The Pour Identity: Georgia's Mystery Wine Adventure

Your adventure begins in Tbilisi, a city where ancient churches, crumbling balconies and underground wine bars all seem to coexist in glorious chaos. After meeting your fellow travellers, you'll receive your first mission briefing and head out to explore hidden corners of the capital while getting acquainted with Georgia's national obsession: wine. Before long you'll learn the most dangerous phrase in the Georgian language, "just one more glass." It sounds harmless enough but by the end of the week you'll realise it has the same reliability as a politician's promise.

This morning we leave the city behind and venture into wine country although exactly where we're heading remains classified. The roads become quieter, the scenery becomes greener and eventually we arrive somewhere that feels wonderfully untouched by modern tourism. Here we'll be welcomed by a local family who have likely been making wine longer than some countries have existed. Lunch appears in seemingly endless waves, homemade wine flows freely and before long you'll discover that Georgian hospitality isn't a cultural trait so much as a force of nature. By the time you leave, you'll have been fed enough food for three people and adopted by at least one grandmother.

Today's mission dives into the roots of Georgian winemaking. Hidden courtyards, underground cellars and giant clay qvevri buried beneath the earth reveal techniques that have changed remarkably little over thousands of years. We'll meet winemakers who treat wine less as a business and more as a family heirloom, hear stories that blur the line between history and legend and enjoy tastings in places that don't appear on most maps. The evening ends with a traditional Georgian feast where every toast becomes an epic speech and every speech somehow requires another glass of wine.

Just when you think you've figured out this tour, things take a slightly stranger turn. Today's mystery combines wine with giant Soviet mosaics, forgotten monuments, curious museums and locations that seem to have been abandoned by time itself. Somewhere between the relics of communism and the spectacular scenery we'll uncover another remarkable winery, because in Georgia there always seems to be another remarkable winery. It's the sort of day that leaves your camera full, your wine glass occupied and your family back home wondering what exactly you've signed up for.

Today's adventure becomes a game. Clues lead us through villages, vineyards and hidden corners of the countryside in search of secret tastings, local food stops and experiences that never make it into glossy travel brochures. Along the way you'll discover that Georgia rewards curiosity, and that some of the best moments happen when you're not entirely sure what's around the next corner. There are no real prizes at the end of the hunt, unless you count discovering a fantastic wine bar before everyone else, which in our view absolutely counts.

The Caucasus Mountains provide the backdrop for today's mission as we journey through landscapes so dramatic they occasionally look computer-generated. Ancient monasteries cling improbably to hillsides, winding roads reveal jaw-dropping views and local spirits appear with alarming regularity. Somewhere during the day you'll probably have one of those rare travel moments where you suddenly realise you're experiencing something completely different from everyday life. Then somebody will hand you another drink and you'll get distracted again.

Our final day brings one last mystery destination, one last unforgettable meal and one last opportunity to celebrate a week of surprises. By now you'll have collected enough stories to bore your friends for months, developed strong opinions about Georgian wine and become strangely comfortable with the idea of getting into a vehicle without knowing exactly where it's heading. As the evening draws to a close, glasses are raised, friendships are toasted and somebody inevitably utters the phrase that started it all: "just one more glass." Against all available evidence, everyone agrees.