FOOD & WINE TOURS
Because the Best Way To Experience the World is to Taste it!
MEET ME HERE TBILISI
TUSHETI
Feast With The Mountain Gods
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High above Kakheti’s Alazani Valley is a secluded Shangi-La of snow-tipped peaks, ancient settlements clinging preposterously to the sides of mountains, rolling meadows and rushing mountain rivers. This is Tusheti, land of the Tush, courageous mountaineers famed for their horsemanship and bravery on the battlefield. It is also the wildest and one of the most ecologically unspoiled regions in the Caucasus, linked to the lowlands by a formidable road open only in the summer months.
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We explore Tusheti through the people maintaining its standout mountain food culture, a heritage infused with pagan traditions, natural ingredients and old world know-how. We will also have hands-on experiences helping to prepare the foods we put on our tables, visiting imposing villages of stone and meeting venerated locals for a culture fix that includes their tales of mountain life.
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Meet Me Here Tbilisi has teamed up with Tusheti Tours, a company leading adventures to the region for some 15 years, to lead an exhilarating, indelible travel experience of a lifetime.
About The Food
Tush are sheep herding people, the animal is the backbone of its cuisine. We will dive into milk-based products like guda (named after the sheep skin it is aged in), chogi and kalti cheeses, along with totori, the local khachapuri.
Few outsiders get to enjoy, let alone witness the preparation of authentic shepherd’s choban kaurma, lamb slow roasted in the ground. There will be mosmula, a Tush pasta, khavitsi, the local fondue of fermented cheese and ghee, kveri, a dumpling of curd and wild ramps, and no trip to Tusheti would be complete without gobbling mrgvali puri - Tushuri khinkali.
Salads are made from foraged greens such as wild leek, ramps, dock, nettles and chervil. We will wash all this down with mountain herbal teas and of course, highlander’s chacha.
Photo: Badri Vadachkoria
About Our Hosts
Nugzar Idoidze is a Tushetian ethnologist, historian and writer - a living encyclopedia on all things Tusheti. His wife, Dzielo is a magnificent cook.
Dr. Irakli Khvedaguridze is an 83 year-old doctor who lives in Bochorna, the village’s only year-round resident, making it the highest populated settlement in Georgia (2,345 meters). He stays to provide medical care by horseback for the handful of locals who spend the winter in the isolated region.
Darejan Itrakuli is a native of Shenako and noted cook who sometimes dreams of original dishes and then creates them with local wild ingredients. "Love," she says is a key ingredient.
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Kartlos Chabashvili is our trip leader. Owner of Tusheti Travel, Kartlos is an adopted son of nearly every family in the region. There is no better guide for Tusheti in Georgia.
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Our base camp will be the modern, 43-room Hotel Samzeo, Georgia’s first totally solar-powered hotel.
Our Itinerary
September 6-9
Day One: Road Trip to Omalo
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Depart Tbilisi 7:00
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Shop at Telavi bazaar for provisions.
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Lunch break on the breathtaking Abano Pass
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Check in to Samzo Hotel in Omalo
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Dinner & Masterclass - Tushuri Khinkali and Kotori (Tushuri khachapuri)
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Conversations and drinks with Nugzar Idoidze, local ethnologist, historian and writer.
Day Two: A Tushetian Supra
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Village of Kwe - prepare choban kaurma
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Lunch in Dartlo
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Lunch with Dr. Irakli Khvedaguridze in Bochorna
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Tushuri Supra - main course choban kaurma
Day Three: Feast in Shangra-La​
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Visit Diklo and Masho Bebo for kalti
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Hike to Old Diklo
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Shenako - Dine with Darejan Ichirauli and supra in majestic land.
Day Four: Back to the Lowlands
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Visit Zemo Omalo towrers to bid farewell
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Kakhetian dinner in Telavi
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Tbilisi