15 Best Wine Tastings in Tbilisi

Some Tbilisi wine tastings happen while you shop. This one is the thing you turn up for, and it's guided the whole way, in a 17th-century underground cellar off Vertskhli Street. A host works through handcrafted qvevri wines and reds, explains how the fermentation happens and puts a cheese board on the table beside the glasses. Wine tasting takes 487 mentions in the review topics and the winemaking process another 107, which is the ratio of pouring to talking. It's open 11 AM to 11 PM daily, and the listing asks you to reserve.

A tasting doesn't always mean a booking and a row of glasses waiting for you. Here it means the consultant opening something while you decide, in a 2-floor shop on Tsinamdzghvrishvili Street with the bottles upstairs and homemade wine in vats down in the cellar. Google files the place under quick visits, and that's the rhythm of it: say what you usually drink, taste what comes back, leave with it. 1,700 reviews hold it at 4.9, and it's open 10 AM to 9 PM every day of the week.

Tastings here happen at a table rather than over a counter, and they happen late. This is the Vake branch of the wine shop and bar, on Irakli Abashidze Street, where the staff work a tasting table and keep pouring samples until you land on something. Google marks it for solo dining and for groups, with table service either way, and puts a visit at 30 to 70 GEL. It's open 11 AM to 1 AM daily and takes bookings through its own site.

The tasting here comes in sizes, and you pick one before the first pour. A 3-glass set is the short version, a 5-wine set with chacha the long one, and every glass arrives with its region, its grape and how it was fermented. It's a small bar and shop on Sioni Street carrying the name of Georgian winemaker Nino Meris. One reviewer who asked what amber wine was got told the explanation came inside a tasting package, so turn up planning to taste rather than to sip. Open 11 AM to 12:30 AM daily.

The tasting here costs nothing, which the listing says outright: a wine shop with free wine tasting and a wide choice. It happens in the shop while you browse, with the owner opening bottles and keeping them open until something lands. Wine tasting takes 50 mentions in the review topics, knowledgeable staff 23 and the friendly owner 15. One reviewer counts about 200 Georgian producers on the shelves. It's on Jan Shardeni Street and open 11 AM to 12:30 AM every day, so a late tasting is on.

This is the one you book before you go: the Google listing marks appointments as required, and the courses sit on the website. What you get is an hour in a family-owned cellar off Anton Purtseladze Street, where the owners pour their own wine next to bottles from small Georgian producers. Reviewers report the hour running long, with the host still pouring past 90 minutes, so don't schedule anything tight behind it. It's open 11 AM to 11 PM daily and holds a 5 from 105 reviews.

Small enough that a tasting here means you, whoever is behind the counter and whatever gets opened next. It's a wine shop and bar on Erekle Tatishvili Street, with qvevri wine from Kakheti bought straight from the producers and enough seats that you can drink what you taste instead of carrying it away. Snacks come out with the glasses. The catch is the calendar: it's shut on Thursdays and Saturdays, opens at 9 AM on Mondays and Wednesdays and not until 2 PM on Tuesdays, so check the day before you walk over.

Everything on these shelves is Georgian, and the listing says so plainly: in the shop you find only Georgian wine. It's a small wine bar and shop on Anastasia Eristav-Khoshtaria Street with a tasting table in the middle of it, and the owner opens bottles for you before you commit to one. Natural wines take 11 mentions in the review topics and helpful staff 18. Reviewers say there is no kitchen, so food gets ordered in from elsewhere. Open 1 to 11 PM, and to 12 AM on Fridays and Saturdays.

Wine tasting is the loudest topic in its Google reviews at 14 mentions, which tells you what the room is actually for. Wine Point is a small wine bar and shop on Pavle Ingorokva holding 4.9 from 138 reviews, stocking small, home and artisan wineries from across Georgia. You sit down and get walked through a range of glasses, with the owners telling the little story printed on each label. One reviewer in April was guided through a tasting at what they call a very reasonable price. It's open 1 to 11 PM daily, and dogs are welcome.

The tasting here runs a glass at a time, and you hand the staff the job of picking what comes next. Kancellaria is a natural wine bar on Pavle Ingorokva flagged by Google for its wine list, 4.8 from 193 reviews, and wine recommendations is a review topic of its own at 7 mentions. The room is small, casual and trendy, seating is limited and dogs are allowed. Come here when the tasting is meant to turn into dinner rather than end at the counter. It's open 4 PM to 1 AM, 2 AM on Friday and Saturday, and it takes bookings.

Tastings here are private and by reservation only, and the listing says it outright: this is not a restaurant and not a tourist stop. Gvazi is a family winery in Okrokana, 6 km from the centre and, by one reviewer's reckoning, practically underneath the Mtatsminda cable car. A session works through qvevri wines and modern sparkling with Megrelian dishes on the same table, and the winemaking gets explained as you go. Peaceful atmosphere is its loudest review topic at 24 mentions. Book before you set off, because there's no walking in.

A shop that lets you taste before you buy is a different proposition from a booked flight, and this is the first kind. Dionysus sits on Aleksandr Pushkin Street a few steps from Freedom Square, 4.8 from 178 reviews, and its own description sells the tasting as the reason to walk in. You'll get the recommendation across the counter instead of a printed tasting menu. Come here when you want a bottle for a gift or for a table later and would rather try it first. It's open from 1 PM until 11:55 PM on weekdays and 11 PM at weekends.

Tasting here happens across the counter or at a table out on the street, not at a seat you booked. Vinissimo is a wine bar and shop on Ioane Shavteli in the Old Town, 4.8 from 166 reviews, and it pours qvevri wine by the glass, which the wine shops on the same blocks mostly won't. Sommelier and cosy place are both review topics, and outdoor seating takes 4 mentions. Come in the afternoon and take one of the tables out front: it runs 12 PM to 12 AM daily, so this one doesn't need an evening.

Know the shape of it before you walk in: this is a producer's own shop, and the tasting runs to the 3 or 4 draft wines rather than the bottled list. Winery Khareba is on Shota Rustaveli Avenue, 4.7 from 370 reviews, and the range is built on indigenous grapes, from Saperavi and Rkatsiteli out to Usakhelouri and Aleksandrouli. Consultations take 4 mentions in the review topics and the staff speak English, so you can arrive without a plan. It's open 10 AM to 9 PM every day, so this is a morning stop as much as an evening one.

The selection is the tasting here: 3 childhood friends spent 6 months across Kakheti and Imereti, worked through more than 400 wines and came back with nearly 40 labels. Krebuli is a small natural wine bar on Lado Asatiani rated 5 from 78 reviews, with wine selection its loudest review topic at 19 mentions. There's a guidebook on the table to steer you through what's open, so you can order without knowing a single producer. It opens at 5 PM and runs to 1 AM, or 3 AM on Friday and Saturday.