Georgia, Day Eighteen

Wine

We left Signagi this morning, and headed down the mountain to wine country. 

These mountains in the hazy background are the border with Russia.

After a short drive, we came to an old estate, that has been renovated as a concert venue, with a luxury hotel in the works. It presently offers wine tastings and purchase, and tours of the villa and park grounds. We found it well worth a visit. The place was founded in the early 1600’s. 

A marvelous old linden tree.

A chapel ruin

Where one keeps wine

Practice for a concert

Entrance to the Villa. Very unfortunately no photos were allowed of the lovely home exhibits, furnishings, many harpsichords and pianos, Family portraits and old photos, and art works of all kinds.  And not even any postcards. 

Front lawn

Wine tasting 

“Tunnel of Love” beyond a hedge maze

A be-ribboned tree

Some visitors evidently add their own strips of scarves

A stand of bamboo 

A huge ginkgo tree

Then on to the neighboring establishment, the Schumi Winery.

The greeter. 

This farm has 1300 kinds of grapes. It was established at the end of the 1990’s. Now they export world wide. Recently Switzerland was added to the export countries. 

Roses at the ends of vine rows.

Vineyard symbol: a griffen with grapes. That’s a topiary.

The premises are carefully landscaped, unusual in this country.

Outside 

Inside

Numbers of bottles of wine came away with us from here.

And up the road a bit was another….

Then on to the next hotel, in a non-descript place, with an inexplicable thing in my room view.