Georgia

Pictorial coverage for the National Wine Agency of Georgia.

In late 2025 I travelled through the wine lands of Georgia – both the birthplace of wine and its spiritual homeland – with the National Wine Agency of Georgia. Here are some of the shots from the job. The above image is of Georgian winemaker Iago Bitarishvili, who I wrote about here. I introduced this article with the words: “It would be hard to find an individual who has had more influence over the fortunes of a nation’s wines than Georgian winemaker Iago Bitarishvili. He has, in many ways, both introduced and then carried Georgian wine in general into the hearts and minds of wine lovers the world over. He’s done this by making great, single-minded, single-vineyard wines – as deep in character and in tradition as they are in flavour – as a starting point, but also by being the first vigneron in his country to be certified organic in both the vineyard and in the winery, and then by taking his wines into the lap of the world. One hundred percent of Iago’s production is exported.”

The below image of Nino Gvantseladze of Georgian winery Ori Marani was used to accompany this article.

Pictures of the Samba Hotel and restaurant, Tbilisi. The Samba Hotel is as much of a “must visit” as a hotel complex can be.

Pictures of Borjomi Mineral Water (above) featured in the article here.

Old buried amphora at the Teliani Valley winery, Georgia (above).

Winemaker Sandro Kurdadze at the Papari Valley.

Worker (above) on top of the stainless steel tanks at Tbilvino winery, Georgia

Top left is Nino Kakutia of Lobster Pet Nat. Bottom left is Iago Bitarishvili.

A wedding at the amazing Chateau Mukhrani (above) in Georgia.

In varying condition, you see some very cool cars in Georgia.

I don’t know much about Leyla’s Plov House in Tbilisi. But I can vouch for the beauty of its curb-side appeal (above).

A truck re-loads at the Tbilvino winery.

Stalin's wine cellar in Tbilisi.

Incredibly wine country to be asked to photograph. Incredible country full stop. Bucket-list worthy.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of the highly respected The Winefront site.

Mattinson has been a respected wine critic and photo-journalist since 1987. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the prized Best Australian Sports Writing Award.

Mattinson puts a score out of 100 on every wine that he reviews. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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Peter Dredge