Wine Days festival celebrates winemaking tradition, cuisine across Georgian regions

The newly launched Wine Days festival that celebrates the history and culture of winemaking in Georgia continued over the past weekend in the eastern Kakheti, southern Kvemo Kartli and western Imereti and Samegrelo regions with entertaining events, wine and food tasting and music performances.

In the eastern town of Kvareli the festival was hosted at the Ilia Chavchavadze museum paying homage to the legacy of the public figure and publicist, with visitors invited for wine tasting and a fair. 

• Inaugural Wine Days festival celebrates winemaking traditions, cuisine

Photo: Wine Days/Facebook

Food courts, zones for entertaining activities and a flower corner were arranged in the museum area, with participants offered to take part in baking bread, dipping churchkhela snacks in the main part of their production, distilling the chacha drink, painting ceramics, moulding and painting miniature replicas of qvevri vessels used for storing wine. They were also invited to a guided tour of the wine cellar of the historical figure.

Photos: Wine Days/Facebook

In the town of Gurjaani, visitors were hoste at Akhtala Park to theatre performances and a culinary show where visiting chefs held masterclasses in preparing traditional Georgian dishes. The festival grounds were split into zones including a gastronomy space, areas for a handicraft fair, a wine tasting session and a space for grape-crushing in a winepress.

President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili also joined the festival in Gurjaani. Photo: Salome Zourabichvili/Facebook

Wine Days were also marked in the historical city of Bolnisi in the south, where the Culture and Recreation Park hosted the public in wine tasting sessions, events celebrating Georgian cuisine, masterclasses in ceramic painting and an educational exhibition on the 8,000 years of winemaking on the territory of Georgia.

Photo: Wine Days/Facebook

On the closing day of the festival on Sunday, spaces set up in the town of Akhmeta, Baghdati and the city of Zugdidi were the attractions of the festival.

Akhmeta Forest Park and Springs hosted the celebrations with the interactive exhibition on ancient drinking vessels, while also receiving visitors to the customary wine tasting and fair events.

Photo: Wine Days/Facebook

In Baghdati, the festival took place on a square adjacent to the city hall, where guests could taste wine produced in the western Imereti region. They also enjoyed a Georgian supra feast accompanied by urban songs, and visited a souvenir corner set up for the festival.

Photos: Wine Days/Facebook

In Zugdidi, the western city’s Botanical Garden hosted a secret amateur wine tasting competition, along with the rest of the activities and events of the general festival programme. The historical Dadiani Palace estate in the city later saw the closing of the festival with a gala concert.

Photo: Wine Days/Facebook

Initiated by prime minister Irakli Garibashvili, Wine Days will become an annual festival celebrating winemaking across the regions of the country.