Tour Guide, Tbilisi, Georgia
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Tsinandali Palace is located in Kakheti region, two hours’ drive from Tbilisi, near Telavi. This is the museum of the prominent 19th-century aristocratic Georgian poet, general, diplomat and a remarkable public figure, Alexander Chavchavadze (1786-1846). The estate was constructed in the style of an Italian palace in 1835; the house and its gardens became a museum in 1947.
Tsinandali Park incorporates a museum, a botanical garden, and the famed Tsinandali winery. In 1887, the 18 hectare park was renovated by the famous landscape designer, Arnold Ragel.
Tsinandali palace was visited by: Alexander Dumas; French historian Mari Brosse; and Russian poets Alexander Pushkin, Mikheil Lermontov, and Alexander Griboedov.
By introducing European technology of brewing wine, Alexander Chavchavadze renewed the millennium-old tradition of production of wine in Georgia. He improved the quality of local wine and introduced and developed original technologies for production of different varieties of champagne, wine, and brandy. He was also the first enologist in Georgia. In Tsinandali, he built a winery shop for distillation of vodka, and a huge underground wine cellar.
Today, the wine repository of Tsinandali has a preserved personal collection of wines belonging to Alexander Chavchavadze, which includes 16,500 bottles of 70 brands of wine.
Tsinandali palace museum was renovated in 2008, with its rooms restored with 19th century furnishings.
Anyone visiting Georgia should explore the palace and marvel at its magnificence.