Telavi Wine Festival (Telavoba) is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Kakheti calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year. It is held at Telavi town centre in Kakheti, in the heart of one of Georgia's most distinctive wine areas. It is an annual event with an established local audience and a consistent place in the regional calendar.
Telavoba is the harvest festival of Kakheti's regional capital. The historic town hosts producer tastings from across the surrounding villages — Kvareli, Sighnaghi, Tsinandali, Mukuzani, Akhmeta — with the programme combining qvevri tastings, traditional Kakhetian gastronomy (including the regional khinkali, mtsvadi grilled meats and kakhuri wine breads), polyphonic singing, dance and the symbolic procession of new wines through the town centre. Harvest and grape festivals — fiestas de la vendimia, festas das vindimas, weinlesefeste — are some of the longest-running celebrations in their regions, with many running uninterrupted for a century or more. Programmes typically combine grape-stomping demonstrations, traditional music, parades of allegorical floats, food stalls offering regional specialities, and tastings of the area's wines. The events have strong local character and are often as much community celebrations as wine programmes, with town councils, parish committees and local producer associations sharing the organisational load. Many festivals incorporate religious elements — blessings of the harvest, processions to the parish church — that connect the wine calendar to the liturgical year. The event is organised by Telavi Municipality, which sets the tone and direction of the programme each year.
Kakheti in eastern Georgia is the country's main wine region, producing around 70% of all Georgian wine. The region is the heart of the 8,000-year-old qvevri winemaking tradition — the UNESCO-recognised method of fermenting and ageing wine in egg-shaped clay vessels buried in the ground (Georgian: kvevri or qvevri). Saperavi (the indigenous black-skinned, dark-fleshed teinturier red grape) and Rkatsiteli (the country's most-planted white) are the regional flagships, with Mtsvane, Kisi and Khikhvi as additional whites and the historically important Aleksandrouli, Mujuretuli, Tavkveri and Shavkapito as further reds. Famous Kakhetian PDO wines include Tsinandali (the classic dry white from Rkatsiteli with Mtsvane), Mukuzani (full-bodied dry Saperavi), Kindzmarauli (semi-sweet Saperavi), Akhasheni and Tibaani. The region's amber wines — long-skin-contact whites fermented in qvevri — have driven Georgia's modern international recognition. Producers like Pheasant's Tears, Schuchmann, Khareba, Telavi Wine Cellar (Marani), Tsinandali Estate, Twins Old Cellar and dozens of small artisan producers in villages like Ikalto, Sighnaghi and Kvareli lead the regional quality.
The 2026 edition is scheduled for October 2026. Entry is free, with optional paid tasting passes or guided sessions available on site. Full programme, ticketing and updated information are published on the official site at https://telavi.gov.ge/. Visitors are advised to check directly with the organiser for the latest schedule, as festival programmes are sometimes updated close to the event date.
Kakheti is reached most easily from Tbilisi (1.5-2 hours by car), with Telavi (the regional capital) and Sighnaghi (the dramatically situated 'City of Love' on a hilltop overlooking the Alazani Valley) the two main wine-tourism bases. Kvareli, in the heart of the Saperavi-producing zone, is a third base. Georgian cuisine pairs the wines with khachapuri (the cheese-bread that is Georgia's most iconic dish, with regional variants including Imeruli, Adjaruli boat-shaped, Megruli), khinkali (soup-filled dumplings), mtsvadi (grilled skewered meat), pkhali (vegetable-walnut paste), badrijani nigvzit (eggplant rolls with walnut paste), churchkhela (the traditional sweet made from grape must and walnuts), and the wider tradition of supra (the ritualised Georgian feast). Beyond wine, Kakheti combines wine tourism with the medieval monasteries (Alaverdi, Bodbe, Ikalto), the David Gareja cave monastery complex, and the spectacular Caucasus mountain views.
