Manavi Fortress

Manavi is where Kakhetian history meets Kakhetian wine. The fortress sits on a free-standing hill above the village of the same name; the walk up takes about twenty minutes and from the top the Iori plateau runs out flat and pale for a very long way.

A fort existed here earlier, but the walls you see are largely 17th and 18th century. This was one of the residences and refuges of the kings of Kakheti during the long period when the towns of the plain were not safe — Persian campaigns from the south, Dagestani raiding parties from the north. It was still in use in the reign of Erekle II and stood abandoned and ruined by the middle of the 19th century.

What remains:

• A substantial run of the outer wall with both round and square towers

• Cisterns cut for water storage, without which no siege could be sat out

• The footprint of a small church in the middle of the enclosure

This is not a tidied, reconstructed monument. Grass grows knee-high, fallen stone lies where it fell, and there is almost no signage. That is precisely the appeal: you will usually have it entirely to yourself, and it looks much as it did when the last garrison left.

The village below has its own claim to fame. Manavis Mtsvane, one of the better Georgian white grapes, takes its name from here, and many courtyards still have a working marani with buried qvevri. Ask politely and you may well be shown one.

The position explains itself once you are up there. Movement on the Iori plateau is visible long before it arrives, the Gombori ridge closes the northern side, and there is no higher ground within bowshot — a good place to fall back to and a poor one to besiege.