Georgian Grape Varieties: What to Order in Tbilisi

Of all the things Georgian wine is known for, the grapes are the part you can order by name, and there are a lot of them. The national tourism administration counts 525 native vine varieties, spread across every wine region from Kakheti in the east to Adjara on the Black Sea.

Region	Native varieties	Grapes from there on this page
Kakheti	80	Saperavi, Rkatsiteli, Kisi, Mtsvane Kakhuri, Khikhvi
Imereti	74	Tsolikouri, Tsitska, Krakhuna, Otskhanuri Sapere
Kartli	72	Chinuri, Goruli Mtsvane, Tavkveri, Shavkapito
Samegrelo	60	Ojaleshi
Guria	59	None here
Adjara	53	None here
Abkhazia	51	None here
Racha-Lechkhumi	50	Aleksandrouli, Mujuretuli, Usakhelouri, and Tsolikouri for Tvishi
Samtskhe-Javakheti	26	None here

Only a few dozen of them are bottled commercially. The 17 below are the ones worth knowing: the 2 you'll see on almost any list, 3 more Kakheti whites you'll meet as amber wine, and a dozen from Kartli and western Georgia that are worth asking for by name.

Saperavi is the one red you'll find on almost any Georgian wine list, and you can spot it in the glass. It's one of the few grapes with red flesh as well as red skin, which is why the National Wine Agency translates the name as "something to color with" and why the wine comes out close to opaque.

Expect dark berries, liquorice, tobacco and spice, with firm tannin and high acidity, at 12 to 14% alcohol. It's Georgia's most planted red, and it's made in every style the country has, from dry to sweet and fortified, in a qvevri or in oak.

Dry or semi-sweet: the choice that matters

The name on the list tells you which Saperavi you're getting. Mukuzani and Napareuli are dry, while Kindzmarauli and Akhasheni are semi-sweet and made to drink within 1 to 2 years of bottling; a serious dry Saperavi can age for 10 years or more.

Dry Saperavi is the bottle for a plate of mtsvadi off the grill, where the tannin has some fat to work on. In Tbilisi, one reviewer at WineCode took a Saperavi on the sommelier's say-so, and one at Wine Boutique called a 2022 bottle balanced, with no extra acidity or tannin.

Rkatsiteli covered 43% of Georgia's vineyards in 2014, about 20,000 hectares, which makes it the country's most planted grape of either colour. The name means "red stem", from rka, the vine cane, and tsiteli, red.

It ripens late, in early October, and holds on to its acidity, so it works 2 ways. Made the European way, off the skins, it's a crisp white of citrus, quince and apple; left on its skins in a qvevri it turns amber and moderately tannic, with honey, dried orange peel and apricot.

On a list, Tsinandali means at least 85% Rkatsiteli, and Gurjaani and Vazisubani are Rkatsiteli appellations too. What's left after pressing, the skins and pips, is what chacha is distilled from, and 2 of the chachas Chacha Time's Instagram featured in September 2026 name Rkatsiteli among their grapes.

These 3 Kakheti whites grow alongside Rkatsiteli and, like it, come 2 ways: crisp in the European style or amber from a qvevri. Kisi is the one to start with as amber wine, where months on its skins give it apricot, mango, orange and walnut.

Kisi

Kisi was almost extinct by 2000, squeezed out by the Soviet preference for Rkatsiteli, and in 2004 Georgia had just 20 hectares of it, 18 of them in Akhmeta. It's being replanted, it got its own appellation, Kisi Magraani, in 2021, and made the European way it's floral, with pear, citrus and green tea.

In Tbilisi it turns up in reviews at several of the wine shops and bars on our lists. At Badagoni on Freedom Square, one reviewer was introduced to Kisi by the staff's wine expert over dinner.

Mtsvane Kakhuri

Mtsvane Kakhuri, usually just Mtsvane on a list, means "green Kakheti" and is one of 6 different Mtsvane grapes in Georgia, thought by the National Wine Agency to be older than Rkatsiteli. The European style gives white peach, citrus and a light mineral edge; the qvevri pushes it darker, towards apricot and stone fruit.

