Giuaani Winery

Sleeping Inside the Winery, Among the Qvevri of Manavi

Manavi is a village of low houses and vine rows in the Sagarejo district, at the western end of Kakheti, and the name carries weight in Georgian wine long before anyone thinks of it as a place to stay. Giuaani has worked here since 1894. The hotel came later, and it was built where there was room on the estate rather than on a plot chosen for a view: two buildings set among the vines, the cellar and the buried qvevri a few steps from the door. The effect is unusual for a wine hotel. You are not visiting the winery in the morning. You are already in it.

Why It Works

Most wine stays in Georgia fall into one of two shapes: a village guesthouse where the wine is homemade and the room is an afterthought, or a large hotel that drives its guests out to cellars. Giuaani is neither. It is a serious producer, working at real volume with both qvevri and modern equipment, that happens to keep a small hotel of its own on site. That combination is what earns the place its listing here. The tasting is not an excursion, the restaurant cooks the region it sits in, and the people pouring are the people making.

Why This Location

Manavi is the first proper wine village on the road east out of Tbilisi, close enough that the estate works as an easy first night rather than a long haul, and far enough that the traffic is gone by the time you arrive. That position matters if you are shaping a Kakheti route: Sagarejo and the cave monasteries of David Gareja lie to the south, the Alazani Valley and Sighnaghi continue east, and Telavi is a comfortable drive further on. The village itself is quiet and residential, with no restaurant strip, which is precisely why the estate keeps its own table. Come with a car or a driver.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Working winery, warm tones, quiet village

• Rooms: Six, across two buildings, garden level rooms below and balcony rooms above

• Best For: Wine travellers, couples on a first night out of Tbilisi, small groups shaping a Kakheti route

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Breakfast laid in the old Kakhetian house at the centre of the estate, rather than in a hotel dining room

• Dining: Estate restaurant cooking Kakhetian dishes, lounge bar, tastings of the house whites, ambers, roses and reds

• Amenities: Cellar and buried qvevri on site, wine tours and tasting programmes, garden, private parking, event spaces, pets accepted

• Attractions: The vineyards and ruined fortress of Manavi, Sagarejo, the David Gareja monastery complex, Sighnaghi, Tbilisi within reach

A Cellar That Runs on Both Clay and Steel

Giuaani makes wine in the two registers that define Georgian production today. Qvevri are buried in the floor of the marani, sealed and left to work as they have in Kakheti for thousands of years, and alongside them the estate runs modern equipment with local and visiting specialists on hand. The range covers whites, ambers, roses, reds and reserve bottlings, with distilling added to the estate's work more recently. For a guest, the practical consequence is choice: a tasting here can move from an amber wine made in clay to a reserve red raised in steel without leaving the property.

Breakfast in the Old Kakhetian House

The estate's table is the part guests remember. Breakfast is served in the old Kakhetian house rather than a hotel dining room, which sets the tone for the day, and the restaurant keeps to the cooking of the region instead of an international menu. The rooms are plain in the good sense: warm tones, a little over twenty square metres, garden views on the ground floor and balconies on the floor above, with the older building carrying its own detail. There are only six of them, so the estate fills when a wedding or a tasting group takes the property. Ask what is on the calendar before fixing your dates.