Ultimate Culinary & Wine Tour Azerbaijan

You will be met by our driver at the airport and transferred to your hotel. Then your Old City Tour will start. Icheri Sheher (Old City) - the historical and architectural reserve includes the Shirvanshah Palace, Synyk kala minaret, Maiden Tower, Medieval Market Square, Icheri Sheher Archaeological Museum, Seyid Yahya Bakuvi mausoleum, caravanserais, Mollahana, numerous mosques, madrassas, bath-houses, Baku Khans’ House, also numerous rich residences of the ХIХ century. Then you will be taken to a restaurant where you will gave our local meals – one of the meals will be Qutabs (2 options: with meat or with herbs). Qutabs are original Azerbaijani cakes, filled with minced lamb meat, onion, pepper, salt and pomegranate. Stuffing is wrapped in rags of unleavened dough in the shape of a crescent and fried in a pan in butter. Also, qutabs are made with a pumpkin, greens and camel meat. Qutabs are served with katyk and sumakh. After having some free time, you will be taken to local restaurant in Baku and have Saj with lamb for dinner - very tasty and juicy dish that is cooked in a special way. The classic recipe involves the use of a special stand of the same name. Due to vegetables in saj a delicious juice permeates the meat and potatoes.

Our day will start with winery in Aghsu where you will also have exclusive pomegranate wine. Afterwards you will have Fish Lavangi at local restaurant in Ismayilli. Azerbaijani lavangi is mostly prepared in the traditional tandoor (ceramic oven). For cooking usually local fish kutum with a gentle, fatty and very tasty meat is used. The main highlight of this dish is the filling, which is made from nuts, pomegranate, special sauce, onions, raisins and spices. Then we will take you to Shato Monolit Winery/Guesthouse – where you will have guided tour through the vineyards, visit to the winery, watching the process of wine production and storage in one of the largest wine cellars of Azerbaijan, Chabiant Wine tasting with nice dinner which will include kebabs. One of the oldest dishes of the East is kebab. It is considered a traditional dish of eastern and Caucasian cuisine. During frying the meat absorbs the amazing smell of wood, grilled in the smoke, so it gets amazing aroma and taste. Marinated meat cooked on a wood or charcoal, can rightly be called a real barbecue. While serving the dish is decorated with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and herbs. You will stay overnight at Shato Monolit Guesthouse.

Next day after breakfast, we will take you to Savalan -crystal-clear water cascading down from the great Caucasus Mountains, winding its way through the lavish land in the foothills of the valley and suffusing the sun-bathed vines. These ripe, abundant grapes are then collected and handled with care and love before being transformed by the apparent magic of a master into wine. This is what happens every year in the Savalan valley. After having a wine tour through Savalan you will be taken to have lunch. You will have either '3 Baji' (means 3 sisters - vegetable dolma: eggplants, tomatoes and sweet pepper OR dolma with grape leaves. It will depend on which season you travel. The name of this ancient national dish originates with the pure Azerbaijani verb doldurmag (to stuff) as it means various leaves, vegetables and fruits stuffed with minced meat. There are currently more than 25 varieties of dolma. In spring it is made of vine leaves, in summer of aubergines (egg-plants), tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, in autumn it is made of cabbage leaves, apple and quince, in winter it is made of preserved vine leaves. The filling is prepared from minced meat, rice and aromatic herbs for dolma made of vine and cabbage leaves. Fried minced meat is used for other kinds of dolma. Afterwards, we will take you to Ganja where the first winemaking factory in Azerbaijan is located. It is one of the oldest winemaking plants in the South Caucasus. Established in 1860 by Schwab's Germans, who were then inhabited by present-day Yelenendorf in Goygol. When the Germans lived in this area, that area was called the Hanik village, where the Oguz tribe lived. After finishing with the winery, you will have dinner at a local restaurant - Azerbaijani pilaf with chestnuts and meat. This pilaf is a little different from those which are usually served to all the tourists who visited Central Asia or Turkey. Pilaf with chestnuts is cooked differently. First, rice is prepared in a special way, then all the accompanying dishes, which are a kind of additives to the king-dish. On cream melted butter, simmered onion sliced in half rings is being fried with the addition of turmeric. Meat, meanwhile, is cooked separately in salted water, which in the end is sprinkled with fried onion oil, dried plum, and then roasted chestnuts. After dinner you will be taken to your hotel in Ganja.