We headed down from the mountains on our way to Gori, the home town of one despot dictator J Stalin. Prior to be introduced to the leader that directed the death of up to 20 million people, we of course had a winery to head to!
We headed to Merebashvili‘s Winery. This family winery is located on the outside of Gori and much of their wine production is through under ground clay vessels called Kvevri (pictured below).
We gained the family history, along with wine making in Georgia. Wine has been made here for over 8,000 years. Over time there were more than 10,000 varieties of wine grape in the world, Georgia was home to around 525 varieties prior to Russian occupation. Today around 46 varieties remain.
We were having lunch in the winery as well, again it was another occasion of eating to meet Georgian social standards (sooooo much food!). We began a normal wine tasting with the daughter of the winery, of their classic white and red, then food joined us, as did their sparkling oldest son.
When he discovered that we were Australian, he declared his love for the Wallabies. I asked him “Why, did we lose to Georgia?!”. He responded with “No! They are super hot!” It was at this point that he decided we needed to try their full vintage line, their liquor line of various Cha cha, and to involve a German couple in a never ending toasting comedy routine! He was a lot of fun, was super generous and made our time fun. When he heard we were off to the Stalin museum next, he poured an extra big red wine and said that we’d certainly need it!
From Merebashvili‘s Winery, we headed to the Stalin Museum. We had a very pro- Stalin guide, who Stephen said needed to be plugged back in, and who I said needed a new personality card. It’s hard to imagine going to a similar museum dedicated to Hitler……. Aside from the atrocities, the notes I took from our highly intimidating guide are below:
- Stalin sung in the monastery choir
- These words were written by the blood of soldiers
- She died of typhus
- She died of suicide, she had mental problems
- These are his personal things, you can see….
Maybe it was a good idea to head into the Stalin museum after being served too many wines and Cha Cha from an overly gay wine maker of the region? Certainly made confronting the blatant disgusting rule of a murderous dictator a little easier to sit through?
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