The roots of our winery lead back into the depths of centuries when, in 1744, Erekle II—one of the most beloved kings and generals cherished by the Georgian people—granted Kistauri, a mesmerizingly gorgeous village in Kakheti, to Prince Bezhan Eristavi as a token of appreciation of his loyal service. This settlement offers a captivating view of the Alazani Valley sandwiched between the Caucasus Mountains. And it is in this magnificent place that Prince Eristavi revived viniculture. Starting as early as 1780, his wine cellars/wineries made a name for themselves throughout Kakheti.
The Eristavis of Aragvi, one of the five Georgian princely houses bearing the title of Head of the Nation—which is in fact the literal translation of the surname Eristavi—are mentioned in historical Georgian chronicles as early as 1398 as active participants of the era’s actual combat and political battlefields. Prince Bezhan Eristavi and his descendants made a major contribution to the advancement of Georgian culture. They were patrons of scores of prominent artistic and cultural figures who frequented Prince Eristavi’s estate in Kistauri, in this way centuries earlier foreshadowing, as it were, the words of the great Osip Mandelstam about the magical interconnection and similarity between Georgian culture and Georgian wine: “You are neither the West not the East, neither Paris not Bagdad, your arts, and your artistic tradition, penetrating your historical land deeply like a sinkhole. Wine ages, and in this lies its future; culture ferments, and in this lies its youthfulness. Cherish your culture, this narrow-necked clay jug buried in the ground!”
Unsurprisingly, then, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, in the company of his spouse, personally paid a visit to Prince Eristavi on October 6, 1888. A chronicler recalls that Kiazo Eristavi, in line with Russian tradition, welcomed the monarch and his retinue with bread and salt on the road leading from Tianeti to Kakheti. Next, Kiazo invited the emperor to share a special meal with him in his proverbially famed wine cellar. In the evening, His Majesty was seen off at the settlement adorned with banners and church bells pealing.
It is known for a fact that, after this visit, Emperor Alexander III conclusively rejected foreign wines, giving priority exclusively to Georgian and Crimean wines.
Kiazo Eristavi, a descendant of Prince Bezhan Eristavi, cemented and built further on his grandfather’s legacy. Having returned from military service in the rank of Lieutenant General of the Imperial Russian Army, Kiazo Eristavi—now a hero of the Crimean and Russo-Turkish Wars—excelled in picking up and continuing the cause of his ancestors.
Kiazo was lauded for his exceptional generosity and special care for peasants, an unusual trait at the time, frequently hosting them as honorable guests at receptions held in abundance in his estate. In the same vein, the entire population of the settlement would gather to share a meal at one of the main celebrations of the year, Rtveli Vintage, with bachelorettes encouraged to participate in this social function, alongside little children who could always count on exciting presents. Kiazo Eristavi loved peasants, frequently reminding them that they are “the salt of the earth.”
With Soviet rule taking root, Kiazo Eristavi’s wine cellars and vineyards were nationalized. Still, seasoned winemakers, those once working for Eristavi, somehow managed to keep the relevant traditions alive, not letting the accomplishments achieved through the centuries sink into oblivion. On the contrary, the growing demand for Georgian wine in the Soviet Union eventually preconditioned a growth in its overall production.
A decision was made with the personal involvement of Joseph Stalin to increase wine production. Consequently, in 1954, a new winery was inaugurated in Kistauri, eventually to shape into the torchbearers of the Georgian wine industry throughout the Soviet period.
The ill-conceived anti-alcohol campaign carried out in 1985, and later the collapse of the Soviet Union, dealt a devastating blow to the winemaking sector of Georgia. For nine long years, desolation and ruin reigned within the walls of this once prosperous enterprise.
However, in 1994, Anzor Kibrotsashvili—a world-renowned Georgian judoka, Merited Master of Sports, holder of myriad top prizes at world, European, and Soviet championships, and Merited Coach, a man born in a multigenerational family of winemakers from the town of Akhmeta—set out to save the enterprise from total ruin, eventually buying out this winery and naming it PALAVANI, a word literally meaning an unbeatable, unrivaled noble wrestler or fighter, or simply a hero in the Georgian language. Since childhood, Anzor observed the process of winegrowing, vineyard-tending, and winemaking—in a nutshell, he saved and preserved the winery in Kistauri so that the village’s most ancient tradition of viniculture would not be lost forever. Presently, surviving historical wineries are few and far between, and we are proud to assert that ours is one of them.
Winemaking for our family is not only a business, it is also a lifestyle, our cross, our destiny. After all, tradition has it that the Virgin Mary gave a grapevine cross, the main symbol of our faith, to Saint Nino Equal-to-the-Apostles and commanded her to travel and enlighten her initial lot, the land of Iberia, a term used to refer to Georgia in ancient times.
In 2012, a new generation of PALAVANI picked up the torch of the winery’s revival. We have succeeded in breathing new life into the enterprise, carrying out its comprehensive restoration and technical modernization, planting our own vineyards, including organic ones, in various climate micro-zones of the Kakheti Region.
To this day, our restoration activities result in unearthing ancient qvevri winemaking vessels marking the roots of winemaking in the village of Kistauri. This nurtures our genetic predisposition to winemaking and proves that we made the right decision by honorably continuing the traditions of Georgian winemaking spanning 8,000 years.
Continuously modernizing our enterprise, we nonetheless take pride in and venerate with trembling the traditions of our ancestors, using the authentic Georgian qvevri technique to make wine all the while.
Hereditary winemakers working in our winery today carefully control the entire process of production, from harvesting grapes to bottling wine, in this way ensuring the end-product’s exceptionally high quality, also its success in the consumer markets of many countries and at a variety of international competitions.
Constant search for perfection and commitment to ushering in innovations make up an inseparable part of the development and progress of PALAVANI Winery since its inception.
ქართ