Cradle of Wine — Attraction in Sighnaghi

We arrived not sure what to expect, but we were combined in a group with 6 other people, all from other countries. Although we did not think of doing this in a group, it was nice to meet the others. However, I did feel a but uncomfortable with some of the owner his way of doing the group wine tasting. As an example, he asked everybody to (one by one) stand up and make a toast. If we would say something like I'm not sure what to say, he would let one of the other group members "check if you had a heart" using the septhoscope. Nobody wanted to do a toast but felt the pressure to do so anyway (it was not really voluntary..). Also, after tasting the wine he let's everybody hold their glasses upside down and no drops should fall (meaning you finished all the wine). One lady did have a drop fall on the table and he told her to lick it off the table. She didnt, but this is not my kind of humor. We feel he did not really teach us much about the actual wine of the region (grapes etc), it seemed to include more storytelling with anecdotes. I think it's very personal whether you will like this wine tasting, as a more down to earth person I think it would be less fun(ny).

On a positive note: we did like it when we went downstairs to see the qvevri's!! How big they are and what these kinds of wine cellars look like :) Again: this is a very subjective review but good to also read before attending, the others in the group seemed to...

If you come to Sighnaghi, you absolutely cannot miss this place. My girlfriend and I attended a tasting with Levan in early October. Organisation of the activity was really easy. I called Paul and he quickly got back to us and accommodated our timings - speaking to Paul was like speaking to an old friend. At the tasting, Levan created the most buoyant atmosphere I have experienced in my time at Georgia. Levan’s English is not perfect but he went above and beyond to keep us informed and entertained. He’s an exceptional host with a real warmth. The wines were all very different but exceptional! My only negative was that eventually we had to leave! We had a brilliant time and we will be visiting Sighnaghi again just to come back here. Thanks so much...

I’m sure if Paul has been there this would have been a very different experience. I’m reviewing my experience without him present - so maybe if you call up and make sure he is there then it would still be worth going as when we spoke on the phone with him he seemed great. However, unfortunately he wasn’t there when we went so we paid 30 GEL to sit and look at a nice view and have a few wines poured into glasses with no explanation of what they were or what we were drinking. There was no insight into how the wines were made, or how they should taste or what they go well with, which is what we were expecting from a wine tasting experience. We were disappointed as we’d heard great things...