The market for grapes has been of great importance in Georgia since ancient times, excelent example of which is a photo taken in Kutaisi in the second half of the nineteenth century, also unique in content. Photo presents, peasants from the suburbs of Kutaisi nearby villages selling grapes.
Also picture shows that the grapes were transported in specially made containers for transportation, so as not to damage the fruits themselves.
In Kakheti (One of Regions of Georgia), for example, such a convenient means of transporting grapes was called “suladi godori”. They put him on a cart, put grapes in it thus carried him. An important fact is that this method of transporting grapes does not lead to a deterioration in its quality during transportation, because the grapes are placed in a wicker container -it breathes to some extent does not heat up. Although the photo shows only one part of the grape market, there are other photos from the same period, which show that the grape market in Kutaisi was on a large scale.
View by the clothing of the people in the historical photo, it can be said that the shooting period is late autumn, this is not surprising, because many grape varieties in Western Georgia are late in ripening therefore harvested in late autumn.
Another interesting note that has come down to us about the wine transportation:
In the warm season, the inhabitants of the famous village of Kartli (One of regions of Georgia) – “Khidistavi”(Name of Village) pouring their famous wine – “Khidistauri”(Means – from Khidistavi) into “rumbi” (A leather vessel, specially made for transporting wine, made from a whole bull skin), they threw them (Rumbi) into the Mtkvari River vas brought them to Tbilisi for sale by this method…
Giorgi Barisashvili