Seattle, WA - Explore the little-known country of Georgiaon a culinary and cultural caravan that traverses a land where deeply-held traditions are passed down through generations around the dinner table. In the company of an ethnologist and winemaker, MIR Corporation guests will meet artisans, monks, chefs and winemakers on a 14-day tour as they discover the history and living traditions of Georgia. Taste your way from the mountains to the sea on MIR's new small group journey, “A Taste of Georgia: Wine, Cuisine & Culture” onOctober 5-18, 2014.
“The Georgian table has always been, and still is, the greatest place to learn about Georgian culture,” said MIR Corporation Vice President Annie Lucas. “This is where knowledge is handed down, where family relations are solidified, where plans for the future are laid, and where children learn the old songs and the old traditions.”
Highlights of the tour include:
- Sampling natural wines made by monks at Alaverdi monastery
- Preparing a memorable meal with the chef at Pheasant’s Tears winery
- Learning how to make qvevri, huge earthenware vessels used in a traditional Georgian wine-making method
- Meeting with a master weaver at a Tushetian textile workshop
- Tasting Georgian “street food,” like the warm cheese-stuffed bread called katchapouri
- Accompanying a chef to the village market
- Driving through saw-toothed mountains and tidy green valleys to the secluded Svaneti region, known for its UNESCO-listed medieval watchtowers and proud highland people
- Witnessing a performance by Svanetian singers of the unmatched Georgian art of polyphonic choral music
- Sampling Mingrelian cuisine, including the polenta-like ghomi, handed down for thousands of years