Rtveli in Georgia 2025

It might seem odd that harvest season has such a great value for the whole country. But it becomes understandable after you witness rich Georgian traditions related to the harvest period. Most people, even those that live permanently in the city, try to come back to their home villages and help out with the harvest.

Any vineyard owner is always delighted by provided interest and help in the process of delivery of wine. That's why tourists visiting Georgia can participate in rtveli as well. If you want to be involved, you just got to know some special words for traditional tools in wine making. Those are godori, an oblong basket to put picked grapes; satskneheli, a wooden tub for grape pressing with a hole in it, from which the juice streams into a special container; qvevri, an egg-shaped clay tank in which the grapes go through the fermentation process, and the natural flavorful wine is born; marani, a basement, where qvevris are being concealed, and the fermentation procedure continues. Prepared wine is also stored in marani because of the temperature conditions.

Not only do people gather plenitude of crops, fruit and vegetables, but most importantly they start gathering grapes for wine. The exhausting harvest days always end up in a huge festivity, often involving the whole village, with dances, laughter and of course ​famous Georgian toasts. The most well-known regions for grape-gathering are Racha, Kakheti, and Imereti.