Cheese and Preserves

If you drive south from Tbilisi across Kvemo Kartli into Javakheti you reach the high volcanic Paravani Plateau whose long lakes stretch out among mountains that take on lavender tones in autumn’s soft light. You pass sparse villages with haystacks taller than houses, neat cabbage and potato patches, and many dung-heaps. The only trees – stunted plums and apples – grow close to the houses. At over 2,000 metres (6,560 feet), we’re above the treeline on expansive Alpine steppes that offer summer pastures for vast herds of sheep, goats and cattle.