The Gurian Wine Festival is a smaller local festival focused mainly on winemakers from the Guria region of west Georgia. In 2025 this was held in the lovely forest location of the historic Eristavi Palace near the town of Chokhatauri, on Saturday June 28th. I managed to taste 75 wines from 28 producers.
The Tbilisi Sparkling Wine Festival is one of the smaller Tbilisi wine festivals held in Mtatsminda Park at the Underwheel Club on Saturday June 21st 2025. With, of course, the focus on sparkling wine – including Pet Nats and traditional method wines etc. But also a few still wines were present. I managed to taste 64 wines (inc. 1 cider) from 24 producers.
So, a total of 139 wines (inc 1 cider), from 52 producers over 2 days.
Of the many wines tasted, the majority were rated “good” or “acceptable”. And by this, I mean wines that we can objectively say to have merit, and some enjoyable characteristics that make them successful. These didn’t make the list, below are the wines I considered to be a step above.
I should be clear, that “good” really is pretty decent. These are wines you’d enjoy drinking. Getting a higher rating than “good” means producing a wine that stands out against all other wines tasted, with better balance and relevant characteristics. “Acceptable” being an everyday wine that is fine but you won’t be getting excited about.
Though we try to be as objective as possible in these assessments, some things should be taken into account:
- Blind tasting was not possible, so small biases may exist inadvertently.
- I do often tell producers to “show me the best 2 wines” or something similar, so I am probably getting a better experience than someone who just says “saperavi, please”.
- The tasting environment of a busy event is not ideal and some factors affect the tasting:
- Environmental odors – from people walking around with coffee to strong perfume etc. Pine trees and forest smells.
- Full rinsing of glasses between every tasting was impractical, though we tried as best as possible.
We tasted the majority of producers across 2 days of events, but definitely not all.
We did not taste every wine from each vendor we tried.
So, we definitely will have missed some excellent wines. But from what we did taste, we hope you will enjoy discovering some of the below which we gave upper category ratings.
Ratings are based on Balance / Length / Intensity / Complexity and Style (ie. how they fit within the category of the style/intention of the wine). A “very good” rating would be made when 3 to 4 of these criteria have been met successfully. Some consideration is given to young wines that have the potential to arrive at this level in an expected timeframe of aging.
There are many more wine festivals coming soon, and we will publish our favorites for those too. Check out reviews from Zero Compromise (2nd/3rd May 2025) | New Wine Festival 2025 | Bolnisi PDO Festival | More wine festival reviews are coming soon!
Sparkling Wine Festival Mtatsminda (Underwheel Club) Tbilisi (Sat 21st June 2025)
64 wines (inc. 1 cider) from 24 wineries tasted.
In order of which I did the tastings, not in order of preference.
This was a small festival featuring about 30 producers from around Georgia with the focus on sparkling wines. I actually managed to taste almost every wine at the whole show, with the exception of repeats that I’ve already tasted at other wine shows this season. So, on this rare occasion, I have a pretty complete picture of what was on offer. But do check back to our reviews of Zero compromise etc. Producers like “Nagutnebi” who were at Zero Compromise as well as Gurian Wine Festival and make excellent wines.
Most wines below achieved “very good” or better. But I’ve also Included a few that were on the cusp from good to very good and also deserved a mention. My “personal top picks” are wines I felt were the best, but also wines I personally liked to my preferred taste.
- Agidela – Chinuri / Goruli Mtsvane Pet Nat 2024
- Margaliti
- Chinuri / Goruli Mtsvane Brut (Charmat Method) Non Vintage (but 2024/23)
- Chinuri / Goruli Mtsvane / Saperavi Budeshuri Semi Sweet (Charmat Method) Non Vintage (but 2024/23)
- Shumi – “Shobili” blend of 151 grapes from their museum collection 2018 (Qvevri + 24 months on lees)
- Nikifore
- Mtsvane Manavi Pet Nat 2024
- Tavkveri Pet Nat 2024
- Mtsvane Manavi 2024 (Traditional Method)
- Nino’s Wines (Archil Guniava) – Mgaloblishvili Pet Nat 2024
- Iases Marani
- Rkatsiteli Semi-Sweet Pet Nat 2020 – Personal Top Pick
- Buera Dry Pet Nat 2024
- Lagvani – Kisi / Mtsvane / Saperavi (5%) Rosé Pet Nat 2023 – Personal Top Pick
- Papa’s Vineyard – Kisi (Akhmeta) Pet Nat 2023
- Lechkumi Seafloor Vineyard
- Tsolikouri 2020 (Traditional Method, 4 years on lees) – Honorable Mention (issue with disgorging meant a lot of gas was lost, but this has clear potential with proper disgorging)
- Tsolikouri / Ojaleshi (20%) 2020 (Traditional Method, 4 years on lees)
- Gvantsa’s Wines (Baia’s wines) – Tsitska Pet Nat 2024
- Uplistsikhe Estate
- Chinuri / Goruli Mtsvane Brut (Traditional Method 2 years lees) 2022
- Chinuri / Goruli Mtsvane / Pinot Noir (5%) Brut (Traditional Method 2 years lees) 2022
- Vakevisa – Mtsvane Manavi (Charmat Method) 2024
- Vivere
- Saperavi Pet Nat 2024
- Rkatsiteli (Steel tank, 4 months skins) 2024 (still wine) – Personal Top Pick
- Saperavi (still) 2024
- Terra Kisi – on my assessment, cultural yeast used to enhance various fruit flavors in some wines. Done well, but for some palates maybe you’d find it a little artificial in places.
