Experience local gastronomy
Dining in Baku
From traditional bistros serving local delicacies to chic Western-style restaurants, Baku offers diverse dining experiences to tickle all travellers’ taste buds. You’ll find plenty of places to sample the best of Azerbaijani cuisine, alongside a growing mix of popular international franchises, contemporary cafes, caravanserais, chocolate shops and steakhouses.
Adventures in the great outdoors in Gabala
Just 260 kilometres away from Baku, Gabala, located at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, is Azerbaijan’s prime outdoor activities hub. The city offers great skiing in winter at the Tufandag Mountain Resort and adrenaline-fueled adventures in spring and summer. Paragliding is also available at Tufandag Mountain Resort, as are jeep safaris that whisk you off into the spectacular Caucasus Mountains with stops for traditional Azerbaijani breakfasts, or lunch and dinner in authentic country villages. Rafting can be enjoyed in the village of Savalan on the banks of the Turyanchay River where local company Gabala Rafting operates between May and September, offering rides along a scenic 11-kilometre stretch of the Turyanchay river.
Go off the beaten track to Saribash
Located on a plateau 1,602 metres up in the Caucasus Mountains is a historic village called Saribash, which is so remote that at some times of the year it can be completely cut off by a fast-flowing river. Even at the best of times you’ll need a 4×4 to get there, but it’s well worth making the effort in order to explore the village’s unique stone architecture and stunning mountain views. The village today is only home to about 30 people in winter, with many having left in recent decades due to its hard-to-reach location, but they’ll happily show you around and treat you to tea with delicious local jams. This is also a great place to try surhullu, a dried-meat dish unique to the Gakh region. Locals claim that nowhere does it better than Saribash.
Experience Ganja’s local cuisine
Ganja blends an ancient history and youthful energy, but it is no less interesting from a culinary perspective – the region has several of its own special desserts and dishes. Unlike its Baku counterpart, Ganja’s version of pakhlava is lighter in colour and baked on a copper tray over a campfire. It’s extremely tender and has a taste exuding hints of roses and saffron that melt in your mouth. Of the region’s other specialties, during a trip to Ganja don’t miss trying: Ganja dovga, a yoghurt-based soup with herbs and veg such as mint, spinach and celery; keta which are meat or herb qutabs with white cheese; and of course, shah (king) pilaf, a rice dish resembling a massive pie packed with meat, dried fruit and onions and baked with a covering of lavash flatbread.
Tours to wineries
Tours of Chabiant
Half hidden among hilltop vineyards in a deeply rural corner of Ismayilli district, Chabiant’s winery (aka Chateau Monolit) is one of Azerbaijan’s most appealing destinations for wine tourists thanks to a quality guesthouse with open-air swimming pool, a splendid tasting room and impressive wine storage caves designed to look centuries old. Over recent years the winemaking here has undergone a major rethink and now aims to “bring new life to local viticulture in Azerbaijan”. The winery is in the tiny settlement of Hajihatamli, on a small country lane that links Goychay and Ismayilli. Besides great food and wine, tours may also feature live music and other activities. Chabiant also organises a harvest festival (late August) and a Vino Nuovo celebration (late November) mimicking Beaujolais Nouveau festivities worldwide.
Tours of Savalan Wines
In the short decade since its founding in 2007, Savalan has become one of Azerbaijan’s most popular and widely distributed ranges of premium quality wine. The winery conjures up attractive imagery of crystal-clear Caucasian mountain streams watering its sunbathed vines which cover very considerable areas of rolling terroir south of the foothill city of Gabala. The company’s international winemaking team combine expertise from Italy and Azerbaijan to create a range that includes nearly 20 different wines. The winery offers tours with various options for tastings. On a clear day there are glorious mountain views from the site that sits on the edge of a plateau 25 kilometres south of Gabala, which is Azerbaijan’s foremost rural resort city.
Tours of Sharg Ulduzu
Close to Shamkir, backed by starkly arid hills, is the Sharg-Ulduzu winery. Meaning ‘Star of the East’, Sharg-Ulduzu produces a range of dry red single grape wines (Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot, Saperavi) along with blends in which a traditional cooling technique stops fermentation to produce low-alcohol semi-sweet wines maintaining much of the natural sugar. Examples include Shemkirskaya Krepost (Merlot-Cabernet-Sauvignon), Shishtapa (Saperavi-Merlot) and Skazka Vostoka (Saperavi-Tavkveri). The whites follow a similar pattern and include a good dry Bayan Shira. The winery organises tours of the site and degustations of the various wines on offer, accompanied by tasty snacks. Also included is a visit to the winery’s museum, offering a glimpse into the winemaking traditions of the Shamkir region.
Tours of the Az-Granata winery
In the small town of Agsu, Az-Granata’s giant modern plant processes a wide range of fruits into wines, liqueurs and juices. The word ‘granat’ from which the winery takes its name means ‘pomegranate’ in Russian (the word is ‘nar’ in Azerbaijani), and indeed a major product here is pomegranate wine, as well as an impressive range of spirits and inexpensive, easy-drinking table wines made from a range of European and Caucasian grape varieties. Tasting a glass of pomegranate wine is a unique experience you can enjoy during a tour of Az-Granata which culminates with tastings in a room adorned with barrels and an exhibition of sepia photos illustrating the history of winemaking in Azerbaijan. Tastings might encompass flavoured vodkas and ‘Azerbaijan’s first Raki’.
Take a wine bar crawl
Baku is alive with a smorgasbord of enticing drinking holes across all price ranges, most serving a range of local wines, while specialist wine bars such as KEFLI, Enoteca Meydan, Saqi, CafeCity, PORT Wine & Grill and others provide truly authentic wine experiences for both connoisseurs and beginners. And some tour companies offer wine crawls, allowing you to savour wines made from native grapes while enjoying traditional snacks and discussing the country’s wine heritage at multiple local bars in the historic city centre. Don’t miss trying a glass of pomegranate wine, a local delicacy.
