Tsinandali Estate

A hotel on the Chavchavadze estate

For centuries Tsinandali belonged to the princely house of Chavchavadze, and it owes its golden age to Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, a poet, soldier and patron. Here, at the foot of the Tsiv-Gombori range where the slopes run down into the Alazani Valley, wine was bottled for the first time in Georgia, joining an eight thousand year old tradition with European methods. The old oenotheque still holds the prince's collection, more than sixteen and a half thousand bottles of seventy different wines.

Beside the house museum and the garden stands a contemporary Radisson Collection hotel run by Silk Hospitality. Its 124 rooms were designed by the Spanish designers Cristina Gabás and Damián Figueras, each inspired by one of the seasons: calm colours, natural materials and windows onto the Caucasus range, the vineyards or the forest. On the roof is a pool that seems to spill straight into the mountains, and the spa has a Finnish sauna, a steam room and an outdoor pool.

Kakhetian dishes made from local produce are served at Natella with the estate's own wines, breakfast and lunch are at Prince Alexander, and Tsinandali wines are tasted at the Gaumarjos wine bar. The estate's own forty hectares of vines lie at six and seven hundred metres. In the open air stands an amphitheatre for twelve hundred people, and it hosts the Tsinandali music festival.