Young Wine Festival Tbilisi 2026: Celebrating Georgia's 8,000-Year Wine Culture at Mtatsminda Park, May 9

Every wine country has a moment when the new harvest becomes ready and the winemakers open their cellars. In France, it is Beaujolais Nouveau. In Georgia, it is the New Wine Festival (Young Wine Festival) at Mtatsminda Park — and the Georgian version is different from any other young wine celebration in the world, because Georgian wine itself is different from any other wine in the world.

On Saturday, May 9, 2026, the 17th annual New Wine Festival returns to Mtatsminda Park in Tbilisi — high on the Holy Mountain above the city, with panoramic views over the rooftops and the Mtkvari River below — for a full day of new wine from the 2025 harvest, live polyphonic singing, winemaker encounters, and the opening of the clay qvevri vessels in which Georgia has been making wine for 8,000 years.

Entry is completely free. Doors open at 11:00, festival runs until 18:00.

Georgia and Wine: An 8,000-Year Relationship

Before writing about the festival, it is worth explaining why Georgian young wine is different from the young wine of any other country — and why celebrating it in Tbilisi, at Mtatsminda Park, carries the weight that it does.

Georgia is the oldest wine-producing country in the world. Archaeological evidence from the Neolithic settlement of Gadachrili Gora in the eastern Marneuli region confirms wine production dating back to approximately 6000 BCE — earlier than any other evidence of winemaking found anywhere on earth. The country has been making wine continuously since.

The method that makes Georgian wine unique is the Qvevri — a large, egg-shaped clay vessel that is buried in the ground up to its neck, sealed with beeswax, and used to ferment, mature, and store wine. The Qvevri method was recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013 — a formal acknowledgement that what Georgian winemakers do is not just agriculture but a living cultural tradition of global significance.

The wine that Georgian families and small producers seal into their qvevris after each autumn harvest matures through the winter and is ready to be opened and tasted in spring. The New Wine Festival in May is the annual occasion at which that opening happens publicly — the 17th annual ceremony at which the city comes to the mountain to taste what the land produced in the previous year's autumn.

In 2026, the wine being poured is from the 2025 harvest — a harvest about which Georgian winemakers, viticulturalists, and the National Wine Agency (the government body supporting the Georgian wine industry) will already have formed opinions that the festival allows visitors to taste directly.

The 17th Annual Festival: What Happens on May 9

The New Wine Festival (also referred to as the Young Wine Festival in English-language promotion) has grown every year since its first edition in 2010 — a trajectory that the Georgian Wine Club, which organises the event, attributes to the combination of Georgia's expanding wine culture and the festival's own consistent quality.

The Qvevri Opening Ceremony

The festival opens with the traditional qvevri-opening ceremony — one of the most genuinely moving moments in the Georgian food and drink calendar.

A specially selected family winery brings a qvevri to the festival — a clay vessel that has been sealed since the previous autumn, containing a new wine that no one has tasted yet. The Georgian Wine Club chooses this wine as the symbolic first pour of the festival.

The ceremony is accompanied by the Georgian polyphonic song "Mravaljamier" — the traditional Georgian feast song whose title translates approximately as "Many Years" and which is sung at celebrations, toasts, and significant moments throughout Georgian cultural life. UNESCO recognised Georgian polyphonic singing as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2001, twelve years before it recognised the qvevri method — making the opening ceremony of the New Wine Festival a layered act of cultural heritage in its own right.

The sealing is broken. The wine is poured. The festival begins.

Hundreds of New Wines from the 2025 Harvest

The main body of the festival is a comprehensive tasting from the full range of Georgian wine production — hundreds of new wines from the 2025 harvest presented by their makers:

• Large Georgian wine companies — the commercial producers whose wines are exported to Russia, China, the EU, and beyond; names like Teliani Valley, Georgian Wines and Spirits (GWS), Badagoni, Tbilvino, and the other major operations that form the industrial backbone of the 80+ million bottle annual export volume Georgia now produces
• Medium-sized wineries — the mid-scale producers who have built quality reputations in the last decade of Georgian wine's international emergence
• Small and family cellars — the producers who make wine in the traditional way, in quantities that rarely reach export markets; the new wine festival is one of the best opportunities to taste wines that cannot be found in any shop or restaurant outside Georgia

The festival hosts producers from across Georgia's wine regions:

• Kakheti — the eastern region that produces approximately 70% of all Georgian wine; home of the Alazani valley, the Rkatsiteli and Saperavi grape varieties that define Georgian wine internationally, and the most concentrated tradition of qvevri winemaking
• Kartli — the central region surrounding Tbilisi and the Mtkvari River, known for lighter whites and sparkling wine production
• Imereti — the western region whose semi-qvevri methods produce the distinctive amber-golden wines that have become particularly fashionable internationally
• Racha-Lechkhumi — the mountainous northwest region, producing rare and highly regarded natural semi-sweet wines from the Alexandrouli and Mujuretuli grapes
• Adjara, Guria, Samegrelo — the southwestern and western coastal regions with their own distinct viticultural traditions

The Wine Seminars and Educational Programme

The New Wine Festival is not just a tasting — it is an educational event designed to develop Georgian wine culture among both domestic and international audiences.

