri or kakhuri wine. How qvevri wine is actually made, if you want the long answer.
The three easiest good ones from here — and the fuller list, with what to ask for at each:
- Tsinandali Estate, 12 km. The Chavchavadze family house, its garden and a cellar of fifteen thousand bottles, the oldest from 1814. This is the polished version, and it is genuinely lovely.
- Shumi, 9 km. A working winery with a small vine museum attached; tastings have historically started around 15 lari.
- A family marani. Someone's yard, qvevri under the concrete, a grandfather with a ladle and no price list. This is the one you will still be talking about, and it is the one you cannot book online. Ask us.
Tastings in Kakheti are not measured pours, and the road back over the Gombori pass has no lighting and a lot of opinions about where the edge is. Take a driver. We can arrange one.
Rtveli, the harvest
From about the middle of September to the middle of October, everything in Kakheti stops for rtveli. Families come back from Tbilisi. Schools go quiet. Every yard has grapes in it.
If you can choose when to come, come then. You cut grapes in the morning, you crush them with your feet in a hollowed log called a satsnakheli, and then somebody's mother produces a table that does not end for five hours, with a tamada — the toastmaster — running it properly.
It is also the busiest fortnight of the year for beds in this region. Book early; we only have four rooms.
What rtveli actually involves, day by day, and how a supra works once the table starts.
Beyond the town
- Alaverdi Cathedral, 20 km — eleventh century, and the tallest church in Georgia for nearly a thousand years, until Tbilisi’s Sameba was consecrated in 2004.
- Ikalto Monastery, 8 km — a medieval academy where Shota Rustaveli is said to have studied, with qvevri still in the ground.
- Gremi, 28 km — the citadel and church of the old Kakhetian capital, on a bluff.
- Nekresi, 45 km — fourth-century, up a forested hill, with the best view in the region.
- Sighnaghi & Bodbe, 60 km — the walled town everybody photographs, and the monastery of St Nino. If you are choosing between the two as a base, we have written the honest comparison .
- Tusheti, seasonal — one of the most dangerous and most beautiful roads in the world. June to September only, 4x4 only, and not to be attempted casually. How it is actually done from here.
The four monasteries above are worth a day between them — which to pick, and in what order .
The year, honestly
Twelve months, and four of them we would talk you out of
Kakheti does not have a season and an off-season. It has a vine, and everything else — how full the town is, what is on the market stalls, what a room costs — follows what that plant is doing. So that is what the line down the side of this is. Where a month is grey and cheap we have said so.
-
January
5° day, −2° night
- The vine
- Bare and dormant
- How busy
- Empty
- The rate
- The cheapest it gets
Cold, often bright, and entirely yours.
The driest month of the year here, which means clear days and snow sitting on the Caucasus across the valley. It is the emptiest we ever are — in a house with four rooms that can mean you are the only people at the table. Georgian Christmas is on 7 January and the town is completely itself.
Snow can shut the Gombori pass. The road round by Sagarejo adds about an hour.
On the stalls Cheese by the wheel, pickles, walnuts, the last of the autumn churchkhela.
-
February
6° day, −2° night
- The vine
- Being pruned
- How busy
- Empty
- The rate
- The cheapest it gets
Grey more often than not. Also the cheapest fortnight of the year.
The snowiest month in Telavi and the one with the least going on. Pruning is the only work happening in the vineyards. The estates are open and so quiet that a tasting turns into a conversation, which is not a downgrade — ring a family cellar the day before rather than turning up.
Snow lies in Telavi from about 20 December to about 17 March. February is the deepest of it.
On the stalls Pickles, tklapi, cheese, jonjoli out of last spring’s jars.
-
March
11° day, 2° night
- The vine
- Cut canes bleeding sap
- How busy
- Still empty
- The rate
- Low
Mud. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
The thaw. Brown fields, bare vines, and pruned canes dripping sap, which is the plant waking up and looks alarming the first time you see it. The snow stops lying around the middle of the month and the first genuinely warm afternoons turn up at the end of it.
On the stalls The first green things — wild garlic, nettles, tarragon.
-
April
16° day, 7° night
- The vine
- Buds breaking
- How busy
- Filling up
- The rate
- Middle
The valley turns green in about a fortnight.
