Architecture, traditions and culture of Eastern Georgia

Georgian Journal Newspaper is starting a new section to introduce various regions of Georgia to a foreign reader, highlighting culture, history, art, cousin, architecture, traditions and social rules. Every region has its peculiar culture and a set of traditions. We will try to visit every corner of the country to describe a traditional lifestyle and mind setting prevailing there. First we will call in Kakheti, a region situated in the eastern Georgia.
No matter how many times we visit Kakheti, one of the most wonderful parts of Georgia, it never ceases to surprise and enchant us with richness of its culture. Traditions which centuries could not erase, impels you to return again and again. It is something to be seen at least once. And after you see it, you’ll never forget it. For me, Kakheti begins from the smell of badagi (juice of squeezed grape) and scores of mouthwatering churchkhela (walnuts strung on a thread dipped in badagi), hanging from a wooden beam to dry them. I cannot but stop the car, get out and head for the beam in anticipation of ultimate tasty delight from so called ‘Kakhetian Snickers’.
Snickers aside, churchkhela is an old and traditional Georgian candy which once used to have even a strategic importance. Blend of grape juice, walnut and flour was the best snack for a warrior in the field. No wonder, since Kakheti has witnessed a myriad of wars throughout history. So, if you want to taste a real churchkhela, you would have to go to Kakheti. As for the recipe, we will learn it from our esteemed host.
Laura Mechurchlishvili from Bodbiskhevi village, Sighnaghi region: “The best variety of grapes to make churchkhela from, is Rkatsiteli. It gives churchkhela a reddish tint. After distilling sweet juice from a grape, we transfer it into a pot with a special vessel called orshimo. Then badagi is boiled on fire from wood or gas oven. The juice must be boiled for a long period to halve its volume and sweeten it as much as possible (to avoid manual addition of sugar). The hot thickened grape juice called tatara must cool down and be mixed with flour. Next we take cleaned walnuts, poke and lead a cotton thread through them. The thread should end with a special loop. The loop would be used to hang the churchkhela on a beam for drying. Before it is time to dip churchkhela in tatara, walnut chains are dried up to prevent growth of mould on dipped walnut. Some dry the walnut chains in the sun, others lower them in bread baking traditional huge semi-barrels built with , covered in clay fixed in the ground (they are called “tone”) while still hot from recent bread making. This second option is said to result in better taste of churchkhela because walnut acquires a unique flavor. The churchkhela dipping is a whole process rooted in traditions. For churchkhela to retain mildness for a long time, one should treat its surface with badagi and store churchkhela in cotton tissue. Real churchkhela stays mild for a long time, whereas churchkhela made on water and sugar quickly becomes hardy.”
Trying Kakhetian cousin products is a very pleasant activity. However, this part of Georgia is also distinguished with a sea of cultural monuments, so that tourists can blend up the pleasant with the useful and the interesting.
On route from Tbilisi to Tsinandali, one should not fail to see a house-museum of Aleksandre Chavchavadze in Tsinandali. He was a well known Georgian lord, poet, one of the founders of romanticism, general-lieutenant of Russian Imperial Army. His XIX century palace is prominent for its beautiful garden and wine cellar.
Kakhetians see Telavi as a center of Kakheti. First settlements in the Telavi area appear in the late bronze period. Anyone visiting the town must see the museum of King Erekle who lived in XVIII century. The museum is otherwise called the Fortress of the Master. It was built in 1884-1886. The museum exhibits the King Erekle memorabilia as well as numismatics, early medieval sarcophagi, medieval body armor, copper household items from XVII-XIX centuries, weaponry and so on.
It is incomprehensible to visit Kakheti and bypass Gremi, the royal center of Kakheti in XVI-XVII centuries. The Gremi complex is linked to the Gremi-Nekresi protected area. One can find here the church of Archangel dating XVI century, the XVI century wine cellar with in-ground clay barrels and a grape squeezer, traders and royal quarters with remains of elite saunas.
Kakheti is called a cradle of wine. Aleksandre Chavchavadze received the Tsinandali land as his inheritance. It is known that he was brought up in the royal circles of Saint Petersburg. He was baptized by Catherine II and Alexander I. He built the house and surrounding  garden in 1835. Till today the museum stores paraphernalia of Chavchavadze and his family members.
