Georgia is often called the cradle of wine — a country with 8,000 years of continuous winemaking history. But surprisingly, Georgia’s first wine bar did not open until 2012, and this was  ღVino Underground.

How did it happen that a country with one of the oldest wine traditions in the world did not have a wine bar for such a long time?

During the Soviet period, Georgian wine developed within a centralized system where small private wineries and independent wine production were practically prohibited. Wine belonged to large state enterprises, and there was almost no space for individual producers or family wineries in the way we understand them today.

Despite the restrictions of the communist period, families in Georgia still continued making wine at home, preserving centuries-old traditions. However, the practice of small producers bottling wine and selling it under their own names practically was prohibited.

Communist-style mass production prioritized quantity, where individuality had no place. As a result, bottled wine became associated with low-quality industrial production. The market was dominated by semi-sweet red and white wines aimed at the Russian market, or low-quality dry wines, often falsified, which never respected by Georgians.

At the same time, homemade wine remained connected with trust, family traditions, and authenticity. In those days, you would rarely see a large Georgian supra where bottled wine was the main drink. More often, wine came from a family marani, a relative, a neighbor, or someone personally known. In Georgia, wine was never only a product — it was part of life itself.

For generations there was a clear separation — homemade wine belonged to family maranis and village cellars, while bottled wine belonged to mass production.

2005 became a turning point.

That year, natural wines from small Georgian wineries were exported outside Georgia (in Italy) for the first time. This important process was led by Soliko Tsaishvili (Our Wine) and Iago Bitarishvili (Iago’s Wine). They were among the first people to bring natural wine to the international market in a completely new form — bottled and labeled. Today, this moment is considered the rebirth of Georgia’s natural wine.

At that time, for many people, seeing homemade-style natural wine in a bottle was something completely new.

The first exports brought international recognition, but despite this, winemakers still struggled greatly to sell their natural wines inside Georgia. At that time, introducing natural wine into even a few wine shops and restaurants was practically impossible.

It was a period when small winemakers producing natural wine in qvevri were often considered strange people, especially by representatives of the industrial wine world. Some sommeliers and famous industrial-style winemakers described qvevri as an outdated vessel trapped in the past with no place in the future of Georgian wine.

Rather than waiting for the market to change, pioneering natural winemakers — Soliko Tsaishvili, Malkhaz and Zaza Jakeli, John Wurdeman, Nika Bakhia, Niki Antadze, Ramaz Nikoladze, and Kakha Berishvili — decided to find their own solution and opened the first wine bar in Tbilisi, ღVino Underground, at 15 Galaktion Tabidze Street. Later, Nika Bakhia and the Jakeli brothers left the project, and I joined the founders in their place.

On May 17, 2013, the doors of Georgia’s first wine bar opened, and a new chapter in Georgia’s natural wine movement began.

The beginning was difficult. It took a long time to convince wine lovers that naturally made wine from a small marani could be bottled and labeled. It was also difficult for people to understand that natural wine could be cloudy, contain sediment, or have aromas and appearances unusual for the wine understanding of that period.

Every founder had their own role in developing the wine bar, and everyone tried to help in whatever way they could. But Ramaz Nikoladze took on a special role here. He became the host of ღVino Underground and later its face.

He created a completely new type of relationship with the people entering this new world. He did nothing special — he was simply natural, exactly as he was in real life. Sometimes, if he was in the mood, he would speak about wine for hours, and sometimes he would barely say anything at all.

His personality and character played an important role in shaping a new generation of natural wine consumers — through endless conversations, tastings, and education that people often received alongside drinking large amounts of wine.

ღVino Underground became a place where wine snobbery did not exist. It was a free space with an anti-industrial way of thinking.

As the bar’s local popularity grew, its international recognition grew as well, and John Wurdeman played a decisive role in this. Foreign wine writers, famous sommeliers, importers, and distributors visiting Georgia often came first to ღVino  Underground, where they discovered the wines of emerging natural winemakers. For these winemakers, this became a window into the civilized wine world.

By 2015, ღVino Underground had become a true locomotive of Georgia’s natural wine movement and had become very well known both inside and outside Georgia.

After 2015, new wine bars started opening one after another around Tbilisi. Today there are already dozens of wine bars in Georgia, and most of them are probably connected directly or indirectly to Vino Underground.

Many people may not know that ღVino Underground is also the birthplace of Zero Compromise — the region’s largest and most influential natural wine fair. The first Zero Compromise took place inside ღVino Underground itself with around 15 wineries participating. At that time, there were that few of us.

Like many independent wine bars and cultural spaces around the world, ღVino Underground faced one of its most difficult challenges during the COVID pandemic. The problems continued after the pandemic as well, and the founders of the bar decided that the place needed a new life and a new chapter.

In May 2026, ღVino Underground was joined by new partners — true wine lovers and people who shared the same ideas. Now the bar is starting a new life with new ideas and new energy. Yet the philosophy remains unchanged.

ღVino Underground was not only Georgia’s first wine bar. It created an entirely new ecosystem around natural wine and played an important role in shaping modern Georgian wine culture, whose influence will remain forever.

And perhaps this is only the beginning of the story

Written by Zura Mgvdliasvhili