Tsinandali Palace - birthplace of European-style Georgian wine

The historic estate of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, father of modern Georgian winemaking. In the 1830s, he introduced European techniques while preserving qvevri traditions. Alexandre Dumas visited in 1858 and wrote about the wines. Beautiful English-style gardens.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Stand in the Garden Where Griboyedov Fell in Love History · Free

   The 18-hectare English-style park that Dumas called the Garden of Eden — and where the most tragic love story in Georgian history began.

   Where: Walk the main garden paths of the Tsinandali Estate (free entry to the park grounds; the palace and cellar require tickets). The garden wraps around the palace — enter from the estate gate and follow the winding paths toward the pond and gazebos.

   What: In 1828, the Russian diplomat and playwright Alexander Griboyedov walked these same paths and met 16-year-old Nino Chavchavadze, the daughter of the prince who owned this estate. They married at Tbilisi's Sioni Cathedral. Within months, Griboyedov was on a diplomatic mission to Tehran — and was torn to pieces by a mob that stormed the Russian embassy. Nino wore black for the rest of her life. Alexandre Dumas visited 30 years later, stood in this same garden, and called it the Garden of Eden. The park was so unusual in Georgia that Chavchavadze had to import landscape architects from Europe to build it — planting Ginkgo Biloba, Cryptomeria japonica, and Magnolia grandiflora at a time when no Georgian had ever seen such trees.

   How: Start at the main gate, walk the ponds, and find the oldest trees (look for the Ginkgo Biloba — its fan-shaped leaves are unmistakable). The Greater Caucasus Mountains are visible to the north on clear days. This garden is where three of the 19th century's greatest minds — Pushkin, Lermontov, and Dumas — all stood and drank wine within 40 years of each other. Budget at least 45 minutes before entering the palace.

   Backup: If the main gardens are crowded, the back orchard paths near the vineyard rows are quieter and offer the clearest mountain views.

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2. 2 Decode the Room Where Shamil's Raiders Burned the Library History · Price: low

   The Chavchavadze House-Museum holds 19,628 artifacts from a family that hosted Pushkin, Lermontov, and Dumas — and then lost everything in one catastrophic morning.

   Where: Chavchavadze House-Museum, Tsinandali Estate. Tickets: 10 GEL standard entry, or 12 GEL including one glass of wine at the Old Winery tasting centre. Children under 6 free.

   What: July 2, 1854. Prince David Chavchavadze — Alexander's son and the new owner — was away on military business. Only women, children, and servants were at home. Then 10,000 soldiers sent by Imam Shamil arrived. They kidnapped 23 women and children, burned the palace and the library that had hosted Pushkin and Dumas, and ransacked the estate. The hostages — including Princess Anna Chavchavadze and her children — were held for nine months in a mountain fortress in Dagestan. Their release cost Shamil his captive son Jamal al-Din, plus 40,000 silver rubles. David Chavchavadze reportedly died in poverty after taking on the debt. What you're walking through today is a carefully restored reconstruction — the original building the poets visited was ash.

   How: Ask the guide to show you the section dedicated to renowned guests (Dumas, Pushkin, Lermontov, Griboyedov) — there are portraits, manuscripts, and correspondence. In the main halls: look for the 18th-century manuscripts and the French-language editions that survived the raid (they had been elsewhere). Find the room with the epistolary archive — letters to and from the literary giants who made this their Georgian salon.

   Backup: If guides are fully booked for English tours, self-guided entry is included in the ticket and the room labels are in English. Audio guides available at the entrance desk.

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3. 3 Taste the Wine That Chavchavadze Invented Before France Had Classified Bordeaux Wine · Price: low

   Tsinandali PDO white — the benchmark Georgian dry white, born in the 1830s, first labeled in 1886. The wine that Dumas drank here. Rkatsiteli backbone, Mtsvane floral lift, Caucasus minerality.

   Where: Old Winery Tasting Centre on the Tsinandali Estate grounds — a separate low stone building from the museum. Included with the 12 GEL museum+wine ticket, or order a tasting flight of 5 wines directly. The estate also pours at the Radisson Collection hotel restaurant on-site.

   What: You're drinking the wine that changed Georgian winemaking forever. Before Prince Chavchavadze, ALL Georgian white wine was qvevri amber — months of skin contact in buried clay vessels, producing tannic, oxidative, deep-amber wines. Chavchavadze stripped the skins off. Barrel-fermented the juice clean. Bottled it. Suddenly Georgia had a pale, aromatic, crisp dry white that could travel to Paris and St Petersburg. The Tsinandali blend: minimum 85% Rkatsiteli (backbone, citrus, acidity, slight tannin even in white wine) + up to 15% Mtsvane Kakhuri (floral, aromatic lift, softness). The wine has tasting notes of white peach, herbal lift, citrus, with a long mineral finish. In 1892, Tsinandali wines won top scores at the International Exhibition in Chicago. The label didn't exist until 1886 — but the wine in the bottles in that cellar predates it by decades.

