Our story begins in Western Georgia, where generations of winemakers have nurtured vines in the region’s fertile soils. Among them was Alex’s grandfather, Nodari, who continued the family’s winemaking traditions even during the Soviet era, producing wine for the family in hand-buried qvevri.

As a child, Alex spent long summers at his grandparents’ house in Obcha, where the small family vineyard and marani were at the heart of daily life. He and his brother and cousins were sometimes allowed into the marani, watching their grandfather work. The dim light, the scent of fermenting grapes, and the quiet magic of wine aging in buried qvevri left a lasting impression—one that would eventually lead us back to Georgia.

Alex learned from Babua Nodari not just how to make wine, but the unwritten rules of when to harvest, when to transfer wine between qvevri, and how to respect the natural rhythm of the process. By the time we started making wine in Geguti in 2016, Nodari had sadly passed away. But we sat down with his wife, Bebia Lili, who generously shared the knowledge, traditions, and practices that she and her husband had cultivated together over decades. These insights—combined with innovative processes and inspiration from all over Western Georgia and beyond—shape the way we make wine today.