Wine Regions of Georgia: Kakheti, Kartli, Imereti, Racha

Most visitors learn two facts about Georgian wine in the first ten minutes. One: Georgia has the oldest evidence of winemaking anywhere, grape residue in Neolithic pottery from Gadachrili Gora, south of Tbilisi in Kvemo Kartli, dated to more than 8,000 years ago and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. Two: Kakheti is the wine region. Both are true. Neither is enough to plan a trip with.

Georgia does not have one wine culture. It has several, and they do not taste the same or reward the same kind of journey. Kakheti is broad, confident and easy to sell. Imereti is quieter and often more elegant. Kartli makes more sense than people realise if you do not want to spend half your holiday in a car. Racha is small, scenic and full of bottles people talk about with a slightly smug "if you know, you know". This page is the practical map: which region to start with, what actually differs in the glass, what it costs and where to base yourself. The tour and driver prices on it were re-read on 15 October 2026, the tasting prices in September 2026, and the source is named where it matters.

How the regions differ

If you come from a classic wine-country mindset you may expect appellations, polished tasting rooms and an agreed hierarchy. Georgia has the appellations: 33 protected names registered with Sakpatenti, the national patent office, and listed by the National Wine Agency when we read its register on 15 October 2026, from Tsinandali and Mukuzani to Khvanchkara and Ateni; the full list by region is further down the page. It also has homemade wine in every village, wildly different quality from one cellar to the next, and a hospitality culture that blurs the line between a tasting and being adopted for the afternoon. Of the nearly 400 native grape varieties only 38 are grown commercially, and most of what you will drink comes from about eight of those.

The region tells you what kind of trip you are signing up for, which is why it matters more than the label. Big valley, bold reds and the classic amber qvevri wine, fermented on its skins in a buried clay vessel by the method UNESCO listed in 2013? Kakheti. A civilised day out from Tbilisi with sparkling wine? Kartli. A softer western style that pairs with a Kutaisi trip? Imereti. Mountain scenery and rarer bottles? Racha. Our wine culture guide covers the qvevri, the supra and why any of this matters; this page is where those ideas show up on the ground.

Kakheti: the obvious region, for good reason

Kakheti is the region most travellers mean when they say they want to go wine tasting in Georgia. It grows about seventy percent of the country's grapes, holds 20 of the 33 appellations, and has the deepest visitor infrastructure: the estate at Tsinandali, the tunnel cellars at Khareba, big producers like Shumi and Kindzmarauli Marani that run tours all day, and hundreds of family cellars in the villages between them. It is also the most direct route into the country's big themes: qvevri, amber wine, Saperavi, the harvest, and long lunches that turn into serious logistical errors.

The appellation names are the ones on the shelf at home. Tsinandali is a dry white from Rkatsiteli and Kakhuri Mtsvane; Mukuzani, Kvareli and Napareuli are dry Saperavi reds; Kindzmarauli and Akhasheni are the semi-sweet Saperavi that Georgians drink at celebrations; Manavi is a dry Mtsvane white and Kardenakhi a fortified one. The grape to know is Saperavi, a rare red variety with red flesh as well as red skin, which makes wines as dark as the qvevri they come from.

Stay in Telavi for a practical base with the wineries of the Alazani valley on both sides and a guesthouse room for two at 60 to 75 GEL on Booking.com in September 2026, or in Sighnaghi for the prettier hilltop town and the weekend-away feel. Marshrutkas from Tbilisi's Samgori terminal reach Telavi for 12 to 15 GEL and Sighnaghi for 15. Once there, guesthouses arrange a driver for a set winery circuit at about 70 to 100 GEL a person for the day; the flexible version is a GoTrip fixed-price driver from Tbilisi, from 141 GEL per car to Telavi with free stops on the way, which is in the sidebar. The Kakheti road trip has the day-by-day version and the wineries guide the cellar-by-cellar one.

What it costs to taste, from wander-lush's May 2026 survey of Kakheti wineries and our own September check: the Tsinandali Estate museum and cellar is 10 GEL, with a tasting for 2 GEL more or five wines for 35; Khareba's tunnel tour is 35 GEL with a tasting at the end; Kindzmarauli Corporation in Kvareli does a grounds tour and seated tasting for about 20 GEL; family cellars such as TEMI in the Kindzmarauli zone start at 20 GEL, and Wine Yard N1 near Kvareli charges 80 GEL for a tasting that is really a full meal. The downside of Kakheti is that it is also the most packaged region, with everything from sublime family producers to bus-tour cellars with a gift shop. Choose by producer, not by brochure.

Kartli: the smart choice for a shorter wine trip

Kartli rarely gets the breathless treatment, which is exactly why it is such a good option. The wine villages around Mukhrani, Kaspi and Gori sit an hour or so from Tbilisi, so you can do a serious wine day without committing to a cross-country detour. If your trip is short, or wine is one part of the plan rather than the whole plan, Kartli is the adult choice.

The grapes are different here: Chinuri and Goruli Mtsvane for whites, Shavkapito and Tavkveri for reds, and a sparkling tradition that the Ateni appellation near Gori protects, made from Chinuri and Goruli Mtsvane. Three more appellations cover the rest of the region: Okami at Kaspi, Asuretuli Shala at Asureti, and Bolnisi in Kvemo Kartli south of Tbilisi, registered for white, amber, rose and red wine. The style is cleaner, brighter and more mineral than Kakheti's; not boring, just less interested in hitting you over the head with heritage. Chateau Mukhrani, the restored royal estate, is the polished stop; the small cellars around Kaspi and Gori are where the Shavkapito is.

