Kakheti Food and History

A prosperous monarchy on the Silk Road from medieval times, Kakheti’s fortunes rose and fell as it battled waves of aggressors. In the 14th century, Timur, the Turco-Mongol nomadic conqueror of the Eurasian Steppes, devastated the area. So too did the Safavid monarch, Shah Abbas (whose mother was Georgian), when he laid waste to the region in 1615. Tens of thousands of people were killed or deported, and Kakheti’s population was decreased by two-thirds. The Kingdom of Kakheti was ruled by the Bagrationi family from the late 15th century. In 1762 King Erekle II Bagrationi (known as ‘the Little Kakhetian’) united the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti, allowing them in 1783 to become a protectorate of Catherine the Great’s Russia. That didn’t last long: the Russians soon withdrew their support and when the Persians invaded Georgia in 1795, King Erekle was defeated and Tiflis (Tbilisi) razed to the ground. Soon afterwards, in 1801, the Russian tsar Paul I fully annexed Kartli-Kakheti and deposed the Bagrationi dynasty, ending its millenium-long history.