Chacha & Beyond: Exploring Georgia’s Traditional Spirits

Georgia’s Spirits Scene Has Changed — Here’s What Travellers Need to Know in 2026

Chacha has gone from a curiosity to a centrepiece of Georgia’s growing food and drink identity. Since 2024, a wave of small-batch producers have registered under Georgia’s updated spirit production regulations, and the market now includes properly labelled, age-stated chacha bottles sitting alongside unmarked village jars. For travellers arriving with only a vague sense that chacha is “Georgian grappa,” this guide lays out the full picture — what it is, how it varies by region, what else Georgia distils, and how to understand what you’re actually drinking.

What Chacha Actually Is

Chacha is a grape pomace spirit — meaning it is distilled from the pressed skins, seeds, and stems left over after grape juice has been extracted for wine. This is the same base material used to make Italian grappa and French marc, but the Georgian version has its own character, shaped by local grape varieties and centuries of home distillation practice.

The pomace is fermented, usually for one to three weeks, then run through a still. Most traditional chacha is distilled twice in copper pot stills. The result is a clear, colourless spirit that typically comes in at between 50% and 70% ABV — considerably stronger than most commercially sold spirits elsewhere in the world. Some producers dilute it before bottling to bring it down to around 40%–45%, but village chacha is almost never diluted. That first sip carries a dry, slightly smoky heat that spreads across the back of the palate, with a faint floral note from the grape skins.

Chacha made from Georgia’s native grape varieties — particularly Rkatsiteli and Saperavi — tastes different from one another. Rkatsiteli-based chacha tends toward lighter, more aromatic qualities. Saperavi pomace produces something darker in character, with more grip. Georgia has over 500 documented indigenous grape varieties, and serious producers are beginning to single-varietal bottle accordingly.

Regional Variations Across Georgia

Georgia is not a homogeneous country when it comes to distilling. The spirit tradition shifts significantly depending on where you are, and understanding those differences helps you appreciate what you’re being offered.

Kakheti

Kakheti in eastern Georgia is the country’s wine heartland, and chacha here is a natural by-product of an enormous grape harvest. Kakhetian chacha is often robust and full-flavoured because Kakhetian winemaking uses extended skin contact — the pomace has already spent months fermenting inside a qvevri before it reaches the still. The result is a spirit with body and complexity rather than delicacy.

Imereti

Imeretian winemaking uses shorter skin contact than Kakheti, so the pomace is less extracted. This carries through to the chacha — it tends to be lighter, sometimes slightly softer on the nose. Imereti also has a strong tradition of distilling from other fruits alongside grapes, so the boundaries between grape chacha and fruit spirits are more fluid here.

Adjara

Adjara on the Black Sea coast has a distinct distilling culture. Mulberry is grown widely here, and mulberry-based araki (a word used interchangeably with chacha in some western regions) is common. The subtropical climate means the flavour profile of Adjarian spirits is often sweeter and more fruit-forward than Kakhetian grape chacha.

Racha

Racha in the north-west is known for its naturally semi-sweet wine, Khvanchkara. The chacha produced here from the Alexandrouli and Mujuretuli grape varieties is considered a regional speciality — rarer to find commercially, and prized by Georgians who know their spirits.

Beyond Chacha: Georgia’s Other Traditional Spirits

Chacha is the headline act, but it represents only part of what Georgia distils.

Mulberry araki is arguably just as deeply embedded in western Georgian food culture as grape chacha is in the east. White and black mulberries both produce spirits with a warm, jammy sweetness that makes them easier for newcomers to approach. The fermentation happens quickly in summer when mulberries ripen, and families often make their annual batch in a single intense week.

Cornelian cherry spirit — made from the tart red fruit called shindi in Georgian — is less widely known outside the country but has been gaining attention from local craft producers since 2024. The fruit’s natural acidity creates a spirit with a sharp, tangy edge balanced by a subtle sweetness. It has a pale pink tint before distillation clarifies it.

Tkemali-based distillates remain rare and largely homemade — tkemali is the wild plum used in Georgia’s ubiquitous sour green sauce, and fermenting it produces a plum spirit with a distinctly tart, almost savoury quality that is unlike any commercial plum brandy you may have encountered elsewhere.

Georgia also produces honey wine called bali or nektari in some mountain communities, particularly in Svaneti and Tusheti, though these are technically fermented beverages rather than distilled spirits. They sit within the same tradition of resourceful, seasonal alcohol production that defines Georgian home-brewing culture.

Spirits at the Georgian Supra Table

Understanding chacha without understanding the supra — Georgia’s traditional feast — is like understanding wine without understanding the dinner table. At a supra, drinking is structured, not casual. The tamada, or toastmaster, leads every toast, and guests do not drink freely between toasts without implicit permission from the tamada. This is not a rigid rule so much as a deeply internalised social rhythm.

Chacha typically appears at the end of a supra, after wine, as a digestif. It may also be used for the very first toast — a small glass to open proceedings. The tamada will fill your glass. Refusing the first pour is acceptable if you explain you don’t drink, but refusing mid-supra after accepting initially reads differently to your hosts. The warm social pressure around chacha at a supra is real, and it’s worth knowing this before you find yourself at a Georgian family table.

