Regional Cheese Festival Preserves Unique Traditions in Tbilisi
By Mariam Chanishvili
Wednesday, November 22
The products of about 50 regional cheesemakers and production companies were exhibited on Tbilisi’s Rose Square on Saturday. Traditional Georgian and contemporary European cheese types were displayed to meet the curiosity of cheese-lovers accustomed to the festival.
12th traditional Cheese Festival that regularly offers a wide range of cheese products was opened by Minister of Agriculture Levan Davitashvili on November 18.
Along with the variety of cheese, different types of wine and honey were presented.
The festival was accompanied by live music on a small stage on Rose Square.
“Among all the Georgian products, Georgian cheese is taking one of the most respectable places, which means that it will become a recognizable brand and will be established on the international market,” stated Davitashvili.
Every year Georgia invites gourmets from all over the world to the Cheese Festival. The festival became regional since 2015, when local production companies from Armenia and Azerbaijan joined the participants, which means you can enjoy even more varieties of this loved-by-all food.
The name makes the purpose of the event obvious - to introduce visitors to the regional types of cheese and by walking through displays you could see: hard flavorful dambal-khacho prepared according to the technology recognized and protected by UNESCO, spicy Guda cheese matured in a bag made of sheepskin, Tenili Kveli from Southern Georgia, tightly woven into a braid, cheese in honey, oils, flowers, spices, and even wine.
Visitors were showed the ancient tools used for preparing cheese and learn more about preparation of different sorts of cheese.
The festival is annually organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Georgian Cheese-Makers Guild.
The Ministry is actively involved in promotion of Georgian agro products, including the promotion of Georgian cheese.
According to the Ministry, the 2018 celebration is aimed at complementing the history of Georgian wine with the 8,000-year-long heritage of producing cheese in the country.
Recently, traditional cheese made in Georgia's historical region of Tusheti has become the winner of the International Cheese Festival in Italy.
A Tushuri ‘guda’ cheese, made by a young Georgian farmer Kakha Abuladze, 22, came in first place at the Festival.
