East to Kakheti

This chapter explores the largest region in Georgia and the one in which most wine – including traditional qvevri wine – is made. The long, wide Alazani River that runs south-east from the high mountains of Tusheti in the Greater Caucasus down through Kakheti’s main valley on its way to Azerbaijan (and then the Caspian Sea) has determined the success and style of its agriculture and the course of its history. Kakheti formed part of Kartli-Iberia until the middle of the 8th century when it became a self-governing feudal principality. In 1105 King David the Builder conquered Kakheti and incorporated it into a united Georgian kingdom; there it remained until it fell during the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. It became an independent kingdom in the 1460s before coming under intermittent Persian rule in the following centuries.