Four Georgian Wine Stories for Father’s Day
20 June 2026
Father's Day gift guides tend to be predictable: a bottle of whisky or aged Cabernet, or a little symbolic trinket bought at the last minute, because we are all so busy nowadays.
Georgia offers a different type of a meaningful wine gift for Father's Day. Behind many bottles are stories about fathers and sons, grandparents and grandchildren, family traditions and ideas passed down over generations.
Here are four Georgian wine stories that are as interesting as the wines themselves, and the best thing is that you can order these wines online and get them delivered to your dad as a special gift!
Let's see which one appeals to you most.
The Chkhaidze Brothers — From One Tiny Gurian Marani to Wine Giants
Did Antimoz Chkhaidze know that the wine he made in a small marani in the Gurian village of Askana would eventually inspire two of the biggest names in Georgian wine and the country's first whisky producer?
Probably not.
At the time, it was simply family work. Taking care of vineyards, doing harvests, cleaning qvevris and treating guests arriving at the table. Like countless other Georgian families, the Chkhaidzes made wine because that was what people did.
Generations later, Antimoz's great-grandchildren would go on to create some of the most recognisable drinks businesses in the country. Zura Chkhaidze built KTW. Gocha Chkhaidze founded the Askaneli Brothers. Jimsher Chkhaidze created Kartveli Wines and Georgia's first whisky project.
Today, KTW and Askaneli export millions of bottles around the world. Their wines can be found from London to Tokyo. Yet all three brothers still point back to the same place: a modest family cellar in Guria and a great-grandfather who loved making wine.
It is one of those stories that reminds you how quickly a family tradition can grow when the right people inherit it.
Buy this wine in the UK:
Solomnishvili — Father’s Memory and the House #22
Some wineries tell family stories through photographs. The Solomnishvili family chose to tell theirs through a bottle.
After the death of his father, the founder created a wine called "Father". Simple enough. But there is another layer hidden in the design. The Georgian word for father, მამა, visually resembles the handwritten number 22, which was also the family's house number.
The result is a wine that brings together father’ legacy, a family home and winemaking tradition.
There is something very Georgian about that. Important family stories are often cherished through symbols, toasts, objects that carry meaning.
Buy this wine in the UK:
Dakishvili — Three Generations Around Wine
The Dakishvili family represents something very familiar in Georgia: wine knowledge passing naturally from one generation to the next.
Gogi Dakishvili became one of the important figures in Georgian wine during the years following independence, helping restore confidence in the country's winemaking industry.
He learned his craft in the Soviet period in the Ukrainian wineries, but also made wine the Georgian way once he returned home. He bought the vineyards that belonged to his family before forced collectivisation, and built one of the most recognisable brands, Dakishvili Family Selection, while also making wine in other wineries.
His son, Temuri Dakishvili, followed him into the profession and built a reputation as one of Georgia's leading modern winemakers.
He's got his own ideas and his own vision, but always remained connected to the Georgian varieties and traditions that shaped him in the first place.
Today, another generation is already growing up around vineyards, cellars and harvests.
Many Georgian wine families work like this: nobody sits the children down and formally announces that they are learning about wine. They simply grow up around it. One day they are helping carry boxes during harvest, and a few years later they are discussing fermentation temperatures over dinner.
Buy this wine in the UK:
Dakishvili Family Selection Kisi
Nareklishvili & Sons — Five Generation of Experience
Not every family wine story is about staying in one place. Ivane Nareklishvili grew up in Velistsikhe as a third-generation winemaker, but before establishing his own winery he spent years studying and working elsewhere. He worked for some of Georgia's leading producers, spent time in Italy and eventually pursued doctoral studies in oenology.
Along the way he became convinced that Georgian wine did not need to choose between tradition and modernity.
The ancient methods and qvevri were already there. What modern education could add was precision, consistency and a deeper understanding of why certain techniques worked.
When he founded Qvevri Wine Cellar, he brought those ideas together. The wines are fermented with native yeasts in qvevri and made from organically grown grapes, but they are produced with the attention to detail of somebody who has spent decades studying his craft.
Today the winery produces around 50,000 bottles a year, and its wines have found a home in specialist retailers such as Lea & Sandeman and on some of London's best wine lists.
Perhaps that is another kind of inheritance. Taking what your family gives you, leaving for a while, learning something new, and then bringing it back home.
Buy this wine in the UK:
Nareklishvili & Sons Saperavi Qvevri
One of the things we enjoy most about Georgian wine is that family stories still feel genuine. They are not invented by marketing departments or added later because somebody decided a label needed more personality.
The vineyard really did belong to a grandfather. The cellar really was built by a father. The children really did grow up around harvests.
And sometimes, many years later, those stories end up in a bottle, which feels like a good reason to raise a glass this Father's Day!
