What is qvevri wine and where can you taste it?

Qvevri wine is Georgia’s ancient method of fermenting and ageing wine in large egg-shaped clay vessels buried in the ground, a technique UNESCO inscribed on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013 under the title “Ancient Georgian traditional Qvevri wine-making method”. The grapes, skins, stalks and sometimes stems ferment together in the buried jars for months, giving the deep amber and dark red wines their characteristic tannin and colour.

The nuance is that qvevri wine is not one product but a family of styles tied to specific regions and grapes, and that “tasting qvevri wine” can mean very different things: a five-minute pour at a roadside stand in Kakheti, a seated flight at a family cellar, or a full day exploring vineyards with a guide. Prices and formats vary by winery and season, so treat any single figure as a starting point to confirm directly with the estate or through our current price table.

What UNESCO actually listed, and when

The inscription covers the method itself, not a brand or a single winery: burying hand-made qvevri underground, fermenting whole clusters or crushed grapes with skins and stems, and ageing the wine sealed under a layer of pomace or wax. The listing, recorded by UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage sector, dates to 2013 and recognises the practice as a living tradition passed through families rather than an industrial process, which is why small village cellars are as central to the story as large commercial wineries.

How the method works

• Grapes are pressed or crushed, often with skins, pips and stems kept in for red and amber wines.
• The must ferments and ages inside a buried clay qvevri, usually for six months or longer.
• No or minimal added sulphites in traditional practice, though modern producers vary.
• The result is “amber wine” from white grapes fermented on skins, alongside more familiar reds and whites.

Regions and grape varieties

Kakheti in eastern Georgia produces most qvevri wine and is the easiest region to visit from Tbilisi, but Imereti, Racha and Kartli each keep their own styles.

Current figures on registered vineyard area and grape varieties by region are published by the National Wine Agency of Georgia, which also maintains the list of appellations protecting names such as Mukuzani and Khvanchkara.

Wineries and cellars open to visitors

Most tasting visits combine a short cellar tour, an explanation of the qvevri process, and a seated flight of three to six wines, sometimes with bread and cheese. From our own route register, these day trips and short tours are built around working wineries and family cellars rather than industrial tasting rooms:

• Kakheti Wine Country — Day Trip, from Tbilisi, covers two or three cellars and a village lunch.
• Telavi & Kakheti Wine Region — Monasteries and Cellars, pairs a monastery visit with tastings around Telavi.
• Kakheti Grand Wine & Heritage — 3 Days, a slower route through Sighnaghi, Telavi and Kvareli with multiple cellar visits.
• Sighnaghi & Bodbe — Wine Country Day Trip, includes the hilltop town and a family-run qvevri cellar.
• Rtveli — Wine Harvest in Kakheti (3 Days, September–October), timed to the grape harvest when qvevri are opened and filled.
• Racha — Khvanchkara Wine & Mountain Lakes (2 Days), for the semi-sweet red style outside Kakheti.

Current per-person pricing for each of these, by group size, is listed on our price table, which also links to each tour page.

Tasting costs and how to book independently

Independent tasting fees at individual wineries are set by each estate and change through the season, from a token charge of a few lari at small family cellars to significantly more at larger wine-tourism estates with vineyard tours, food pairings or cellar dinners. Because no single national price list exists for private wineries, the only reliable way to budget is to check the estate’s own page or call ahead; the National Wine Agency’s regional pages are a reasonable starting point for contact details. If you prefer a fixed, all-in figure before you travel, a guided day trip or multi-day wine route booked through our tours states the per-person price in advance, including entrance and tasting fees at the cellars visited.

Where this comes from

This answer draws on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage listing for the qvevri method and on the National Wine Agency of Georgia’s published information on regions, grapes and appellations, cross-checked against our own tour register. Tasting fees at individual wineries are not centrally published and should be confirmed directly with each estate. Checked 27 October 2026; for current tour prices by group size, see gtour.ge/data.

Sources

• UNESCO ICH listing, qvevri method
• National Wine Agency of Georgia
• Agenda.ge – Georgia's Qvevri Wine-Making Recognized by UNESCO
• Smithsonian Magazine – How Georgia Became the Birthplace of Wine