The programme typically includes:

• Wine seminars — guided sessions on Georgian grape varieties, wine regions, and the qvevri method, presented by wine educators and professionals from the Georgian Wine Club and partner organisations
• Professional tastings — structured comparisons between different wine styles, regions, and producers, guided by sommeliers and winemakers
• Meet the winemaker sessions — the opportunity to speak directly with the people who made the wine you are tasting; one of the most valued elements of the festival for serious wine enthusiasts, who can ask specific questions about the 2025 harvest conditions, the grape varieties, the fermentation method, and the winemaker's own assessment of what the year produced

Music and Cultural Performances

The performance programme runs alongside the tasting through the full day:

• Georgian polyphonic singing — ensembles perform the traditional vocal music that UNESCO recognised as Intangible Heritage; hearing three-part polyphony in the open air of Mtatsminda Park, with wine in hand and the city spread below, is one of the specific experiences that makes this festival different from any other wine event in Europe
• Folk performances — traditional Georgian dance and music alongside the polyphony
• Contemporary Georgian music — singers performing modern compositions that mix the traditional and the contemporary, reflecting Georgia's own relationship with its cultural heritage

The Wine Raffle

One of the most anticipated elements of the festival is the raffle of 10 cases of fine Georgian wine — available to all festival attendees. The raffle is drawn during the afternoon programme, and the cases typically include bottles from the festival's featured wineries.

Mtatsminda Park: A Festival Location Unlike Any Other

The choice of Mtatsminda Park as the New Wine Festival venue is not incidental — it is the essential element that makes the festival what it is.

Mtatsminda translates from Georgian as "Holy Mountain" — the hilltop park above Tbilisi's Old Town, accessible by funicular railway from the Sololaki district and by road. The funicular was built in 1905 — one of the oldest in the Caucasus — and remains the most atmospheric way to arrive at the park: the cable car climbing the steep hillside above Tbilisi's rooftops, the city spreading below as you rise, arriving at the park with the full panorama of the Mtkvari River valley and the distant Caucasus mountains as context.

The park sits at approximately 728 metres above sea level — high enough above the city that the air is noticeably cooler and cleaner than the streets of Tbilisi in May, and the light has the particular quality of elevated open spaces. The festival's outdoor format allows the park's natural setting — trees, paths, open lawns, views — to become part of the experience rather than a backdrop to an indoor event.

Key Mtatsminda Park features:

• Funicular station at the summit — the historic upper funicular building, dating from 1938, is one of Tbilisi's most photographed architectural landmarks
• Panoramic viewing terrace — the most dramatic viewpoint over Tbilisi's full extent, from the Old Town and Narikala Fortress to the modern towers of the Vake and Saburtalo districts
• Restaurants and cafes — the park's restaurants serve traditional Georgian food alongside the wine festival stalls
• Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures — the historic cemetery on the Mtatsminda hillside where Georgia's greatest writers, artists, and cultural figures are buried, including Ilia Chavchavadze (the 19th-century writer and national figure canonised by the Georgian Orthodox Church in 1987) and the poet Akaki Tsereteli; the Pantheon adds a layer of cultural seriousness to the park's identity that a simple amusement park does not carry
• Amusement rides — the park also has fairground attractions that make it a destination for families with children throughout the festival day

Practical Information for May 9, 2026

Date: Saturday, May 9, 2026

Time: 11:00 – 18:00

Venue: Mtatsminda Park, Tbilisi

Edition: 17th annual

Entry: Free — no ticket required to enter the festival

Organizer: Georgian Wine Club

Supported by: National Wine Agency of Georgia

Official information partner: Marani / vinoge.com

Festival partners: Mtatsminda Park; 8000 Harvest wine store chain

Getting to Mtatsminda Park:

• By funicular (recommended): The Mtatsminda Funicular departs from the lower station in the Sololaki district (Chavchavadze Square funicular station) — the upper station is at the park entrance; journey time approximately 8–10 minutes; funicular tickets available on-site; first departure daily from approximately 09:00
• By taxi/Bolt: The road to Mtatsminda Park runs up the hillside; taxi from the Old Town approximately 15–20 minutes by road; fare approximately GEL 10–15 (~€3.50–5.50)
• By bus: City bus connections to the funicular lower station from Freedom Square and Rustaveli Avenue

Getting to Tbilisi:

• By air to Tbilisi International Airport (TBS): Direct flights from Amsterdam (~4 hours), Frankfurt (~3.5 hours), Vienna (~3 hours), Istanbul (~2 hours), Dubai (~2.5 hours), Tel Aviv (~3 hours)
• Airport to city centre: Metro Line 2 to Rustaveli Station (~20 minutes); taxi/Bolt approximately GEL 25–35 (~€9–13)

Weather in Tbilisi in early May:

Early May in Tbilisi brings 18–24°C temperatures, long afternoons, and generally low rainfall. A light layer is sensible for the evening funicular ride back down the mountain, but the festival day itself is typically comfortable and warm.

Mtatsminda in May, Wine from the 2025 Harvest

On Saturday, May 9, 2026, the Georgian Wine Club opens its 17th festival with the sound of polyphonic voices singing "Mravaljamier" and a qvevri being unsealed for the first time since autumn 2025. The Caucasus mountains are on the horizon. The city of Tbilisi is below. And in front of you are hundreds of wines from producers who have been making wine on this land for 8,000 years.

Free entry. Funicular up the mountain. Mtatsminda Park. May 9. Be there.

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