Buds break around the middle of the month — Saperavi first, Rkatsiteli a week or so behind it — and the whole valley goes from brown to green faster than seems reasonable. Cool mornings, mild afternoons, and real rain. Orthodox Easter often falls here, and when it does the town goes to church and then to somebody’s garden.
Tusheti is not happening in April. The Abano pass is still under snow.
On the stalls Tarragon by the bunch, radishes, and the first jonjoli — bladdernut buds, picked before they open and pickled the same day.
-
May
21° day, 11° night
- The vine
- In full leaf
- How busy
- Busy
- The rate
- High
The green window
The best-looking month of the year, and the wettest.
Wildflowers, full green, and warm enough to walk around town at midday without regretting it. It is also the rainiest month in Telavi, which is precisely why it looks like that. Nothing is crowded yet.
The Abano pass into Tusheti opens once the snow clears — 25 May in 2025, mid-June in a bad year. Nobody will promise you a date.
On the stalls Jonjoli proper, spring greens, and the first cherries right at the end.
-
June
25° day, 16° night
- The vine
- Flowering
- How busy
- Busy
- The rate
- High
The green window
Warm, long-evening, and the fortnight the whole year hangs on.
The vines flower — pale, tiny, easy to walk past — and then set fruit, and hail or a cold snap in that fortnight means there is no rtveli in September. Cherries and apricots arrive. On the longest day the sun goes down at 20:36, so the courtyard is still in use long after dinner.
Tusheti is normally open from mid-June: 4x4 only, one road, and not to be taken on casually.
On the stalls Cherries, apricots, the first tomatoes worth eating.
-
July
28° day, 18° night
- The vine
- Green bunches swelling
- How busy
- Steady
- The rate
- Middle
Hot. The average undersells it.
The average high is 28°C. That is an average — the week you will actually remember is 35 and climbing. Do the cellars in the morning, because cellars are cold, and do nothing whatsoever between two and six. The garden here is shaded, which in July is the most useful thing about it.
On the stalls Peaches, apricots, plums, the first melons.
-
August
28° day, 18° night
- The vine
- Berries colouring — veraison
- How busy
- Steady
- The rate
- Middle
The hottest month, the best fruit, and quieter than you would guess.
The berries soften and change colour in August — veraison — and the Saperavi vineyards go from green to red in a fortnight. Georgians take their own holidays now and they take them at the Black Sea, so Kakheti is emptier in August than it is in May. Mariamoba, on 28 August, is a proper feast day.
On the stalls Figs, melons, peaches, and the first eating grapes.
-
September
23° day, 13° night
- The vine
- Ripe, and then picked
- How busy
- Book months ahead
- The rate
- The top of the band
Rtveli, from mid-month
The month this region is actually about.
The first half is still summer. Then, from somewhere around the middle, rtveli — the grape harvest — and everything else stops. Families come back from Tbilisi, every yard in Kakheti has crates in it, and the tables run for five hours. This is the fortnight everybody wants and we have four rooms.
Alaverdoba, the harvest feast at Alaverdi Cathedral 20 km away, runs several days and peaks on 28 September.
On the stalls Grapes, and the first churchkhela of the year going up on strings.
-
October
17° day, 8° night
- The vine
- Picked bare, then turning
- How busy
- Busy, then suddenly not
- The rate
- High, falling
Rtveli, to mid-month
Harvest in the first half, gold in the second. The most underrated window there is.
Saperavi comes in late, so the picking runs well into October. Then the leaves turn, the valley goes gold and rust, the nights get cold, and the crowds go home while the harvest is still in the air. If we had to choose one fortnight for ourselves it would be this second one.
The Abano pass shuts around the middle of the month. Tusheti is over until June.
On the stalls Churchkhela fresh and still sticky, badagi, tklapi, walnuts, quince, pomegranates.
-
November
11° day, 3° night
- The vine
- Leaves coming down
- How busy
- Empty again
- The rate
- The cheapest it gets
Grey, cheap, and the wine is still underground.