   How: Ask the pourer for the estate's own Tsinandali white, not just a generic Kakheti white. The estate makes both styles — European and traditional. For the full contrast, request to taste the amber/qvevri wine back-to-back with the Tsinandali white: same grapes, opposite methods, completely different wines. That's 8,000 years of winemaking history in two glasses.

   Backup: If the tasting centre is closed (check hours at tsinandali.ge), the hotel restaurant pours Tsinandali estate wines by the glass at the bar.

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4. 4 Descend Into the Cellar That Holds Georgia's Oldest Bottled Wine Wine · Price: moderate

   The underground Oenotheque: 16,500 bottles from 1814 to today. No modern climate control — pure 19th-century engineering holds it at constant temperature. The 1841 Saperavi is in there.

   Where: The historic underground cellar beneath the Tsinandali Estate winery building — separate from the modern Radisson Collection facilities. Guided cellar tours are offered through the estate; book at the museum desk or tsinandaliestate.ge. Included in some guided tour packages; also bookable via WineTourism.com.

   What: The oldest bottle in this cellar is a Polish Honey wine from **1814** — from before the battle of Waterloo, before Georgia was formally absorbed into the Russian Empire. The oldest bottled Georgian wine is the **1841 Saperavi**, bottled right in this cellar by Chavchavadze's team. The collection spans 70 wine varieties across over 16,500 bottles. What makes the engineering remarkable: the underground chambers maintain constant temperature and humidity with no modern HVAC — the depth and stone construction alone regulate the climate, exactly as Chavchavadze designed it in the 1830s. You're walking through what was then the most sophisticated wine cellar east of Vienna.

   How: Take the guided cellar tour — the guide will walk you past the oldest sections. Ask them to point to the 19th-century bottles still in their original positions (rows of 19th-century vintages are visible behind glass). The lighting is dim and dramatic; let your eyes adjust. Note the stone arched ceilings — this is Caucasian masonry from the 1830s, still sound. If you're a hotel guest at the Radisson Collection, ask about exclusive access to the private Oenotheque tasting — a more intimate session with the historian-sommelier.

   Backup: If cellar tours are fully booked, the winery production facility (adjacent) offers a surface-level tour of current production and includes tastings. Full underground access is also included in most day-tour packages from Telavi and Tbilisi.

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5. 5 Watch Sunset Over the Alazani Valley From the Palace Terrace Adventure · Free

   The Caucasus Mountains to the north, the Alazani Valley stretching 200 km to the Azerbaijani border, and a glass of Tsinandali white in your hand. This is the view that made Dumas cry.

   Where: The upper terrace of the palace complex, facing north-northeast toward the Greater Caucasus ridge. No ticket required after museum hours — the terrace and garden are accessible as part of the free grounds. Best time: 30-60 minutes before sunset (which runs 19:30-20:30 in summer months).

   What: You are standing at 560 meters above sea level on the northeastern slope of the Gombori Ridge. To the north: the Greater Caucasus — the same mountains that Lermontov wrote poems about, the same ridgeline that Shamil's 10,000 raiders crossed on the night of July 2, 1854. Below you: the Alazani Valley, 200 km long, 40 km wide, the floor of Georgia's wine country. The river you can see (or trace in the haze) is the Alazani — it marks the Georgian-Azerbaijani border in the distance. Every vineyard you see produces either Rkatsiteli or Saperavi — the two grapes that have grown in this valley for over 8,000 years. The Caucasus were the original Alpine wine mountains — before Burgundy, before Champagne, before anyone in France put wine in a barrel, this valley was already producing wine.

   How: Bring a bottle of Tsinandali white from the tasting centre (they'll give you a glass). Find the terrace bench facing north. Stay until the mountains catch the last light — the snow caps on the high peaks glow gold/pink at dusk. The Alaverdi Monastery cathedral (55 meters tall, visible in the valley below) catches the last light too: look northeast.

   Backup: If cloud cover obscures the mountains, the garden paths behind the palace still offer elevation and vineyard views. The late-evening garden walk (when day visitors have left) is genuinely peaceful — and the Ginkgo trees are particularly dramatic in the twilight.

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Insider tips

• Book the premium wine collection tasting for library wines

• The estate includes a beautiful English-style garden worth exploring

• Visit the house museum for cultural context on Georgian aristocracy