Manavi on a list means Mtsvane on its own, and Mtsvane is also the up to 15% of Tsinandali that isn't Rkatsiteli. One reviewer's pick at 144 Stairs, a rooftop 144 steps up, is the white Mtsvane with the khinkali in cream sauce.

Khikhvi

Khikhvi grows on the right bank of the Alazani and gives a softer white, moderate in alcohol and gentle in acidity, that smells of boxwood and wild flowers with ripe yellow fruit and apricot. The qvevri brings out dried fruit and flowers, and it's also made semi-sweet, sweet and fortified, as part of Kardenakhi.

Grape	European style, off the skins	Qvevri style, amber
Rkatsiteli	Citrus, quince, apple, a little floral	Honey, dried orange peel, apricot, spice, some tannin
Mtsvane Kakhuri	White peach, citrus, tropical fruit, light mineral	Darker, towards apricot and stone fruit
Kisi	Pear, citrus, green tea, floral	Apricot, mango, lime, orange, walnut
Khikhvi	Boxwood, wild flowers, ripe yellow fruit	Dried fruit and flowers
Chinuri	Mint, pear, herbs, floral	Muskier and tannic, dried pear and apricot

Kartli, the region around Gori, west of Tbilisi, is known for European-style and sparkling wine. Its white to know, Chinuri, tastes of mint, pear and herbs, comes still or sparkling, and probably takes its name from chinebuli, "excellent".

Chinuri is the base of Atenuri, Georgia's sparkling appellation, which may also take Goruli Mtsvane, Kartli's other white. At Italian Pasta, one reviewer found the Chinuri more refreshing and easier to drink than the Rkatsiteli poured beside it.

Kartli's reds are the answer when Saperavi feels like too much. Tavkveri, "hammerhead" for the flat top of its berry, makes a middle-weight dry red of bright cherry and herbs with an earthy edge, and its flowers are functionally female, so growers plant it beside Chinuri or Goruli Mtsvane.

Tavkveri is rare, with just 29 hectares in 2004, and it also turns up as rosé and sparkling. Shavkapito, the other Kartli red, is made as a dry red or a rosé.

Imereti, in western Georgia, does qvevri wine its own way. The qvevri there is called a churi, the winemaker adds at most a third of the skins instead of all of them, and the wine comes off them after about 2 months, which the National Wine Agency says gives a yellow, full, harmonious white.

Tsolikouri grows in Imereti and in Racha-Lechkhumi, where it makes Tvishi, a naturally semi-sweet white, and it's made dry as well. Tsitska makes dry and sparkling whites, and Krakhuna dry whites.

The National Wine Agency names Imereti's famous wines as Sviri Krakhuna, Obchuri Tsolikouri and Kvalituri Tsitska. Sviri is also an appellation that blends all 3 grapes.

Start with Khvanchkara, because it looks like a grape on a list and isn't one: it's a place. It's a small zone in Ambrolauri, in Racha, on both banks of the Rioni, and its rules allow only 2 grapes, Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli, made naturally semi-sweet with 30 to 45 g/l of sugar.

The 2 are distinct varieties with a common ancestor, and Mujuretuli is mostly planted in among the Aleksandrouli. It's also rare: 58 hectares in 2004, all of them in Ambrolauri.

Grape	Where it grows	Appellation	Worth knowing
Aleksandrouli	Racha, along the Rioni	Khvanchkara	One of Khvanchkara's 2 grapes, and also made dry
Mujuretuli	Ambrolauri, Racha	Khvanchkara	58 hectares in 2004, grown in among the Aleksandrouli
Ojaleshi	Samegrelo	Salkhino Ojaleshi, 2020	A late harvest on the coast, from November and sometimes to the end of January
Otskhanuri Sapere	Imereti	Sazanos Otskhanuri, 2025	Georgia's newest appellation, registered on 30 Sep 2025
Usakhelouri	Lechkhumi	Okureshis Usakhelouri, 2022	One of Lechkhumi's most notable wines, says the National Wine Agency

Grapes this rare are where the natural wine bars and the small wine shops earn their keep, so ask there rather than scanning a restaurant list. Usakhelouri has enough of a name that a restaurant by the Abanotubani baths is named after it, and its own listing calls Usakhelouri historically the most famous Georgian wine.

