Rtveli Harvest Community Week
Seven days inside the Kakhetian vintage, from vine to qvevri
Rtveli is not a festival staged for visitors; it is the working heart of the Kakhetian year, and for one week you are part of it. Based in a restored townhouse in Telavi, you spend your mornings in the rows alongside the family and neighbours of Okro Qvevri Estate, picking rkatsiteli and saperavi by hand. Afternoons move to the marani, where grapes are pressed and the juice goes into buried clay qvevri, the same method Georgians have used across some 8,000 documented vintages. Evenings belong to the table: long suppers, toasts led by a tamada, and amber wines drawn from last year’s vessels. Between harvest days there is time for Sighnaghi’s walled terraces, Alaverdi Cathedral, and quiet tastings with winemakers who rarely open their cellars. The week ends as every rtveli should — with a full harvest supra, polyphonic song included.
Rtveli — The Vintage
This journey is timed around Rtveli — The Vintage — Family marani across Kakheti.
See the 2026 calendarThe programme.
Arrival in Telavi
Private transfer from Tbilisi over the Gombori Pass into Kakheti. Settle into a restored nineteenth-century townhouse in Telavi, then walk the old town beneath its 900-year-old plane tree. A first dinner at the estate introduces the family, the wines, and the week’s rhythm.
First Morning in the Rows
An early start in the rkatsiteli rows at Okro Qvevri Estate, picking alongside the household and their neighbours. A field breakfast of fresh bread, cheese, and tomatoes arrives mid-morning. After lunch, the day’s harvest is weighed, sorted, and crushed, and you taste juice straight from the press.
Into the Qvevri
The marani takes over: must, skins, stems, and pips go together into buried clay qvevri, the technique inscribed by UNESCO and practised here for millennia. The winemaker explains fermentation, punching down, and the long winter the wine spends underground. Evening tasting of amber wines at varying ages.
Alaverdi and the Monks’ Cellar
A rest day from picking. Drive to Alaverdi Cathedral, an eleventh-century landmark on the Alazani plain, where monastic winemaking continues in a working cellar. Continue to Telavi Amber Cellars for a comparative tasting of skin-contact styles, then an unhurried supper back in town.
Saperavi Harvest Day
Back in the vineyard for saperavi, Kakheti’s deep-skinned red grape, picked later and handled differently from the whites. Afternoon in the marani sealing earlier qvevri with stone lids and beeswax. As the light goes, the family lights the tone oven and bakes shotis puri for dinner.
Sighnaghi and the Harvest Supra
Morning in Sighnaghi, the walled hill town overlooking the Alazani Valley toward the Caucasus, with time for its small museum and ramparts. Return for the closing harvest supra at Keto Supra House: a long table, a practised tamada, polyphonic singing, and the week’s work in every glass.
Departure via the Gombori Pass
A slow breakfast and a final walk through the vines, with time to arrange shipping for any wines reserved during the week. Private transfer back over the Gombori Pass to Tbilisi, arriving by early afternoon for onward flights or extended stays in the capital.
- Six nights in a restored Telavi townhouse, twin or double
- All meals from dinner on day one to breakfast on day seven, with estate wines
- Full participation in the rtveli harvest and qvevri cellar work at Okro Qvevri Estate
- Guided tastings at Telavi Amber Cellars and Alaverdi Cathedral’s monastic cellar
- Closing harvest supra with tamada and polyphonic singers at Keto Supra House
- Private transfers from and to Tbilisi, and all ground transport in Kakheti
- English-speaking host throughout the week
- International flights to and from Tbilisi
- Personal travel and medical insurance
- Visa fees where applicable
- Wine purchases and shipping beyond scheduled tastings
- Gratuities for hosts, drivers, and singers
- Pre- or post-tour accommodation in Tbilisi
Levan Tsiklauri
Local Host, Kakheti · Georgian, English
Levan grew up in a winemaking family outside Telavi, where the rhythm of the year still runs from pruning to rtveli. As a host he offers exactly that life, at full scale: harvest days in the family rows, qvevri opened in the cellar his grandfather dug, bread from the tone oven, and a supra table at which he serves as a patient, occasionally mischievous tamada. He hosts the harvest and supra weeks in Kakheti, and guests tend to leave with standing invitations they later discover were sincere.
Certified venues on this journey.
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