Mountain Moonshine · Svanuri Chacha
Svanuri Chacha
🥃
Photo coming soon
Svaneti's villages were cut off by snow-blocked mountain passes for much of the year for centuries, so nearly every household distilled its own chacha at home instead of relying on trade from the lowlands — a self-sufficiency that still shapes the region's drinking culture.
Chacha is a strong, clear pomace brandy distilled from the leftover grape skins, seeds, and stems of winemaking, and in Svaneti it's typically homemade in small batches rather than bottled commercially. It's drunk neat in small glasses, often alongside honey or fruit preserves, as a warming spirit in the high Caucasus.
Why it's made this way: Svaneti's extreme mountain isolation made self-sufficient home distilling a necessity rather than a hobby, giving the region's chacha tradition an intensely local, household character distinct from the more commercial chacha of lowland Georgia.
More from Georgia
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.