Almost every wine destination in the world offers the same thing: vineyard landscape, a handsome winery and a tasting. This one offers something else, and it is something you cannot have anywhere else: the chance to see working, today, the oldest method for which there is chemical evidence.
01 How it fits you
The figure holding it all up was published in 2017. An international team analysed residues from pottery excavated at two neolithic sites some fifty kilometres south of the capital and found tartaric acid, a marker that in those quantities comes only from grapes. The dating: between 6000 and 5800 BC.
02 What exactly a buried jar is
The vessel is called a qvevri and it resembles neither a barrel nor a tank. It is a clay jar shaped like an elongated egg with a pointed base, with no foot to stand on, buried up to the neck in the cellar floor. Only the mouth stays out, closed with a stone or wooden lid sealed with clay.
Burying it is not folklore: it is temperature control without electricity. The ground keeps the contents at an almost constant temperature throughout the process, and that stability is what allows fermenting and ageing in the same vessel without intervening. The egg shape also helps the lees gather at the point of the base.
03 What it will cost you
The first friction is distance. The capital has a museum, shops and plenty of places to drink well, but the vineyard areas are hours away by road and public transport to them is thin and uncomfortable. Without a hire car, a driver or an organised trip, the journey stays in the city.
The second is that the winery visit as we know it does not exist here. Many producers are small or outright family concerns, with no visiting hours and no tasting room, and access means arranging it beforehand. In exchange, when you do arrange it, no guide shows you round: the person who makes the wine does.
And the third is social and worth stating plainly: here drinking wine is a long-table affair, with chained toasts and someone leading them. It is an extraordinary experience and also one in which rather more gets drunk than planned. If that makes you uncomfortable, say so early and without drama; it is understood without difficulty.
04 How I would build these days
Five days in late September, when the harvest coincides with the year's best month, at a high of 26.2 degrees and 34.8 millimetres of rain. Day one: the city and the national museum, to see the neolithic jars before anything else; understanding the shape of the vessel is understanding the method.
Days two and three: out to the vineyard area, sleeping there rather than returning every night, which is the usual mistake. Two producers a day at most, and of different sizes: one family concern and one mid-sized, to see the same technique with different means. Days four and five: back to the city, shops for buying and slack for whatever did not fit.
05 The verdict
If wine interests you as a technique and not only as a drink, this destination has no competition: it is the only place where you can see the oldest documented method working in an active cellar, at low prices and without crowds. The combination of archaeological site, museum and cellar within a short radius exists in no other wine country.
If what you want is a comfortable winery route with timetables, signage and half-hour tastings, you will spend more time organising than drinking. The deciding question is whether you fancy being received by the person who makes the wine instead of by a guide. If the answer is yes, five days here are worth far more than they cost.
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Bernard Gagnon Thimphu for the traveller who accepts that here the trip is priced by the night
Dmitry G Tallinn for the curious traveller who wants both the medieval and the contemporary
Vincent Ndaku