We mentioned wine. One cannot complete a tour around Kakheti without tasting wine in a cellar. Even if you try Rkatsiteli and Saperavi just once, your heart would be yearning for Kakheti forever. “When we squash grapes in a squeezer, the resulting juice will be poured into the in-ground clay barrels. The liquid is then covered with special grass and fixed with wooden bars for collection of clean liquid on the surface. The grape juice is boiling for 18-20 days. Then we transfer it into a smaller vessel and later in another vessel again so that the wine is cleaned of sediments as much as possible. Later, when the boiling is over, the clay barrel is hermetically sealed with a clay lead and covered in soil. The older the wine, the richer is its bouquet. As for the remnants, we produce chacha out of it.
Red wine goes well with Kakhetian mtsvadi (called shashlik elsewhere), a uniquely prepared meat characterizing this region of Georgia. Any party, be it on happy or sad occasion, cannot be imagined without khashlama (boiled beef with bones prepared with a special technique). Salty humor is typical of Kakhetian character. They have jokes for everything, including khashlama. For example, they told me the following story: once they brought to the table so hot khashlama that a mist descended for 10 minutes. Another joke: once they brought to the table so much khashlama that salt had to be applied from a helicopter. Khashlama has a specific recipe and is best prepared by men. It’s a well known practice. The cattle is killed, cut in large pieces and boiled in water with the whole onions and salt.
“Mstvadi too is done in Kakheti in a specific way. It must be pork, assorted on a stick and fried on burning remains of no less then grape branches. The fried meat is often sprinkled with pomegranate juice or pelted with cut onion, explains Nodar Chotasvhili, a Kakhetian resident, while rotating a stick with mtsvadi pieces to ensure balanced frying.
Another delicious food to taste is Kakhetian bread, so called shotis puri, which is baked using a special technique.
Kakhetian party will not go down well without Bozbashi. You will have a chance to taste it the moment you enter the house of any Kakhetian family as their guest.
Givi Tukhashvili from Telavi town: We boil in water cut mutton  and a large piece of duma, fatty extremity hanging over the sheep’s lower back. When the water starts boiling, we ought to remove froth which gathers on surface. Then we retrieve duma and pass it through a meat mincer. When boiling of the mutton is nearly done, 2-3 onions should be matured in the fat of the boiling liquid and then placed together with duma inside the pan of the boiled mutton. At the end we add various trimmings. The best bozbashi is made on the boiled liquid of the beef khashlama.
So, Kakheti is a region with rich food traditions providing for the strong potential of the development of culinary tourism. Besides, it is impossible to taste everything in one visit, just like you cannot take a glimpse of every historical artifact. In Kakheti we can find a number of significant accomplishments of medieval Orthodox Christian architecture, such as for instance monasteries of old and new Shuamta. Old Shuamta is the whole architectural ensemble of its own standing. It includes 5th century basilica. In XVI century, old Shuamta was abandoned. In its vicinity, Tinatin Gurieli, the wife of Kakheti king Levan II, founded new Shuamta monastery.
In 20km from Telavi, the Alazani river valley features magnificent monastery of Alaverdi built in VI century by one of the 13 Assyrian monks, Ioseb Alaverdeli. From XI century the Alaverdi monastery turned into the Episcopal center and residence of Head of Eparchy. Starting from the same period, the monastery became the ancestral cemetery of Kakheti royal house.
There is another medieval complex located near Telavi town. It’s Ikalto Academy which used to be the cultural-educational center in XI-XII centuries. Among the subjects taught there were rhetoric, philosophy, geography, geometry, church mass and theology. Apart from the theory, students were acquiring practical skills such as metal work, ceramics, viticulture and viniculture, pharmacology. Thus Kakhetian culinary like traditions and history has deep roots. Kakhetians managed to retain everything till these days, vividly demonstrating wonders of their region to either foreign or domestic visitors.
P.S. May visitors of Kakheti go to see Sighnaghi, one of the oldest towns of the region, boasting rich, recently renovated architecture, and a newly acquired second name of Love Town.