DAY 8
Bodbe Monastery of St. Nino
Saint Nino was the one who began preaching Christianity in Georgia during the 4th century and became the most respected and honored saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Today, the Bodbe Monastery serves as a nunnery and a shrine for the relics of Saint Nino (Source: folkways, 2017).
Did their zip lining and it was fun!!
Reached the top of 📍Sighnaghi Wall with my tour guide.
Many beautiful and tragic history of Georgia are linked to the Chavchavadze family. Alexander Chavchavadze was a writer, translator, polyglot, a big landowner and a great poet. His home became the center of Georgian intellectual life during the 19th century where culture and social figures gathered. Georgia is also known for their fine quality of wine because of Chavchavadze as he invited the best winemakers from Europe. He built the first vineyard with them that produced wines according to European technologies. The first wines were then produced in 1841, and the wine cellar holds thousands of wines that were produced from this date onwards (Source: advantour, n.d.).
The family tree of Chavchavadze ^
Nearby to House Museum of Alexander Chavchavadze is, Shumi Winery which is founded in 2001 and is known as the leading producer of high quality Georgian wines. Shumi Winery is from an old Georgian word that means authentic, undiluted wine. It owns 300 hectares of vineyards in various microzones throughout Georgia, each with its own terroir, climate, and history. The impressive vineyard collection of over 400 indigenous varieties as well as their museum of ancient wine artifacts.
The equipments used to produce wine ^^
The wine of Georgia has a total of 8,000 years history which is then passed down to Greece, Egypt > Rome > Europe > Rest of the world.
The metal cuff on the vines were calculated to have decayed 8,000 years ago which proved that Georgia do have a 8,000 years of history. The metal cuff is used to connect different species of grapes together to produce more varieties. There were a total of 500+ high quality grape species produced.
Roses are usually planted first to provide buffer time to find out the root cause of the infection before affecting the grapevines.
These watches on the tree are donated by visitors (usually spoiled) to symbolized that they witness the history of Georgian wine. They asked if I would like to contribute but I rejected as my watch is working fine…😰
Ended of Day 8 with a scrumptious dinner 😋