Sighnaghi

Day 372 (July 5, 2019) – Sighnaghi, Georgia

Where better to relax for a couple days than in a wine region? Georgia has an extensive wine region an hour or two east of Tbilisi and the small town of Sighnaghi was supposed to be a beautiful place to experience it.

Waiting for our marshrutka (shared van) ride to get going. Not very comfortable, but very affordable.

Of course, we had to get there first. We learned that transportation around Georgia is easy and inexpensive, although uncomfortable. We first took the subway to the edge of town. The Liberty Square subway station where we started our trip was itself an adventure. We boarded the longest escalator ride I’ve ever been on in my life. It was running at least 50% faster than a typical escalator and it still took somewhere around five minutes to finally reach the subway platform. I don’t know how deep it went, but we had to of gone at least 10 stories underground. The soviet-era subway was loud and clunky, but it got us where we needed to go. Back on the surface we caught a marshrutka, a shared van, that drove us from Tbilisi to the town of Sighnaghi. The seats were tiny and uncomfortable and all the drivers on the road were insane, including the marshrutka driver, but we made it.

The streets of Sighnaghi.

My first thought of Sighnaghi was of Italy. I’ve never been to a small Italian village in Tuscany, but that imaginary scene in my mind was exactly what we were seeing in front of us. Sighnaghi was a quaint little town perched on top of a hill overlooking rolling hills on one side and a huge expanse of flat plains on the other. The plains were covered in a patchwork of green and yellow farmlands, with some of them undoubtedly growing grapes. We checked into our accommodation and were greeted with a warm welcome and presented a small lunch of bread, cheese, tomato and cucumber salad, and some kind of eggplant dish. This being Georgia’s wine region, they also presented us with a glass of wine and a shot of chacha, Georgian brandy. The afternoon glass of wine was going to do nothing but make me sleepy, but I suppose we had nothing else to do that day other than hang out on their patio underneath the grape vines.

Our host surprised us with lunch when we arrived. Complete with wine and chacha.

The wine they served was homemade and distinctly orange-ish brown in color. We could come to know a lot about Georgian wines, including the learning that just about everyone made their own wine at home and most of it was of this dark color. It tasted very good. It was cool and refreshing but it didn’t taste like any white wine we’d had before, and it certainly didn’t taste like a red. We learned that these orange-colored wines are called skin-contact wines back at home. These are white wines that have been left to ferment in the presence of their skins, so they pick up a coloring and flavor that is not in a traditionally prepared white wine, where the skins are omitted. And the chacha, by the way, just tasted like burning. It’s also made from grapes.

Bodbe Monastery.

We spent the next day walking around town and getting to know the little streets and alleys. There is an old town wall that is mostly in disrepair, but there were still a few remaining sections that could be walked along. They provided a panoramic view of the farmlands in the valley below. We also walked out of town to a church called Bodbe Monastery. The Church was pretty, but the best part was the view looking back at Sighnaghi from along the walk. You could see the whole town sitting on its hilltop.

The best remaining section of the Sighnaghi town wall.

The town of Sighnaghi from a distance. It's up on a hill overlooking a huge expanse of farmlands.

We continued to eat good Georgian food while in Sighnaghi, but this tiny town was also home to a small restaurant serving Mexican food. It seemed so out of place that we had to give it a try. There were only three tables and it was a one-man operation. The same guy explained the menu, took our order, and cooked up dinner for us. It started off well with tortilla chips and an exceptionally tasty pico de gallo, but the steak burritos we got for our entrée fell flat. We so wanted them to taste good, but they just weren’t doing it for us. So much for Mexican food. We decided to stick with Georgian cuisine for a while.

It started pouring one afternoon and we were stuck at our guesthouse, but our host provided us with a few glasses of wine to keep us entertained.

After our couple days in Sighnaghi were up, we were headed to Telavi, to another town in the wine country. Our guest house told us that we shouldn’t waste our time there and that we should spend more time where we were. In any case, our next accommodation was already booked, and it was too much of a headache to change anything, so off we were to Telavi.