Kakheti took in 182,210 tonnes of grapes by the sixth of October

Prices this season were set by variety, sugar content and condition rather than by a single flat rate. Figures published in September put undamaged Saperavi at 21% sugar or above at 1.50 lari a kilogram, substandard fruit between 17% and 21% at 0.90, and grapes under 17% sugar or significantly damaged at 0.30. Other permitted varieties were 1.30 at 20% sugar or above, 0.80 between 17% and 20%, and 0.30 below that. The grading is the mechanism: a grower's income depends on which band the load falls into at the gate.

A large harvest is not automatically good news for the people who grow it. When volumes are high, private wineries can fill their tanks early and stop buying, and the price offered for the remainder falls. After price protests in Kvareli and Gurjaani the government put a guaranteed purchase scheme in place, with a state harvest management company buying surplus grapes at rates set by variety and sugar content. That is the floor underneath this year's numbers, and it is the reason the tonnage and the grower payments can both hold up in the same season.

A high-quality intake becomes next year's bottles, and a vintage that nearly all graded medium or high is a selling point for cellar visits and tastings through 2027. In the short term the harvest season itself is the draw: guesthouses in Kvareli, Gurjaani, Telavi and Sighnaghi sell rooms on the back of it, and visitors come for the picking and the cellars rather than the weather. The harvest window is roughly September into October, so a tasting trip planned now meets a quiet region and a full cellar rather than a working one.