📍 Kartli

Kartli is a historic region of central Georgia along the Mtkvari (Kura): today Shida Kartli (centre Gori) and Kvemo Kartli (centre Rustavi). Per the National Wine Agency, vineyards lie at 450–700 m in the Kura, Liakhvi and Ksani valleys. Known for a classic European style and quality sparkling wines; only wine from here is called Atenuri. ¹

Subzones and grapes. The agency distinguishes three subzones: Kvemo, Shida and Zemo Kartli. White varieties are Chinuri, Goruli Mtsvane and Budeshuri, red ones Tavkveri, Shavkapito and Saperavi, and both traditional and European winemaking methods are used. ¹ With 441,630 inhabitants, Kvemo Kartli is the third most populous region of Georgia. ⁵

Atenuri. The Ateni micro-zone lies south of Gori, on the right bank of the Mtkvari, in the Tana gorge, with vineyards at 580–750 m. The wine is made only from Chinuri, Goruli Mtsvane and Aligoté picked at 18% sugar or more, at most 10 t per hectare and 650 litres of wine per tonne, and all processing and bottling take place in Ateni. ²

What Atenuri is like. The dry white has at least 11% alcohol and up to 4 g/l of sugar; the sparkling and semi-sparkling versions have at least 10.5%. Sparkling Atenuri is made by the bottle or tank method and sold 9 or 6 months after the second fermentation. Already in the 18th century the geographer Vakhushti rated Ateni wine the best in Kartli. ²

Ateni's climate. The area gets 2,200–2,300 hours of sunshine a year, averages 10.7 °C and receives about 560 mm of rain at 680 m. July and August are dry, so the vineyards are irrigated, and hail falls on about two days a year. ²

Okami. This micro-zone in Kaspi municipality covers 17 villages on both banks of the Mtkvari at 500–800 m. White Okami is made from Chinuri or Goruli Mtsvane, red from Shavkapito, with yields of up to 8 t per hectare. The climate is dry: about 500 mm of rain and 11.4 °C on average. The local winery was founded in 1965 by Tengiz Kekelidze. ³

Asuretuli Shala. The village of Asureti in Tetritskaro municipality was founded in 1818 by German Swabian colonists as Elisabethtal. Local history says a German, Otto Schall, found the old Asuretuli Shavi variety in the forest, and the wine from it was named Shala after him. Today it is a dry red appellation from vineyards at 400–750 m, where up to 15% Tavkveri and Shavkapito may be added; the three-storey German wine cellar became a heritage monument in 2017. ⁶

Kvemo Kartli is also home to the ancient Shulaveri settlements: according to a 2017 PNAS study, vessels from Shulaveri Gora and Gadachrili Gora, about 50 km south of Tbilisi, held the oldest chemical traces of grape wine, around 6000–5800 BC. ⁴

Why it matters to you. Kartli is not just sparkling wine: it also makes dry whites and reds. ¹ The name Atenuri applies only to the Ateni micro-zone near Gori, and Asuretuli Shala only to the village of Asureti. ²⁶