Location: |
Kacheti
(41.936009, 45.833435) |
Open: |
Wine Tunnel:
All year daily 10-18. Restaurant: All year daily 10-23. [2021] |
Fee: | |
Classification: | Cellar |
Light: | Incandescent |
Dimension: | L=7.7 km, T=12-16 °C |
Guided tours: | self guided |
Photography: | allowed |
Accessibility: | no |
Bibliography: | |
Address: |
Khareba Winery, Khareva, Winery Road, Kvareli, Tel: +995-591-91-89-41.
Khareba Winery, Davit Agmashenebeli Alley, 170a 0131, Tbilisi, Tel: +995-555-497770, Tel: +995-322-497770. E-mail: |
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info. |
1962 | cellar opened to the public for the World Wine Congress. |
მეღვინეობა ხარება (Khareba Winery) als known as ყვარლის გვირაბი (Kvareli Wine Tunnel, Kvareli Wine Cave) is a wine cellar which is used for storing wine, but also for tastings and functions. The cellar has a total length of 7.7 km and consists of two main tunnels, which are connected by 13 connecting tunnels. It has two entrances, one is used for the transport of wine, the other is the entrance to the tourist part, and used by the visitors. The cellar exists for some time and has been extended over the years, but it became a tourist destination in 1962. In this year the World Congress of Vine and Wine was held in Georgia, and so the cellar was equipped for wine tasting. This part is the bottled wine cellar, where Winery Khareba stores 26,000 bottles of wine from the last 17 years.
In the entrance there is also a renowned restaurant. It is famous for the highest quality Georgian-European dishes. In front of the cellar is a large recreational park, with a river, ancient pitchers, an old Georgian water mill, a traditional bread bakery, and a chacha pen. Visitors can make a course in distilling ჭაჭა (chacha, grappa) or baking bread in the bakery, cooking churchkhela, grilling barbecue, participating in vintage and crushing grapes.
Georgia is said to an 8,000 years long wine making tradition. The first farming of the grapes Vitis vinifera was here, according to archaeological excavations. The grape growing then spread through Turkey to Europe. The Winery owns 1,500 hectares of land with Georgian and European vines, which are located all over Georgia: in Kakheti, Imereti, Samegrelo, Racha-Lechkhumi. They produce huge amounts of high quality wine using modern technology and huge steel tanks. But they also produce 50 different wines from 7 localities, 25 varieties of vines. Some are a result selective vintage, the best bunches are once again selected in the cellar. They are aged in the Eastern Georgian and Western Georgian method using pitchers or French oak barrels.
The Eastern Georgia vinery ages the vines in the Vachnadziani Cellar, which dates back to the 17th century. The cellar was destroyed by an invader, but was rebuilt in 1877. The wines are sold in 10 different shop all over Georgia, two of them in the capital Tbilisi, where the management is also located. They also export the wine to two dozen countries all over the world.