Rtveli

Beginning each September in Georgia's main wine regions, particularly Kakheti in the southeast, Rtveli marks the culmination of Georgia's grape harvest — a country whose winemaking history stretches back more than 8,000 years, making it among the oldest wine-producing regions anywhere on earth. Families and communities gather across the region's vineyards to pick grapes and take part in the pressing and fermentation process, using traditional egg-shaped clay vessels called qvevri, a technique recognised by UNESCO as part of Georgia's Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Rtveli is as much a communal ritual as it is an agricultural event: participants pay tribute to the ancient deities of fertility and wine even today, and the harvest is marked with feasting, singing and dancing that runs alongside the actual grape-picking and pressing work. Traditional Georgian dishes, particularly khachapuri, the country's beloved cheese-filled bread, appear throughout the celebrations, alongside the supra, the elaborate feast structure that defines Georgian hospitality more broadly.

For wine lovers specifically, Rtveli offers a rare, hands-on connection to one of the world's oldest continuous winemaking traditions — not a staged demonstration, but the genuine seasonal work that Georgian wine families have carried out for millennia.