- Tsistka Pet Nat 2023
- Tsitska / Krakhuna Pet Nat 2022
- Kisi / Mtsvane Pet Nat 2023
- Cabernet Franc Rosé Pet Nat 2023
- Shavkapito 2022 (Traditional. 5 months oak, 18 months lees) – Personal Top Pick
- Rero
- Tsitska Pet Nat 2024
- Otskanuri Sapere Pet Nat 2024 – Personal Top Pick
- Unari
- Rkatsiteli (Shilda) Pet Nat 2024
- Rkatsiteli / Mtsvane / Saperavi (10%) Pet Nat 2024
- Rtvelisi – Saperavi Semi-Dry (Traditional Method) Non-Vintage (23/24 mainly)
31 wines, from 17 wineries in the upper category!
Gurian Wine Festival Chokhatauri, Guria (Sat 28th June, 2025)
75 wines from 28 wineries tasted.
The Gurian Wine Festival is one of the smaller local festivals in the lesser known Georgian wine region of Guria, West Georgia, located between Kutaisi and Batumi. Although lesser known in the 21st century (for now!) in the mid-19th century Guria was of much more significant regional importance to wine production. A combination of phylloxera (a louse from the Americas) which destroyed vines across the world in the late 19th century onwards, and also the Soviet Union changing the agricultural focus to tea in the 20th century, means that Guria faced major setbacks as a wine region.
Guria has at least 59 endemic grape varieties, with very few being known outside (or even inside) Georgia in general. Sakmiela, Kamuri, Djani, Bakhua, Kakutura, amongst others, were featured at the Gurian Wine Festival in 2025.
The festival itself (in 2025 anyway) was outside the recently restored historic Eristavi Palace, on a ridge surrounded by trees and views. So, a unique selection of wines, in a wonderful location. The downsides seem to be a lack of coordination in marketing the event – it was not that busy, and even though the official end time was 6pm, most vendors were packing up at 3:30pm. Even though we arrived before the festival even started (before 12pm) we didn’t get to all the winery stalls due to this very short run-time. There were ~43 wineries in attendance.
I hope in future years they can achieve a bit more reach – being an easy drive from Batumi & Kutaisi, I’d think more foreigners as well as locals could make it. As it was, I think there were only about 6 foreigners attending, including us! But this did also make it even more special and authentic. Thanks to the organisers for their hard work putting the event together.
In order of which i did the tastings, not in order of preference.
Most wines below achieved “very good” or better. But I’ve also Included a few that were on the cusp from good to very good and also deserved a mention.
- Sarashvili Family Winery – Chkhaveri 2024
- Jambardize
- Tsitska / Tsolikouri Euro 2024
- Chkhaveri 2024
- Davit Leladze Winery
- Tsitska Euro 2023
- Tsolikouri Euro 2023
- Akaki Khorava
- Tsolikouri 2023 (10% skins) – Personal Top Pick
- Krakhuna 2023
- Dzelshavi 2023
- Blueana
- Krakhuna 2024 Euro
- Tsitska 2024 Euro
- Mirianis Marani
- Dzelshavi Rosé Qvevri 2022
- Otskanuri Sapere Qvevri 2023
- Shotiko Ebanvidzes – Tsitska / Tsolikouri Qvevri 2022
- Bagrati’s Wine
- Tsolikouri Qvevri 2022
- Mgaloblishvili 2022 – Personal Top Pick
- Ojaleshi Sweet 2022
- Guram Tkesheliadze – Sakmiela (white) 2024
- St. Nino’s Monastery (convent) Ozurgeti – Sakmiela 2024
- LELP (The scientific grape research institute in Jigghaura brought wines made from Gurian grapes)
- Kakutura 2024 (white) – Personal Top Pick
- Bakhua 2024 (red) – Personal Top Pick
- Mauri Tetri 2024 (white)
- Xevi
- Sakmiela 2023
- Chkhaveri 2023
- Dolidze
- Otskanuri Sapere 2023
- Krakhuna 2019
- Chkhaveri / Tsitska 2021
- Chkhaveri Chkepi 2019
- Chkhaveri Sweet 2020
28 wines, from 13 wineries in the upper category!
Thanks to The Amazing Winemakers!
TOTAL: 59 Wines from 30 wineries in the upper category across the 2 days.
Congratulations to all the amazing wineries that made it into our upper category ratings. As well as all the other amazing winemakers who continue to make the Georgian wines scene one of the most interesting in the world!
[birdsend form=32499]
