About Vino Underground
When Vino Underground opened in 2012, there was practically no venue in Tbilisi where the traditional qvevri wines of Georgia — the amber wines made in clay vessels buried in the earth, by the method that pre-dates written history in the Caucasus — could be properly explored by a curious drinker. Wine shops existed, but the experience of tasting through the full range of Georgia's natural wine producers, guided by people who had made the wines themselves, did not. Vino Underground created that experience. It has not been replaced.
The bar is owned by six of Georgia's most distinguished natural wine producers, who can regularly be found inside hosting informal tastings, arguing about vintages, and introducing their wines to people who have traveled specifically to understand what all the international attention is about. The cellar setting — stone walls, low ceilings, candlelight that does not compete with the amber glow of the wines in the glass — is exactly right for the task. This is not a space designed to impress. It is a space designed to pay attention.
The wine list is the point, and it is the most current and completist selection of serious qvevri wines in the country. Producers like John Okro, DoReMi, Archil Guniava, Baia's Wine, and Tanini are poured here with the reverence they deserve. Older vintages from legendary names appear with some frequency. The pouring staff know the stories behind each bottle and are genuinely invested in the conversation. This is as close as a wine bar gets to an education without being didactic.
The food offering is simple and correctly calibrated: it serves the wine. Cured meats of excellent quality, aged cheeses, bread. The portions are small, designed for sharing and for pausing between glasses rather than for constituting a meal. On quieter evenings, the cellar has an intimate, cosy quality that makes it one of the most comfortable places in Tbilisi to spend two hours. On busier nights, with winemakers in attendance and the cellar full of people who know what they are tasting, it becomes something close to electric.
For solo dining — and Vino Underground is one of the best solo addresses in any city, anywhere — the bar seating and the natural conversation that emerges between curious drinkers and knowledgeable staff make it genuinely engrossing to sit alone here. For a first date, sharing bottles from small Georgian producers provides an immediate topic of genuine interest that a generic wine list cannot. For an end-of-evening team gathering after dinner elsewhere, nothing in Tbilisi is better than this cellar for a final bottle of something extraordinary.