Georgia

Georgia is where Europe and Asia collide in the most delicious way possible. Tucked between the Greater Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea coast, this small country has been producing wine for 8,000 years - making it the oldest wine-producing region on Earth. Georgians still ferment their wine in qvevri, large clay vessels buried underground, a technique so ancient and distinctive that UNESCO has listed it as intangible cultural heritage. When a Georgian invites you to dinner, prepare to sit for hours. A tamada (toastmaster) will guide you through dozens of elaborate toasts while plate after plate of food materializes.

The landscape is as dramatic as the hospitality is warm. The Caucasus mountains along the northern border hold peaks over 5,000 meters, with medieval stone watchtowers clinging to impossibly steep valleys in Svaneti. The capital Tbilisi is built into a gorge along the Mtkvari River, a layered cake of carved wooden balconies, Art Nouveau facades, Soviet blocks, and futuristic glass structures. Georgia has its own unique alphabet - one of only 14 in the world - and polyphonic singing so hauntingly beautiful that NASA included a Georgian folk song on the Voyager Golden Record sent into interstellar space. This is a country that has been invaded by Romans, Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, and Russians, and somehow come through with its language, alphabet, wine, and identity entirely intact.