Kakheti pt1

The Easter holiday is a big one for the Christian Orthodox church so we've got a long 4 day weekend.  I had one of the Army soldiers work on a trip and he put together an overnighter to eastern Georgia.  Kakheti is the easternmost province and is also Georgia's wine country.  Friday late morning we drove out for two and a half hours to an area that in some spots could be confused with New England.  Tree covered roads with rolling farmland, and also the vineyards.  Our first stop was a resort still prepping for the upcoming summer season.  We were the only ones there but they had the bar open so we had a few drinks and enjoyed the scenery.

Next stop was a winery, they were closed but said they'd be open the next day.  So we continued to the Nekresi monastery dating back to the 4th century. 
http://www.georgiatraveller.com/2011/01/nekresi-glimpse-into-history-of-georgia.html
The climb up is a one mile (1 1/2 km) walk on a very steep brick-paved incline.  Difficult enough just walking up, never mind thinking of hauling up all the building materials.

 

Late that afternoon we went to our hotel which, in all seriousness, looked like something out of an 80's John Carpenter horror-flick.  So we got back in our vans and went to downtown Telavi to a better hotel.  The hotel also operated a nearby bed & breakfast/winery so that's where we went for dinner.  While we were waiting for dinner the host gave us a short tour of the place and explained the Georgian method of winemaking.

The wooden box on the right holds the grapes and feeds them into a crusher.  The juice is then placed in big ceramic jugs buried in the floor and sealed for 2-3 months.  (see the circles in the background)  Then it gets bottled and stored.