The toasts themselves are not throwaway remarks. They follow an expected order — to Georgia, to the hosts, to guests, to the deceased, to love, to children. Each toast builds on the last, and the tamada is judged on the quality of their words as much as on anything else. Chacha is poured with a generosity that reflects the Georgian understanding of hospitality: the guest is sacred, and a full glass is an expression of that.

How Chacha Is Made at Home

Home distillation is legal in Georgia for personal consumption and has been practised for generations without interruption. After Rtveli — the autumn grape harvest in Kakheti, usually September to October — pomace is collected and packed into fermentation vessels. By late October or November, families fire up their copper pot stills, often outdoors or in a dedicated stone outbuilding. The still heats the fermented mash, the vapour rises through a coiled copper tube submerged in cold water, and the condensed liquid drips into a jar.

The “head” — the first portion of the distillate — is discarded because it contains methanol and harsh compounds. The “heart” is collected. The “tail” — weaker, oilier spirit at the end of the run — is either discarded or redistilled. A skilled home distiller judges these cuts by smell and taste rather than instruments. The yeasty, raw smell of fresh chacha cooling in a ceramic jar in a stone room in November is unlike anything you’ll encounter in a bottle — sharp and alive, still warm from the still.

2026 Budget Reality: What Spirits Cost in Georgia

The price range for chacha and other Georgian spirits varies significantly depending on whether you’re buying from a village family, a regional shop, or a commercial producer.

• Budget — village or market chacha (unlabelled, 0.5L): 5–15 GEL. Quality is wildly inconsistent. You are relying entirely on the producer’s reputation and your host’s judgment.
• Mid-range — regional commercial chacha (labelled, 0.5L): 25–55 GEL. Producers operating under the updated 2026 geographic indication rules. Consistent, properly made, often quite good.
• Comfortable — aged or single-varietal chacha (0.5L): 60–120 GEL. Oak-aged chacha (which turns amber and loses the raw edge) and single-varietal bottlings from established estates sit here. These are gift-worthy bottles.
• Mulberry araki (commercial, 0.5L): 20–45 GEL, depending on producer and region.
• Cornelian cherry or specialty fruit spirits (0.5L): 35–70 GEL where commercially available — still a niche category in 2026.

What to Look for When Buying Chacha

The unlabelled plastic bottle from a roadside stall is a genuinely risky purchase. Not because home chacha is inherently dangerous — most is fine — but because you have no way to know whether the head cut was done properly, or whether the still was clean. Methanol contamination from poor distillation practice is rare but not impossible.

When buying commercially bottled chacha, check for the following:

1. ABV statement on the label. If there’s no alcohol percentage, walk away.
2. Producer name and address. Traceable producers have accountability.
3. Geographic indication. Under 2026 rules, regional labelling (Kakheti, Adjara, etc.) requires compliance with production standards.
4. Grape variety listed. This is a quality signal — it means the producer cares enough to differentiate.
5. Colour. Clear chacha is unaged. Amber or gold chacha has spent time in oak — neither is inherently better, but you should know what you’re getting.

A reliable rule of thumb: if a Georgian friend whose judgment you trust hands you a glass of unlabelled village chacha, drink it. If you are choosing entirely by yourself from an unfamiliar source, spend the extra 20 GEL and buy the bottle with a label.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is chacha the same as grappa?

They share the same base material — grape pomace — but chacha is its own thing. Georgian grape varieties, longer pomace fermentation (especially in Kakheti), and local distillation traditions produce a different flavour profile. Calling chacha “Georgian grappa” is a useful shorthand but not an accurate description of what’s actually in the glass.

How strong is chacha, and is it safe to drink?

Commercial chacha is typically 40%–50% ABV. Village chacha often runs between 55% and 70%. Properly made chacha — whether commercial or home-produced — is safe. The risk with unlabelled village spirits is improper head separation during distillation. Buy from sources you trust or choose labelled bottles from verified producers.

Can you bring chacha home as a souvenir?

Yes. Bottled chacha travels well and is legally exportable from Georgia. Check your destination country’s import allowance for spirits — typically 1–2 litres duty-free. In 2026, several Georgian chacha producers have begun export labelling in English and German, making customs declarations straightforward.

What does aged chacha taste like compared to clear chacha?

Clear chacha is dry, sharp, and grape-forward with a clean heat. Oak-aged chacha — sometimes called “golden chacha” — takes on vanilla, caramel, and wood spice notes, with a smoother finish. The alcohol heat softens over months in barrel. It is a genuinely different drinking experience, not simply a premium version of the same thing.

Are there non-alcoholic traditions connected to Georgia’s spirit culture?

Yes. The grape itself is central to Georgian culture beyond alcohol. Churchkhela — walnut strings dipped in thickened grape juice — and pelamushi, a grape pudding, use the same harvest. Freshly pressed grape juice, called dambali in some regions, is drunk during Rtveli before fermentation begins. The harvest is cultural, not only alcoholic.

📷 Featured image by Zhu Yunxiao on Unsplash.