Making wine and "Georgian Snickers"

Fall in Georgia means preparing for the winter, which means canning, preserving, and making wine. In October, my host family's grape harvest came in, and that meant wine making time. We had barrels and barrels of grapes, all of which were made into wine to last until next Fall.

My host dad has a special hand-operated machine that crushes the grapes, where they are let to sit in a large barrel until they begin to ferment into wine. Here are some pictures of me "helping" with the wine production:

some were saved for eating...yum!

Giorgi working away at the grape crusher

crushing those grapes

cheers! trying the wine

me looking embarassed that I decided to change into my pajamas before this photoshoot

At the end we got to sample the finished product. Also, over the next few days, we sampled a bit to see how it was progressing. Overall a fun and delicious process!


Another product that Georgians make in Fall is churchkhela (ჩურჩხელა), often called the "Georgian snickers". Churchkhela is essentially a natural candy bar. It is made by stringing hazelnuts or walnuts onto a string, then dipping it into a mixture of boiled grape juice, corn flour, and wheat flour. It ends up looking kind of like a sausage on a string.


It is normally an autumn/winter activity for families, after the grape and nut harvest has come in and families have made wine and grape juice.


My host family is well aware of my love for churchkhela, and my host mom has been promising to help me make it for ages. The time finally came today! Here are some pictures of the process:

step one: put hazelnuts in and cover with mixture

step 2: carefully pull them out

step 3: take out and hang to dry

trying my hand at making churchkhela

the finished product!

hanging the churchkhela to dry

Gio and I doing the Georgian squat in front of the churchkhela

hanging to dry!

I look forward to learning more Georgian traditional recipes. Food is so central to Georgian culture so it is great to learn how to make some of their delicious products!