Much of the confusion on a Georgian wine list comes from names like Kindzmarauli and Mukuzani, which aren't grapes at all. They're protected appellations, villages or small zones with rules on which grapes go in and how sweet the wine can be, and the National Wine Agency's register lists more than 30 of them.

Name on the list	Grape	What's in the glass
Mukuzani	Saperavi	Dry red, no more than 4 g/l of sugar; if aged, at least 6 months in wood
Napareuli	Saperavi	Dry red
Kindzmarauli	Saperavi	Naturally semi-sweet red, 18 to 45 g/l of sugar
Akhasheni	Saperavi	Semi-sweet red
Khvanchkara	Aleksandrouli and Mujuretuli	Naturally semi-sweet red, 30 to 45 g/l of sugar
Tsinandali	At least 85% Rkatsiteli, up to 15% Mtsvane	Dry white, no more than 4 g/l of sugar
Manavi	Mtsvane Kakhuri	Dry white
Kisi Magraani	Kisi	Dry white, or dry amber left on its skins until 1 February
Kardenakhi	Mostly Rkatsiteli, sometimes with Mtsvane or Khikhvi	Fortified white
Tvishi	Tsolikouri	Naturally semi-sweet white
Sviri	Tsitska, Tsolikouri and Krakhuna	Imeretian white
Atenuri	Chinuri, sometimes with Goruli Mtsvane	Sparkling white

The grape name on its own tells you less than it seems, since Saperavi and Rkatsiteli come dry, semi-sweet, amber or fortified. When a list gives only the grape, ask whether it's dry and whether it's from the qvevri, and you'll know what's coming.

The quickest way in is to start from what you already like. Each match below comes from the tasting notes on this page, so use it for your first glass and let the bar steer the second.

If you like	Order	Why
Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah	Dry Saperavi, Mukuzani or Napareuli	Dark fruit, firm tannin, high acidity
A lighter red	Tavkveri	Middle-weight, bright cherry and herbs
A sweeter red	Kindzmarauli or Khvanchkara	Naturally semi-sweet, 18 to 45 g/l of sugar
Crisp, dry whites	European-style Rkatsiteli, or Tsinandali	Citrus, quince and apple, with acidity
Aromatic whites	Mtsvane, Manavi or Khikhvi	White peach, flowers, softer acidity
Orange or natural wine	Kisi or Rkatsiteli from the qvevri	Months on the skins: apricot, walnut, tannin
Champagne or other fizz	Atenuri, or a sparkling Chinuri	Georgia's sparkling appellation

The easiest way to learn these grapes is a glass at a time in a wine bar, before you commit to a bottle. Don't count on every bottle being open by the glass, though: one reviewer at a winery's bar in the old town was refused the 20 GEL glasses because the bar wouldn't open a whole bottle for 1 pour.

For breadth, book a tasting: it's the cheapest way through half a dozen grapes with someone telling you which is which. For everyday drinking, several wine shops sell draft wine by the litre, and a litre costs about what a single glass does in a wine bar.

What	Price	Where and when
Draft dry Saperavi, 1 litre	10 GEL	Wine Time, 2024
Draft Rkatsiteli, 1 litre	15 GEL	Wine Time, 2023
Draft Kindzmarauli, 1 litre	20 GEL	Wine Time, 2023
Bottle of dry amber wine	30 to 35 GEL	Wine Time, 2024
Bottle of Mtsvane	Under 50 GEL	8000 Vintages, 2026
Glass at a wine bar or shop bar	20 GEL	Dionysus Wine Shop and Chateau Mukhrani Wine Bar, 2026
Tasting, 4 wines	30 GEL	Patara Dzagli, 2026
Tasting, 7 wines	50 GEL	Sancho Wine Bar, 2024