Food and wine

There is a reason nobody comes back from the Caucasus talking only about monasteries: the table. Georgia invented wine — eight thousand years of archaeological evidence — and still makes it the ancient way, fermented in qvevri, buried clay vessels now on the UNESCO heritage list. Around that wine revolves the supra, the Georgian feast led by a tamada who turns every toast into a small speech about life.

In this section we explain the dishes you will meet and how to order them: khachapuri in its regional versions (the Adjarian one, with egg and butter, is a full meal), khinkali eaten by hand holding the dough knot, the dolma that Armenians and Azerbaijanis both claim as their own, aubergine rolls with walnut, churchkhela hanging in the markets like coloured candles, and the Armenian brandy Churchill ordered by the case.

Every one of our trips includes food stops: family wineries in Kakheti, home-cooked meals and markets. If you want to eat like this, start with our Caucasus itineraries and ask us to load the route with long lunches.