Festival · Tbilisi

Sparkling Wine Festival Tbilisi

Sparkling wine under a Ferris wheel — from a tradition older than Champagne

Under the Ferris wheel at Mtatsminda Park, 32 producers of Georgian sparkling wine pour in a setting no other wine festival can replicate: 770 metres elevation, roller coasters running overhead, Tbilisi glowing below. Atenuri — Georgia's only sparkling PDO, from Chinuri grapes on limestone — was the wine of Georgian kings in the 11th century. It went dormant for 30 years under Soviet rule and was revived in 2019. Pet-nat is called 'Machari' in Georgian: grape must caught mid-fermentation in buried qvevri, a technique that predates Champagne by centuries. Bagrationi 1882 once produced 24 million bottles of Soviet Champagne annually from the same Tbilisi cellars.

What to do there

5 things to do

Where: Tbilisi funicular lower station — a short walk from Rustaveli Metro station, central city. Look for the red funicular building on the slope of Mount Mtatsminda.
What: The festival venue is not accessible by accident. You have to earn it. The funicular climbs 501 metres of Mtatsminda — Tbilisi's Holy Mountain — in 3 minutes, emerging at 770m above sea level with the entire city laid out below. This is the reveal the experience architect in every great travel moment dreams of: the city drops away, the sky appears, and above you, rotating slowly, is an 80-metre Ferris wheel. That is where you are about to drink sparkling wine.
How: Load a 2 GEL reloadable card at the ticket office (required), then pay 10 GEL one-way. Funicular departs every 10 minutes from 09:00 to midnight. Take the first car, not the last — stand at the front window for the moment the trees part and Tbilisi unrolls below you. The Underwheel Club sits directly beneath the Ferris wheel at the summit.
Backup: If the funicular is closed for maintenance, taxis drive up the mountain road (approx. 5-8 GEL). The arrival is less dramatic but the Ferris wheel is still spinning when you step out.

Log Memory
Where: On the festival floor of Underwheel Club. Look specifically for producers from Kartli — they'll be clustered together and their bottles will be notably paler than the amber Kakhetian wines around them.
What: Atenuri is Georgia's only PDO dedicated exclusively to sparkling wine — and it goes back to the 11th century. In the Ateni valley near Gori, monks and kings fermented Chinuri grapes in buried qvevri clay vessels. The sealed clay naturally caught the secondary fermentation, creating effervescent wine the way Champagne wouldn't figure out for another 600 years. Historian Vakhushti Bagrationi called it "Wine of Kings." Then the Soviets came. The tradition went dormant for 30+ years. In 2019, Château Ateni revived the Atenuri PDO — and now it stands at this festival, in a glass, in your hand, under a Ferris wheel.
How: The wine is a blend of Chinuri, Goruli Mtsvane, and Aligoté — grown on limestone and marl soils. Look for green apple, pear, lime zest, and a mineral edge. When you find a Kartli producer, ask: "Atenuri? Chinuri pet-nat?" Your entry includes all tastings and a branded glass. Compare a traditional-method Atenuri against a pet-nat Chinuri — same grape, completely different texture. This is the contrast the whole festival is built around.
Backup: If no Atenuri is present, any Chinuri-based sparkling from Kartli captures the same terroir story. The limestone soil is the character; the wine style is just the vehicle.

Log Memory
Where: Inside the festival, at producers labelling their wines as Pet-Nat or "Machari" — the ancient Georgian word for the moment between grape juice and wine, caught mid-fermentation. Look for Iases Marani, Dakishvili Family, Rero, or Ori Marani.
What: While France was developing méthode Champenoise in the 1600s, Georgian winemakers had been making naturally sparkling wine in buried clay vessels for six centuries. They just called it "wine" — the bubbles were a feature of the vessel, not a method. Today's Pet-Nat category is essentially that same idea: bottle the wine before fermentation finishes, let it complete in bottle, capture the fizz. Georgia has 500+ indigenous grape varieties — one-sixth of all the world's grapes — and most have never been explored for sparkling. The producers at this festival are the ones doing the archaeology. Try Iases Marani's Rkatsiteli Pet-Nat (rated outstanding at the 2025 edition), or Dakishvili's Kisi Pet-Nat — made in batches of 500 to 5,000 bottles, a wine named "The Fox" because in Georgia foxes are good omens.
How: Your entry covers all tastings. Ask each small producer: "Is this Machari?" — it signals you know the tradition. If they light up, you've found someone who'll tell you everything.
Backup: Any pet-nat at the festival tells this story. The grape variety is secondary — the method is the 1,000-year-old revelation.

Log Memory
Where: The Underwheel Club terrace — step through the club's exterior doors, which open onto a panoramic veranda at 770m above Tbilisi. The Ferris wheel turns directly above your head.
What: The festival runs through the afternoon and into evening, which means if you time it right — and you should — you will be standing on a mountain terrace, Georgian sparkling in hand, watching the sun drop behind the Caucasus ridge while the wheel spins above you. The city turns from white to amber to pink below. The Kura River catches the light. You are holding a wine that Georgian kings drank in this same country 1,000 years ago and the Soviets turned into 24 million bottles a year, and now a generation of small producers is reclaiming one bottle at a time.
How: Time your terrace visit for 1.5 hours before sunset — Google Tbilisi June sunset to find the exact time (typically 20:45-21:00 in late June). Don't wait until the light is perfect; you need 15 minutes to find your spot on the railing. Bring your festival glass. The space can get noisy inside, but the terrace clears out as people return for more tastings.
Backup: Even on an overcast evening, the city panorama from 770m is extraordinary. The Ferris wheel is illuminated at night — a different but equally surreal backdrop.

Log Memory
Where: Bagrationi 1882 winery, 12 D. Sarajishvili Ave, Tbilisi — a 10-minute taxi from the funicular base station. Call ahead: +995 322 497 274 or email info@bagrationi.ge. Best visited the morning before the festival or the day after.
What: In 1882, Georgian Prince Ivane Bagrationi-Mukhraneli learned méthode Champenoise and applied it to indigenous Georgian grapes. His sparkling wine won the highest prize at the Moscow International Exhibition that same year. Then came the Soviets: in 1937 they took the winery, renamed it the Tbilisi Factory of Champagne, and scaled it to satisfy 15% of ALL Soviet demand for sparkling wine. At peak production in the 1980s, this building in Tbilisi produced 24 million bottles of "Soviet Champagne" per year. The curved red-carpeted stairways, the palace-scale entrance hall, the massive cellars — all built for an empire's thirst. Today: 2 million bottles, traditional method, same vaulted cellars.
How: Tours are by appointment and typically run 45-60 minutes including a tasting. Budget around 30-50 GEL per person based on comparable Georgian winery tours. The cellars alone — row after row of traditional-method bottles in riddling racks — are worth the trip before you've even opened a bottle.
Backup: If Bagrationi tours are unavailable on your date, Vino Underground (15 Galaktion Tabidze Street, near Freedom Square) stocks Georgian sparkling from small producers at 25-40 GEL per bottle — and the six owners are often behind the bar, ready to explain exactly what you drank at the festival and why it matters.

Log Memory

Insider tips

The setting is SURREAL - under the iconic Ferris Wheel
32 wineries including family-run producers
Champagne, Pet Nat, Charmat styles all represented
Hosted by The Wine Club - quality curated

Sparkling Wine Festival Tbilisi

What to do there

Insider tips

Sources