Last Adventure

 Wednesday, August 10, 2022

This lovely estate also includes breakfast!  Ammar is able to get his espresso and I have my latte. Soon dishes begin appearing.  Basically it is a Turkish breakfast but with cottage cheese instead of sliced wonder dairy and there isn't any halvah.  We were told last night that pick-up would be at 10:00 so it's a relaxed morning and we're ready at ten when Daviti (I learned later that his name is Zaza!) texts and says how about 10:25.  Well, it's not like we can say, "No"!  It's a bit later than that when a car pulls up for us.  It's not our George, but it is a George and he turns out to be very accommodating and understands that yesterday wasn't ideal.  Together we work out a plan, after I get over being annoyed that two things I was really looking forward to can't actually happen in August!  Seems like a tour operator would know that.

I think these sunflowers are waiting for the sun!

Anyway, we load our things and are off to see what the day will hold! The first stop is the Winery Khareba.  I've actually been here before; but Ammar hasn't and I'm sure he will enjoy the tour and the wines.  The estate is quite large and beautifully landscaped and our tour host is charming.  After being awed and impressed by all the wines in the cellars we have our tasting of two whites and two red, along with Georgian grape seed oil on bread and cheese.  Oddly enough, my very favorite is a light, cheap white!  Ammar and our guide have quite a discussion about us!  Ammar buys a bottle to take home with him!

Love the one on the left!

Back outside and George has apparently been talking to Zaza about how upset I am.  He might have figured that out from my text, as well.  Anyway, it turns out that we can take a master cooking class as well!  I opt for the kinkali class and while the instructor is setting up and, presumably, teaching other people who had already registered, George takes us to a gorgeous lake for photos.

It must be a private resort, because we have to be admitted through a gate!  Anyway, George says he'll do a magic trick and ass we come over a rise he says, "Abracadabra" and there's the lake!

It's like a private photo shoot!!

Itty bitty blue butterfly!

And just on the other side...!

selfie!

After a lovely interlude here we go back to the winery and await our class - well, my class.  Ammar decides that he'll just take pictures and I'm happy to have them. Tatiana is my guide and translator and I learn the intricacies of folding the kinkali so it will hold the meat and broth. I'm making three, one for each of us, and Ammar chooses cheese for his filling.  They say I did well and after they are boiled for five minutes, we all get to find out!

They are still everywhere!

The chacha still looks like a Dalek!

Sweet Tatiana

We're going to meet a man who actually makes the huge qvevris in which the wine ages. But first there's a church along the way that George thinks we might like.  We're thinking just walk around a take a couple of pictures, but it's up on a hill and I must climb!!  (Thanks, Ginger!). It was built in 1565 and I'm always overwhelmed by the state of preservation and the architecture. Ammar waits, patiently and indulgently, but George comes up with me.  I think he's afraid I'll get hurt on his watch!!

George

You can hardly tell where the rock ends and the church begins.

Onward to Mr. Marani!  This will be my second-favorite part of the day!!  We learn that the pots are made very much like the coiled pots we all tried our hands at in pottery class, which is to say they are built up in layers from the pointy bottom to the opening at the top.  This takes three months!  Then they are transported to the kiln, which can hold eight of these big guys, where they are fired for seven days at 1000 degrees Celsius!  Afterwards they are coated with a rough cement and when that's dried it is sanded smooth.  Quite a process!

And he makes his own wine and chacha!  We sample a white and a red and honestly, they are better than anything else we've tried!  And he has regular and tarragon chacha! And, of course, bread and cheese, salty and delicious!

Here's the kiln.

And his hand-made transporter

Covered in cement, then turned over to coat the other side

Then sanded smooth

He's getting ready to have another aging room.  He'll dig a hole to stand each one
up in, and then fill it spaces between with rock.

The kiln from further away

This is his current aging room.

Ready!

And pour!

What a full day!  And George delivers us right to our door.  We have opted not to stop by Zaza's Wine Spot.  I really don't want to meet him. There's lots of time for showers and rest before dinner.  Ammar goes ahead and I catch up yesterday's blog. My palate is now sophisticated enough to know I don't care for the wines at the cave.  I have a cosmo (in Connie's honor!) and then go for the most expensive sushi on he menu, the Golden Dragon.  Oh yum!  Ammar is actually winning, but he takes a break to walk me home.  I finish adding blog photos and crash!

Ruins everywhere -  so many cultures have left there mark here.

Ever-changing landscape

always one

cool street lights!

Cosmo!

And Golden Dragon! And that's Ammar's Caesar salad with shrimp!