Gurjaani and Kvelatsminda Church

Gurjaani lies on the lower slopes of the Tsiv-Gombori range, roughly halfway between Telavi and Sighnaghi on the main Kakheti highway. It is a working wine town rather than a showpiece: big wineries, family cellars and roadside stalls hung with churchkhela line its approaches, and the surrounding municipality is one of the largest grape-growing districts in Georgia. The town gives its name to Gurjaani, a dry white appellation blended from Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane, while the nearby village of Mukuzani lends its name to one of the country's classic dry Saperavi reds.

The main reason to leave the highway is Kvelatsminda, the Church of All Saints, on a slope just outside the town. Built in the early Middle Ages of rough stone and brick, it carries two domes on a single roof, a layout with no surviving parallel among Georgia's medieval churches. It is small, plain and usually quiet. Pair it with a tasting in Mukuzani or Velistsikhe and you have a rewarding half day away from the busier stops of the valley.

Kvelatsminda is dated to the 8th or 9th century, when Kakheti was a separate principality and its builders were trying out new church forms before the classic Georgian domed cathedral took shape. The two-domed design stayed an experiment, which is why it is so rare. Gurjaani itself grew in the 20th century as a centre of the Soviet wine industry, and many of its large state wineries have since been replaced by private and family producers.