Wine tourism is developing day by day in Kakheti. Family wineries-Maranis have become more popular recently. Numisi-a family marani in the small village of Velistsikhe, Gurjaani is unique not only in Kakheti but in Georgia as it dates back to XVI century.
The history of the winery started years ago when Nunu’s neighbor donated the land to her which used to be a landfill. While cleaning the area they found the ruins of old marani with qvevris. They are kept in Numisi today. Nunu and Misha restored the ancient winery at their own expenses and now stepping in the world of the oldest XVI century Numisi Museum& Marani you will find yourself in the ancient Georgia. The three-storey building is built in ancient classical architecture with white river stones and bricks where there is an amazing combination of winery, museum and a restaurant.
As Nunu says, years ago she couldn’t imagine Numisi would become a tourism center. Today they receive 15 000 tourists a year from all over the world.
You need a half day to see everything in details. You should take a glance at the large collection of copper, glass, pottery, and timber vessels (mostly used for wine drinking), as well as the other items like woman jewelry, necklaces, rings, XVIII century wine copper kitchen utensils, old carpets and furniture and of course Satsnakheli for grape pressing. On the third floor there is conference hall with a grand piano Becker and a fireplace which belonged to one of the Lords of Georgia. In the yard there is an old wooden grain storage ‘Begheli’. All these old staffs are collected by her for 5 years.
Nunu Kardenakhishvili, the owner of the Marani&Museum offers a great opportunity for history enthusiasts and wine lovers to discover seldom seen artifacts of Georgia’s history as well as tasting two qvevri wine varieties Saperavi and Rkatsiteli both dry and semi-sweet.
Tika Bujiashvili
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