Shrosha

Shrosha sits on the old road over the Rikoti pass, and for decades the stretch through the village was lined with stalls selling what is made there: red clay fired in local kilns into cooking pots, jugs, ketsi baking dishes for making bread and cheese, and qvevri, the very large vessels that are buried in the ground to ferment wine and which take months to build and fire. Families work in yards behind the road. The opening of a new highway with tunnels through the pass has taken most of the traffic away from the old route, which has hit the roadside trade hard, and the workshops now depend more on ordered work than on passing cars.

What you actually see

• Qvevri under construction - the huge wine vessels built up by hand.
• Ketsi baking dishes - the clay pans used for bread and cheese.
• Kilns and yards behind the road - the workshops where the pots are fired.
• Roadside stalls - the trade the village has run on for decades.

When to go

April to October. One to two hours as a stop. Take the old road rather than the new tunnels if you want to pass the stalls at all.

Honest expectations

The new highway bypasses the village and much of the roadside trade has gone; fewer stalls are open than older accounts suggest. Large pieces are impractical to carry home. Workshops are working yards, not visitor attractions, so ask before wandering in.

Nearby

Zestaponi is west; Ubisa lies east along the old road.