Nothing is happening in the vineyards and the new wine is sealed in the qvevri where it will stay for months. That makes it the best month of the year for a trip that is only about cellars, because the people who make the wine finally have an afternoon free to talk to you. Giorgoba, St George’s day, falls on 23 November.
On the stalls Persimmons, pomegranates, walnuts, and October’s churchkhela properly dried out.
-
December
7° day, −1° night
- The vine
- Bare and dormant
- How busy
- Quiet, except New Year
- The rate
- Low, except New Year
Cold, clear, and completely local.
Snow starts lying around 20 December. Georgian New Year is taken extremely seriously and the food alone is a reason to be here for it — but that is one week. The other three are wide open, cheap and very quiet, and the cellars are all still working.
From now until February the Gombori pass can close after heavy snow.
On the stalls Churchkhela, dried fruit, pickles, and cheese by the wheel again.
Temperatures are the average daily high and low for Telavi from Weather Spark, Telavi , converted from Fahrenheit and rounded to the nearest degree. Rtveli has no fixed date and moves every year. How busy it is and what it costs are our own account of our own year, not a booking curve — if you want the real answer for your fortnight, ask us.
Getting here
Marshrutka. Minibuses leave Tbilisi from Navtlughi (Samgori) and Ortachala stations through the day. Roughly two hours, about 15 lari, no booking — you turn up and it goes when it is full. The long version, with stations and times.
Taxi or Bolt. Around 100–150 lari from Tbilisi, door to door, and worth it if there are three or four of you.
Driving. About two hours over the Gombori pass, which is the beautiful way — forest, switchbacks, and the whole Alazani valley opening up as you come down. In deep winter the pass can close, and the longer route via Sagarejo takes closer to three hours.
From the airport. Tbilisi International is 84 km away. We can have a driver waiting for you at arrivals — ask us.
Practical things
- Insurance is now mandatory
- Since 1 January 2026 every foreign visitor to Georgia must hold health and accident insurance covering at least 30,000 GEL for the full stay, and be able to show it in Georgian or English — printed or on a phone — at the border. It applies to visa-free travellers too, and entry can be refused without it.
- Money
- The lari (₾). Cards are fine in town and at the bigger wineries; carry cash for family cellars, the market and marshrutkas.
- Language
- Georgian, with its own alphabet. Russian is widely understood, English less so outside tourism. We speak all three.
- Water
- Tap water is safe and good.
- Tipping
- Not obligatory. 10% in restaurants if service was good.
More, in detail
- Kakheti in winter, when nobody comes January averages a high of about 4°C and the Caucasus is white across the valley. What is open, what is shut, and the three weeks of feasting in January.
- Qvevri, and why the white wine here comes out orange What a qvevri actually is, why Kakhetian white wine is amber, what it tastes like, and what to ask for in a cellar fifteen minutes from this house.
- Taking Georgian wine home — the limits, and what survives the flight Georgia does not limit what you take out. Your own country does. The EU allows 4 litres, Great Britain 18, the US 1 — plus what to buy and how to pack it.
- Telavi or Sighnaghi — where to base yourself in Kakheti Both are two hours from Tbilisi and an hour from each other. Which one you sleep in depends on whether you came for the wine or for the view.
- Inside a family marani — what happens, and whether you pay No tasting, no spittoon — a full glass, a table and three hours. What a family cellar visit involves, what to bring, and how to leave without offending.
- Alaverdi, Ikalto, Nekresi — the churches around Telavi worth the drive Six monasteries within an hour of Telavi — what each one is, how old it really is, what to wear, and which to drive to if you only have a morning.
- Tusheti from Telavi — the Abano pass, honestly The road to Omalo is 70 km, takes half a day, needs a 4x4 and is open about three months a year. What it costs, when it opens, and whether to go.
- What to eat in Kakheti after the khachapuri Mtsvadi grilled over vine cuttings, chakapuli in April, khashlama at every supra — the dishes this region actually cooks, and when each is in season.
- Hire car or driver in Kakheti — the honest arithmetic What a car and a driver actually cost here, what the roads are really like, and the one number that decides it — Georgia's drink-drive limit is 0.03%.
- The supra, the tamada, and how to survive being toasted A Georgian feast has an elected toastmaster and a fixed order of toasts. What happens, what you will be asked to do, and how to be upright at the end.