Kartli also pairs with the rest of a Tbilisi stay, because Uplistsikhe, Mtskheta and Gori are the same day-trip terrain. Wine folds into a mixed itinerary instead of becoming a bubble of its own.

Imereti: gentler wines, softer edges

Imereti, the western region around Kutaisi, is the best wine detour for travellers who do not want the Kakheti script. It has its own qvevri tradition, but the method differs: where Kakhetian winemakers ferment on all the skins, stems and pips, Imeretians add only a small fraction of the pomace to the vessel, so the wines come out paler, fresher and far lower in tannin. The same grape can taste like two different drinks, and for many people the Imeretian version is the easier one to love on first contact.

The grapes to look for are Tsolikouri (fresh, balanced, gently textured), Tsitska (bright, citrusy, the base of the region's sparkling wine) and Krakhuna (richer, still restrained). Sviri, near Zestaponi, was the only Imeretian appellation for years, a dry white blend of all three; Obcha around Baghdati (amber from Tsolikouri, or red from the local Otskhanuri Sapere grape) and Sazano's Otskhanuri, a dry red from villages in Terjola and Zestaponi registered on 30 September 2025, make it three. Imereti is not tourism-polished, which is part of the appeal: fewer statement wineries, more cellars where the winemaker pours. Use Kutaisi as the base, combine it with the canyons and the caves, and hire a taxi by the hour rather than a tour.

Racha-Lechkhumi: smaller, higher, more special-interest

Racha is not the first region to visit. It is the one some travellers become slightly obsessed with after the obvious stuff. It sits in the highlands north of Kutaisi, feels remote, and is home to Georgia's most famous semi-sweet red, Khvanchkara, a blend of Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli from the slopes around Ambrolauri. The other appellations are Tvishi, a semi-sweet Tsolikouri white from Tsageri in Lechkhumi, Okureshi Usakhelouri, a rare red grape that yields so little that a bottle costs what a case does elsewhere, and Racha and Lechkhumi themselves, registered as regional names.

The payoff is excellent if you are already heading to Racha for the scenery, and poor if you drive four hours for a single tasting. One warning: because Khvanchkara carries prestige, this is the corner of the wine world where the label most often outruns the bottle. Buy from proper wine shops, take the winemaker's recommendation, and treat a suspiciously cheap Khvanchkara on a tourist shelf as exactly that.

Every wine region, and the 33 appellations by region

Four regions is our editorial choice, not the official count. The National Wine Agency's regions page names six winemaking zones: Kakheti, Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi, a Black Sea coastal zone that takes in Guria, Samegrelo, Adjara and Abkhazia, and Meskheti in the south-west, where vines grow on stone terraces at 900 to 1,700 metres, about as high as viticulture goes anywhere. The coast and Meskheti are real wine country with a handful of producers each (Chkhaveri from Guria and Ojaleshi from Samegrelo are the bottles to look for in a Tbilisi wine bar), but neither has the cellars-open-to-visitors circuit that makes a wine trip, which is why they are not sections on this page. Abkhazia is on the agency's list; it is not accessible from Georgia-controlled territory, so it is not a trip option.

On a map, read it like this: Kakheti is everything east of Tbilisi along the Alazani and Iori valleys; Kartli is the Mtkvari valley west and south of the capital; cross the Likhi range and you are in Imereti around Kutaisi; follow the Rioni north from there into the hills and you reach Racha and Lechkhumi; the coast is the strip inland from Batumi up to the Abkhazia line; Meskheti is the high country around Akhaltsikhe and Aspindza. The appellations are protected designations of origin registered with Sakpatenti and listed by the National Wine Agency. There were 33 when we read the register on 15 October 2026, 20 of them in Kakheti; the newest, Sazano's Otskhanuri, a dry red from Imereti, was registered on 30 September 2025. Altitudes and the grapes per region below are the agency's own.

What to drink where

Planning and costs

The one rule: do not try to cover every region in a short trip. You will spend the days in transit and end up with tasting notes that all say "possibly amber, definitely lunch". With one day, do Kartli from Tbilisi or a single focused Kakheti day with a driver, three cellars at most. Our Kakheti wine day trip comparison prices that day by tour, driver, van and rental car. With two or three days, do Kakheti properly from Telavi or Sighnaghi, one larger winery and one or two family cellars a day, with real meals between them. Already in western Georgia? Kutaisi is the jump-off for Imereti on its own terms, not a substitute for Kakheti. Racha is for the second visit.

And hire a driver if you are tasting. Georgia's drink-driving limit is 0.03 percent, effectively zero, with a six-month licence suspension for a first offence, and lunch here has a habit of not stopping at lunch. The numbers below are what the pieces cost when we read them: the tours and the GoTrip driver on 15 October 2026, the rest in September 2026.

Mistakes to avoid

Too many cellars in a day. After the third tasting your powers of analysis are fiction, and the pours here are not the 25 ml of a tasting room in Napa. Three stops and a proper lunch beats six blurred ones.

Assuming qvevri means you will love it. The vessel matters culturally; it does not make every bottle good. Taste across producers, and if Kakhetian amber wine is too much on first contact, try the Imeretian style before deciding you do not like it.

Skipping Kartli because it is not famous. This is how people spend five hours in a car to Kakheti when what they wanted was one good wine day from Tbilisi.

Buying the famous name cheap. Khvanchkara, Kindzmarauli and Tsinandali are appellations, which means the name can be checked: look for the region and the producer on the label and buy from a wine shop, not a souvenir shelf. Our wine bars guide lists the Tbilisi shops that pour before they sell.