Wine and Dine

 Wednesday, August 4, 2022

The first part of the day is all ours since we don't have to meet for the tour until three. It begins with our landlord delivering a breakfast tray.  It's kind of wasted on us since we're really not breakfast people, but the pomegranate juice is lovely, as are the ever-present tomatoes and cucumbers, and coffee is always appreciated.

We explore some more and find the restaurant the girls recommended and a tiny little sculpture garden hidden away with no signs or anything!  There's a Dunkin' for espresso and latte and we sit outside and talk and people watch, and then decide to check in with Anna at Budget. She seems genuinely pleased to see us. I think we break the monotony of sitting by herself in her tiny little office (she doesn't even have a bathroom!) and Ammar makes her laugh.  

Paolo Iashvili and Titsian Tabidze, who helped the development of
20th century Georgian poetry 

These two stopped us and asked if we spoke English.  Turns out they wanted

                     to give us a card with a QR code about the Bible!  "Have we heard of this book?"

        (I'm home, now, and finally flashed the QR code.  Guess what! They're Jehovah's Witnesses!!)

Life imitating art?

We ask if there's enough time to go to see the Bagrati Cathedral and is it worth the effort.  She says yes to both and calls us a cab (or maybe it's an Uber?).  The road up the hill has such tight curves that at one point you can only do it as a three-point turn!  And the directional sign is hand painted on the rock wall.

But the cathedral is stunning on the outside and inside feels like the medieval structure that it is.  It was built in the eleventh century by King Bagrat III.  It sits on Ukimerioni Hill and it actual name is the Cathedral of the Dormition, or Kutaisi Cathedral.  Ammar pays our driver to wait for us, since there isn't any chance of catching another cab up here!

This is the shot on the advertising flyers.

Looking down on Kutaisi

Do not pass go!

We get back with enough time to grab a snack before the Wine and Dine, since we don't have any idea when dinner, or the "supra" will be, so we split a cheese croissant and go back to Anna.  There will be nine of us, plus Ani, our favorite guide, so we take two vehicles out to the Baia Vineyard.  It is a family affair with mom doing the cooking for the supra, dad serving some of the wines and offering a singing toast, and the three siblings running the operation.

Abstract art?

Heartbreaking mural

Kutaisi Opera Housse and Music Hall

Ani explains how the wines are made and demonstrates the use and cleaning of the qvevris.  There are lots of other people doing the same thing we are and so we get to use an upstairs room all to our selves.  The food is endless, as is the wine, and our initially quiet group loosens up pretty quickly.  Traditionally one person is in charge of offering the toasts.  The first one is to God, the next is for world peace, the third is for whatever the occasion is that has brought everyone together.  After that you're on your own.  Usually there is one to mothers and children and siblings and anyone of anything else!  Somehow I wind up being voluntold that I'm in charge and as the wine flows it gets easier.

The qvevri are buried in the ground.

You dip the wine out with the gourd.

And serve it in this traditional pitcher and cup

A small child can fit inside and clean the walls.  Or an adult can use 
one of these on a long pole.

Gratuitous flower photo

Grapes everywhere.  All the houses we passed had small grape arbors in the back yard.

Always schmoozing!

We were upstairs.

And it's not all there yet!

Proud papa with his daughters' rose.

Just when we thought we were finished! And you can't see the cornbread and cheese!

Ani says that we've reached the point where singing and dancing begin.  I tell her that if she's teach us, we'll dance with her.  She is happy to comply and does a lovely folk dance and offers to teach.  A lovely young woman from the Czech Republic and I are the only takers but everyone else claps and keeps time and it's a blast!

Ammar finds out that several of our group are Palestinian and they discuss the situation in Palestine and in Jordan. They seemed relieved to be able to speak Arabic for a while! 

Isn't she lovely and graceful!  I had wanted to see some authentic Georgian folk dancing!

Here's some actual Georgian for the language buffs - and the English translation - of the final toast.

We learn that the official toast is ga-mar-jos, ga-mar-jos, ga-mar-jos-jos-jos!! And it comes from the same root word as "good morning" which is ga-mar-jo-ba.

The affair winds down and we return to our chariots for the journey home.  It's early but there's been quite a lot wine, oh! and chacha! It's early to bed!

Eventually there were quite a few more bottles.  The average Georgian will
consume 5 or 6 liters at one of these events.  I gave it a go - but that's a LOT of wine!

Pesky rose!  Just to prove I'm not completely incapacitated!