Historical winery in the eponymous district of Telavi in the Kakheti region of Georgia. It was founded in 1886 by the Georgian politician and poet Prince Alexandre Chavchavadze (1786-1846) after overcoming the phylloxera disaster. The castle, built as early as 1835, was used by the family as a summer residence. The residence was sacked in 1854 by the Muslim troops of the North Caucasian Muslim leader Imam Shamil, during which numerous relatives of Alexandre Chavchavadze, including his son and wife, were kidnapped and freed in 1855 for ransom and an exchange of prisoners. It became famous from the mid-19th century onwards due to the visit of many important literary figures, these included Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) and Chavchavadze's son-in-law Alexander Griboyedov (1795-1829).
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