- Enough Georgian for three days You will not learn Georgian. You can learn twelve words and read the alphabet in an afternoon, and here both go further than they would almost anywhere.
- Two days in Telavi, planned properly An hour-by-hour two-day itinerary for Telavi and Kakheti — the palace, the plane tree, the market, which cellars to do on which day, and what to skip.
- The best time to visit Kakheti, month by month What Georgia's wine region is like month by month — temperatures, crowds, what is open, what is in season, and the two windows worth planning around.
- A Georgian breakfast, explained Khachapuri, shoti, mchadi, sulguni, churchkhela — what is on a Kakhetian breakfast table, what each one is, and why the bread matters more than you think.
- Kakheti with children, which is easier than it looks A Georgian restaurant will take your baby off you. That, the food, and 30-minute drives make this an easy region with children — apart from the car seats.
- Wineries near Telavi that are actually worth the drive Tsinandali, Shumi, Alaverdi and the family cellars nobody lists — which wineries near Telavi to visit, what they cost, and why not to drive yourself.
- The Telavi market, and what to actually buy Go before ten, because the cheese comes in from the villages and then goes home. What is worth buying, how to tell good churchkhela, and what to ignore.
- Rtveli — what the Georgian grape harvest actually involves Mid-September to mid-October, all of Kakheti stops to pick grapes. What rtveli is, when it happens, what you do, and how to join one rather than watch.
- Kakheti without a car — what actually runs from Telavi The vans leave from three different places in Telavi and none of them is signposted. Where each one goes, what it costs, and what you cannot reach at all.
- How to get from Tbilisi to Telavi Marshrutka, taxi, Bolt or your own car — every way to cover the 85 km to Telavi, with real prices, real times and the truth about the Gombori pass.
Questions about Telavi and getting here
Getting to Telavi
- How do I get from Tbilisi to Telavi?
- Four ways, all about two hours. A marshrutka — the shared minibus — costs around 15 lari and leaves through the day from Ortachala central bus station and from the Navtlughi terminal beside Samgori metro; there is no real timetable, they go when they are full, and the journey takes two to two and a half hours. A Bolt or a taxi is usually 100 to 150 lari for the whole car. We can send a driver to meet your flight. Or you drive yourself over the Gombori pass, which is 85 km and the prettiest of the four.
- Marshrutka or taxi — which should I take?
- Luggage decides it. A marshrutka has very little space and a large suitcase makes you unpopular; a taxi puts it in the boot and puts you at our door. Split between three or four people a taxi is not much more per head than the minibus. If you are landing late, take the taxi or let us arrange a transfer — the last minibuses have gone by early evening.
- Does the Gombori pass close in winter?
- Rarely, and not for long. The pass tops out at 1,620 m and the whole road is asphalted, so it is normally open all winter. What happens is that after heavy snow, or when there is avalanche risk, it shuts for a day or two — and then everything goes the long way round via Sagarejo, which is flatter, wider and about an hour slower. The Georgian Roads Department publishes live restrictions at georoad.ge. If you are coming to us and the pass is shut, your driver already knows.
- What time is the last marshrutka back to Tbilisi?
- Late afternoon, and they thin out well before that. Do not plan on an evening return from Telavi. If you have a flight out, take a taxi or tell us and we will arrange a car — missing the last minibus in Telavi is a very quiet feeling.
- How far is Tbilisi airport, and can you meet a flight?
- Tbilisi International (TBS) is 84 km away, about two hours by road. Yes — give us your flight number and we will have a driver waiting at arrivals with your name on a card. The flight gets tracked, so a delay is not your problem. A lot of flights into Georgia land at unkind hours and haggling with the airport taxi rank at 4am is nobody's idea of a start.
- Do I need a car in Kakheti?
- For the monasteries and the far side of the valley, yes — Nekresi, Gremi and the small family cellars are not on a bus route. For a tasting day, no, and you should not want one: pours here are not measured, the drink-driving limit is effectively zero, and the road back over Gombori has no lighting. Take a driver for the wine days and hire a car for the sightseeing days. We can arrange either.
- Do I need travel insurance to enter Georgia?
