2026-04-09 · 2 min read
Rtveli: going to Georgia for the harvest
Late September in Kakheti is the best two weeks in the Caucasus and the hardest to book.
Rtveli is the grape harvest, and in Kakheti it is not a festival laid on for visitors — it is two weeks of actual work that the whole region stops for. Families that would normally be closed to strangers are suddenly short-handed and glad of you.
The timing moves
It is driven by sugar levels, not the calendar, so it lands somewhere between the second week of September and the first of October. We book flexible dates and confirm the cellar two weeks out.
Qvevri is the point
Georgian wine is fermented in clay vessels buried to the neck. It has been done this way for eight thousand years and the UNESCO listing is for the method, not the buildings. Ask to see the marani floor before you taste anything.
Book the rooms in April
Sighnaghi and the good guesthouses around Telavi sell out five months ahead for these two weeks. This is the one trip where we will push you to commit early.
