Historical winery in the eponymous district of Telavi in the Kakheti region of Georgia. It was founded in 1886 by the Georgian politician and poet Prince Alexandre Chavchavadze (1786-1846) after overcoming the phylloxera disaster. The castle, built as early as 1835, was used by the family as a summer residence. The residence was sacked in 1854 by the Muslim troops of the North Caucasian Muslim leader Imam Shamil, during which numerous relatives of Alexandre Chavchavadze, including his son and wife, were kidnapped and freed in 1855 for ransom and an exchange of prisoners. It became famous from the mid-19th century onwards due to the visit of many important literary figures, these included Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) and Chavchavadze's son-in-law Alexander Griboyedov (1795-1829).
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That is why the estate is also called the "literary heart of writers and poets". The winery's cellars are designed for a storage capacity of ten million litres. In the treasure chamber there were over 16,000 bottles of wine, 500 of which were from the 19th century. Their enjoyment is doubtful, however. The buildings have been renovated and there is also a large, well-tended park. Wine production no longer takes place, instead it functions as the Alexandre Chavchavadze Museum. There is also a catering business. A well-known Georgian PDO wine is also called Tsinandali.
Picture left: By Paata Vardanashvili from Tbilisi, Georgia - Museum, CC BY 2.0, link.
Picture right: From Georg Wilhelm Timm, Public domain, Link
