Venues in Tsinandali

Tsinandali is a village in Kakheti, Georgia, situated in the district of Telavi, 79 km east of Tbilisi. It is noted for the palace and historic winery-estate which once belonged to the 19th-century aristocratic poet Alexander Chavchavadze (1786–1846) and which, since 2019, is the venue for the Tsinandali Festival.

Tsinandali Historic garden takes 12 acres of land today, but it is known to be way more big during Prince Alexander's time. Alexander Chavchavadze invited European landscape architects and directed a lot of money to build first European style garden in Georgia. Tsinandali Garden is considered to be one of the few remaining examples of early 19th Century landscape designs, here visitors can see not only local species of trees and shrubs but also species from every continent (Taxus baccata, Ginkgo Biloba, Cryptomeria japonica, Magnolia grandiflora, Maclura Pomifera and so on) and together with garden's unique design patterns. Tsinandali Garden's uniqueness is caused bu the organic merge of European symmetric and Georgian natural patterns. It mostly reminds its viewers of English gardens from 19th century. Some resemble Tsinandali to Richmond and Kew Gardens. In 2019 Tsinandali Garden became the member of European Network of Historic Gardens and was included into the historic gardens' touristic routs.

Prince Alexander Chavchavadze built wine cellar and wine factory in his estate in 1830s. He also started collecting wine collection and today Tsinandali Oenotheque counts over 16 500 historic bottles of wine starting from 1814 till today. Among them should be distinguished Polish Honey (1814) Château d'Yquem (1861) and first Georgian bottled wine of 1841, Saperavi (This is the oldest bottled wine in Georgia) 19th-century wine cellar is unique with its engineering, that allows to keep constant temperature and humidity in the chambers that are best for wine keeping. In the 19th century a fashionable salon was located in Tsinandali estate, where aristocrats from different countries gathered lived a stormy life. Alexander Dumas once compared Tsinandali to a paradise. In 1888 Tsinandali Wine cellar together with other heritage transferred to Romanov imperial family. and winery was renovated by the architect Alexander Ozerov. Today Tsinandali Wine Cellar still hosts big wine collection as well as providing venues for conferences and classical music concerts. Starting in 2019 it hosts Tsinandali Classical music festival.