- Yes, since 1 January 2026. Every foreign visitor must hold health and accident insurance covering at least 30,000 GEL for the whole stay and be able to show it in Georgian or English, printed or on a phone, at the border. It applies to visa-free travellers too, and entry can be refused without it. It is inexpensive and it is genuinely checked — sort it before you fly.
Telavi and Kakheti
- Can you walk to the palace from Our Old House?
- Yes — Batonis Tsikhe, the walled royal residence of King Erekle II, is a six-minute walk from our door. The 900-year-old Giant Plane Tree is 500 m away and the market is about ten minutes. Telavi is small; we are in the middle of it rather than out at a resort, which is the whole argument for staying here if you want to walk to dinner.
- How many days do I need in Telavi?
- Two nights is the honest minimum — one full day for cellars, one for the town, Tsinandali and Alaverdi. Three lets you add Gremi, Nekresi or a slow day doing nothing, which in Kakheti is a legitimate activity. A day trip from Tbilisi buys you about three hours in the region and two in a minibus.
- When is the best time to visit Kakheti?
- May to June, or mid-September to mid-October. Late spring is green, flowering and quiet; the second window is rtveli, the harvest, which is the region at full volume and the hardest fortnight of the year to find a bed. July and August are hot — over 35°C is routine. November to March is quiet and cheap, and the cellars are still open, often with nobody else in them.
- What is rtveli, and when does it happen?
- Rtveli is the Georgian grape harvest, roughly mid-September to mid-October, and for that fortnight the whole of Kakheti has the same job. You cut grapes in the morning, crush them with your feet in a hollowed log called a satsnakheli, and then a table starts that runs for hours with a tamada — a toastmaster — running it properly. The exact dates move each year with the weather and by grape; whites come in first, Saperavi later. Ask us in July or August and we will tell you what the season looks like.
- Which wineries should I visit near Telavi?
- Tsinandali Estate, 12 km out, is the polished one — the Chavchavadze house, the garden and a cellar of 15,000 bottles going back to 1814, with entry around 10 lari and tastings from about 35. Shumi, 9 km, is a working winery with a small museum of indigenous varieties and tastings that have historically started around 15 lari. The one you will actually remember is a family marani: somebody's yard, qvevri under the concrete, no price list and no website. That one you cannot book — it happens because somebody who lives here makes a phone call.
- Should I stay in Telavi or Sighnaghi?
- Telavi if you came for the wine, Sighnaghi if you came for the view. Telavi sits in the middle of the Alazani valley with most of the serious cellars, Alaverdi and Tsinandali inside a twenty-minute drive, and it is a working town with a market and a bus station rather than a viewpoint. Sighnaghi is prettier and smaller, on a hill an hour and a half south, and everything you would taste is at least twenty minutes back down it. Plenty of people do one night in each.
- Can I see Kakheti without a car?
- Partly. Telavi itself is entirely walkable, and Tsinandali, Shumi and Alaverdi are all short taxi rides. Beyond that — Gremi, Nekresi, Ikalto, the family cellars — you want a driver, and a driver for the day costs less than most people expect. We arrange them for guests rather than sending you to an agency in Tbilisi that will phone a cellar fifteen minutes from this house and add a margin.
- Do I need cash in Kakheti?
- Some. Cards work in town, at the estates and here at the house; they do not work at family cellars, at the market or on a marshrutka. There are ATMs on Rustaveli within a few minutes' walk. Everything is priced in lari and nobody takes euros or dollars.
Distances from the front door
- King Erekle II Palace & Batonis Tsikhe 6-minute walk
- The Giant Plane Tree 500 m
- Telavi market 10-minute walk
- Tsinandali Estate 12 km
- Shumi Winery 9 km
- Gremi Citadel 28 km
- Tbilisi 85 km · about 2 hours
- Tbilisi International Airport (TBS) 84 km
Direct
Base yourself here
Four rooms, in the middle of the town, with breakfast and a driver who knows the pass. Tell us your dates.
or call +995 555 000 000
or write to hello@ouroldhouse.ge
- Check in
- 15:00 – 19:00
- Check out
- 08:00 – 12:00
- We speak
- English, Georgian, Russian