Crossing Into Georgia — Saints, Vines and the World's Oldest Wine

Day 5 | April 29, 2026 | Kakheti, Georgia 🇬🇪

We couldn't film the border crossing.

No cameras. No phones out. That's the rule at the crossing between Azerbaijan and Georgia. So what happened there exists only as a memory — no footage, no photos, nothing to show you.

What I can tell you is this. Between the two countries there is a 700-metre open concrete corridor. Two walls, left and right. No roof. No view. Just the path ahead, your luggage, and a long walk. It's not dramatic. It's not cinematic. It's just a slightly surreal stretch of nowhere — the space between two worlds.

And then it ends. You come through the other side. And Georgia is there.

The Georgian flag. Green landscape. Our guide Natia waiting by the vehicle, ready to go.

Something shifted in that moment. It wasn't just a new country. It was a full reset.

Bodbe Monastery — The Woman Who Changed Everything

First stop in Georgia. And it set the tone for the entire country.

The Bodbe Monastery Complex sits on a hillside in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia, surrounded by ancient cypress trees, looking out over the Alazani Valley toward the snow-capped Greater Caucasus. It is one of the most beautiful views in the South Caucasus. And people have been standing in this exact spot, looking at that exact view, for over 1,600 years.

But Bodbe isn't just beautiful. It's sacred. This is the burial place of Saint Nino — the woman who converted Georgia to Christianity in 337 AD.

Nino was a young Christian woman who arrived in Georgia as a missionary in the early 4th century. Legend says she carried a cross made from grapevines, bound together with her own hair. She travelled the country, performed miracles, and brought the Georgian people to the Christian faith. The Georgian king converted in 337 AD — just two years before Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Georgia has been Christian ever since. Through invasions. Through empires. Through Soviet atheism. The faith never left.

The church at Bodbe is small and quiet. The kind of quiet that comes from seventeen centuries of prayer soaked into the walls. Nuns in black habits move through the courtyard in silence. Candles burn inside. Visitors whisper.

You don't need to be religious to feel something here. The history alone is enough. This woman walked into a pagan kingdom with nothing but conviction and changed the course of an entire civilisation. And this quiet hillside in the Caucasus is where her story ended.

Sighnaghi — The City of Love

From Bodbe we drove a short distance to Sighnaghi. And the first thing you notice is the walls.

Sighnaghi is a small hilltop town built in the 18th century as a fortified refuge for the local population against raids from the north. The king built a defensive wall around the entire town — 4 kilometres long, 23 towers. People call it the Great Wall of Georgia. Standing on the ramparts looking out across the Alazani Valley toward the snow-capped mountains, you understand why.

The town itself is almost unreasonably charming. Cobblestone streets. Terracotta rooftops. Balconies draped with vines. Wine bars on every corner. It calls itself the City of Love — partly for the romantic setting, partly because it's one of the only places in Georgia where you can get married at the registry office 24 hours a day.

We walked the walls. We walked the streets. We looked at that view more than once. Kakheti is the wine region of Georgia — this is where most of the country's grapes are grown, and you feel it everywhere. The whole landscape is vineyard and valley and mountain.

Kerovani Winery — Lunch and 8,000 Years of History

Lunch at Kerovani Winery. And this is where the day properly became a Georgia day.

When Georgians say traditional winemaking, they mean something no other wine culture in the world can match. Because the Georgian tradition doesn't go back a few hundred years. It goes back 8,000. Georgia is believed to be the birthplace of wine — the place where humans first figured out what to do with fermented grapes. The oldest confirmed winemaking evidence in the world was found in Georgian soil.

The method is called qvevri winemaking — on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2013. Here's how it works: they take a large clay pot — a qvevri — sometimes holding hundreds of litres. They seal the inside with beeswax. They bury it in the ground up to its neck. The grapes ferment inside it, skins and seeds included, sealed and left underground at a constant temperature for months. Sometimes years.

The result is amber wine. Deep golden. Tannic. Earthy. Complex. It tastes less like a conventional white and more like something ancient. Which, in a way, it is.

We sat down to a proper Georgian spread — fresh bread, walnut dishes, grilled meats, salads, pickled vegetables. The wine came out. Nathalie took one sip and looked at me. That look said everything.

Kerovani is a genuine recommendation. If you're in Kakheti — and you should be — stop here for lunch. The wine alone is worth it. But it's the whole thing. The setting, the food, the story behind every glass. It connects you to something much older than tourism.

Wine Code — The Evening

After checking in, we were free for the evening. We found Wine Code — a proper wine bar that takes what it does seriously without taking itself too seriously.

Amber wine first. Then a traditional white. Then another white from a different producer, because Georgia has that effect — one glass leads to the next because every pour is slightly different and you want to understand it.

The Georgian cheese platter came out alongside. Sulguni — slightly salty, semi-firm, pulls apart in layers. Made to eat with wine. Made to eat with wine for as long as the wine has existed.

We sat at that table for a while. No rush. The amber wine doing what amber wine does — making you slow down and pay attention.

That's Georgia in one evening. A monastery that carried seventeen centuries of silence. A hilltop town with walls that belong in a film. A winery with 8,000 years behind every glass. And a wine bar where the wine just speaks for itself.

Quick Facts — Kakheti, Georgia, Day 5

Border crossing: No photography allowed at the Azerbaijan–Georgia crossing. Wheels on your luggage are not optional — it's a long walk.
Bodbe Monastery: Active nunnery — dress modestly, head covering for women. Free entry. Allow an hour. The garden path down to Saint Nino's spring is worth the extra time.
Sighnaghi: Small and walkable. The wall circuit takes about 45 minutes at a relaxed pace. Great wine bars throughout the old town. Views best in the morning or late afternoon.
Kerovani Winery: Proper lunch stop in Kakheti for qvevri wine and traditional Georgian food. Booking ahead recommended. A genuine highlight — don't rush through it.
Wine Code, Sighnaghi: Good evening wine bar. Order the amber and ask what's local. The cheese platter is the right call.
Amber vs orange wine: Georgians will correct you — it's amber wine, not orange. The colour comes from extended skin contact during fermentation in the qvevri.
Our guide: Natia K. guided us across all four Georgia episodes. Excellent. Find her on Facebook here.

📍 JustoHops Recommends: Kerovani Winery for lunch — full stop. And give yourself more time in Sighnaghi than you think you need. Walk the walls twice. The second time you'll notice things you missed.

Next up: Day 6 — Tbilisi. The city that grabs you and doesn't let go.

Read the series here on justohops.com | or Watch on YouTube @JustoHops