Restaurants serving khinkali, khachapuri and toasts-raising feasts are multiplying in New York and London. Four new Georgian spots opened in NYC in the past year alone — Let's Chama, The History Restaurant, Ghemo and Saperavi NYC on the Upper West Side — while London welcomed DakaDaka, Ab-Ra and Sova, a 'wine and vinyl' restaurant in Notting Hill. As co-founder Giorgi Mindiashvili of DakaDaka points out, Georgia's cuisine stayed under the Western radar while the country was closed off; now that Georgians have settled in cities from DC to Madrid, the food scene is following them.

Wine came along for the ride, and it's the amber (not 'orange') wines getting the attention. Georgia has been making wine for roughly 8,000 years and grows more than 520 native grape varieties, but the real signature is the qvevri: a beeswax-lined clay vessel buried underground, where the earth insulates the wine while it breathes — no barrel flavours, and the egg shape keeps juice, lees and sediment circulating for extra texture and aroma. When white grapes stay on their skins, the result is amber wine: deep-coloured, tannic, somewhere between a fresh white and a structured red, and versatile enough to last from starter to dessert in a single glass.

Five producers are worth knowing. Pheasant's Tears, founded in 2007 by American painter John Wurdeman and winemaker Gela Patalashvili, is a natural-wine cult favourite working with rare grapes and 19th-century qvevri; its Poliphonia 2023 blends over a hundred varieties from one vineyard. Chateau Mukhrani, a restored 19th-century estate in Kartli with cypress avenues and an orangerie, makes a classical-leaning Shavkapito that pinot lovers should seek out. Ikano, a biodynamic Kakheti winery founded just after the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, has shareholders in 11 countries and a dining room where you can book a feast to folk singing. Gogi Dakishvili of Dakishvili Family Vineyards is credited with reviving qvevri know-how — try the old-vine Orgo Rkatsiteli. And Ethno Wines, a modernist winery above Manavi, won a trophy at this year's International Wine & Spirits Competition for its polished Rkatsiteli 2022.

The food context matters too: a Georgian supra is a marathon feast of cheese breads, dumplings, roasted meats, herbs, walnut sauces and toasts — 'a little Mediterranean, a little Middle Eastern and a lot of their own thing,' as one DC restaurateur puts it. Amber wine, served at room temperature and evolving in the glass, is built for exactly that table.

Why it matters for travellers: this is a wine culture you can only fully understand on the ground. A trip to Tbilisi and the vineyard regions of Kakheti and Kartli combines a young, energetic capital with family-run wineries, qvevri tastings and some of the most generous hospitality in Europe — before the crowds catch on.