After returning from Kazbegi, we had pizza from Kirsten's favorite pizza place in Tbilisi and everyone collapsed. The next day we had a day trip to Sighnaghi, another small town (about 2000 people). Sighnaghi makes most of its money from wine and carpet production, and Kirsten had arranged for us to have a nice meal with wine pairings at the Pheasant's Tears Winery (its name comes from a Georgian folk tale of wine so wonderful it would make a pheasant cry tears of joy).
We had a new driver, Henry, and just one car, since Aquil and Kirsten couldn't make it. After the alpine terrain around Kazbegi, we were now in fertile, cultivated, rolling hills. Georgia has an 8000 year history of viniculture, and a unique process of making wine in terra cotta pots buried in the ground.
We had to try a "Georgian Snickers bar", more formally known as "churchela". It's nuts stringed together (literally - they are held together by a thread poked through each kernel) and then repeatedly dipped in grape juice syrup, like making a candle. They have a waxy surface as a result and supposedly keep very well. To eat, you chew the endmost nut off the string. Here's Eero enjoying a bite.
On the way to Sighnaghi we planned to stop at Bodbe Monastery, where Saint Nino's remains are interred. It was a little tricky to find, as there are three exits labeled "Bodbe" on the way from Tbilisi to Sighnaghi. Note: take the third one. Also, if a road looks small and relatively untraveled, and it goes winding steeply down the side of a mountain, that's not the way, either.
St. Nino, a woman, is one of Georgia's patron saints. She is credited with bringing Christianity to Georgia in the 4th century, as a 14 year old girl. When she came to Georgia she fashioned a cross from grapevines, so her symbol is a cross with the crossbar bent downwards on both sides. "Nino" is as common girl's name in Georgia as "Mary" or "Maria" in Roman Catholic countries.
The nuns support their convent by selling shrine cards, handicrafts and enamel jewelry. Here's a picture Cielo took of the bell tower at Bodbe.
The winery not only has wine and food, it also has examples of different types of Georgian rugs, each of which were nicely explained by Amanda, an American who relocated to Georgia years ago to work at the winery.
We also got the see the old wine cellar.
Back up at the surface, we got to see the food prep area.
There were some really nice details in the carving on the wooden trough.
Amanda showed us the underground wine vessels. They can be really huge underground. Amanda said this one had been moved here from another old winery location.
This is a Georgian oven, similar to a traditional tandoor. It is filled with dry grape vines, which are lit and turn into a bonfire, heating the oven up to glowing-level heat. Bread is cooked by being slapped on the inside surface. Multiple families will bring their bread dough to share the heat. Amanda said a community would light one of these every three days or so.
She also said you have to be careful when reaching in - the sides can be red hot. So cooks work in pairs - one person reaches in, and the other holds a kind of big forked stick down into the oven for you to grab onto if you lose your balance (instead of grabbing the hot sides of the oven).
The meal we had was really great. Several kinds of fish, vegetables and wine, among other things. The most well known Georgian wine is Saperavi, and Pheasant's Tears makes a nice one. One of their more interesting wines was a Kisi, a very dry white wine.
After lunch we walked over to see the old city wall. Sighnaghi is not a new town, but the downtown area has been radically renovated.
The old city wall is pretty cool. We would have loved to spend more time in Sighnaghi, but about five minutes after this picture was taken, a full blown rainstorm started, and we decided it was time to head back to Tbilisi.
