This historical book goes through the history of the biggest village in Georgia - Mukhrani. Started by prince Ivane Bagrationi (Mukhranbatoni) the Estate of Château Mukhrani is the first Château philosophy winery in Georgia.

Mukhrani

Mukhrani (Georgian: მუხრანი, originally Mukhnari [მუხნარი], i.e., "oak-grove") is a historical lowland district in eastern Georgia, currently within the borders of Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, north of the town of Mtskheta. It lies within the historical borders of Kartli, bounded by the Kura River, and its two affluents: Ksani and Aragvi.

Strategically located on major transit routes traversing ancient and medieval Georgia, easily irrigable and fertile, Mukhrani was an economically advanced area and, in some sense, a link between Kartli’s lowland and highland districts.

In the 2nd-4th centuries AD, the area was home to Dzalisi, one of the most important settlements of Caucasian Iberia. Medieval Georgian annals describe Mukhrani as a forested area greatly favored by the Georgian kings as a hunting ground. We then hear of the noble family of Dzaganisdze being in possession of this district from the 8th/9th century to 1123 when the king David IV confiscated it. Mukhrani became a flourishing sector of the royal domain, and its portion was subsequently donated by the crown to the monastery of Shio-Mghvime and the cathedral of Sveti-Tskhoveli.

In 1512, Mukhrani passed, in hereditary ownership, to a collateral branch of the Bagrationi royal dynasty of Kartli. This occurred when the district was scrounged from King David X of Kartli by his younger brother Bagrat in reward for crucial assistance against the neighboring Georgian ruler George II of Kakheti. Henceforth, the lord of Mukhrani came to be known as the Mukhran-Batoni, and the branch of Bagrations which held it as the Bagrationi-Mukhraneli (some members of which were later naturalised in Russia as the "Princes Bagration-Moukransky"). As royal authority declined, Mukhrani evolved into an autonomous seigneury called a satavado, that is "a holding of tavadi", or Georgian principality. It was known as Samukhranbatono, i.e., "[the land] of Mukhran-Batoni."[1] The chief settlement of this princedom was Shios-Ubani, since the 1770s known as the village of Mukhrani, while a fortress built at the confluence of the Mtkvari and Ksani early in the 16th century served as a principal stronghold in the area. Other villages over which the Mukhran-Batoni held sway were Aghaiani, Kandagiani, Tezi, Okami and, for a certain period of time, Lamisqana and Gremiskhevi. The autonomous status of Mukhrani lasted until the Russian annexation of eastern Georgia in 1801, but was not fully abolished until the 1840s.

Ivane Bagrationi of Mukhrani (Mukhranbatoni)

Ivane Bagration of Mukhrani (Georgian: ივანე მუხრანბატონი, Ivane Mukhranbatoni; Russian: Иван Константинович Багратион-Мухранский, Ivan Konstantinovich Bagration-Mukhransky) (February 7, 1812 – March 11, 1895) was a Georgian nobleman of the House of Mukhrani, and general in the Imperial Russian service. He was one of the biggest Georgian landowners of that time and a modernizer of winemaking industry.

Born into a prominent aristocratic family of Constantine IV, Prince of Mukhrani and Princess Khoreshan née Guramishvili, Ivan Bagration was educated at St. Petersburg Page Corps and enlisted in the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment in 1830. He participated in several expeditions against the rebellious mountaineers during the Caucasus War. In 1848, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander of the Erivan Grenadier Regiment of the Russian Imperial Army located in Manglisi, Tiflis region. He became major-general in 1851 and scored his most notable achievements during the Crimean War (1853–1856), when Bagration, being in command of the Caucasian Reserve Grenadier Brigade, played a decisive role in the defeat of the Ottoman army at Basgedikler (near Kars) on November 19, 1853. For the rest of the war, he served as a governor-general of Kutaisi and defended its approaches from the invading Ottoman troops. Promoted to lieutenant-general, he was put in charge of the 18th Infantry Division in 1858.

Prince Bagration of Mukhrani married, in 1836, Princess Nino (1816–1886), daughter of Levan V Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, by whom he had the only son, Constantine.

Prince Bagration of Mukhrani resigned from military service in 1881 and was elected a Marshal of the Nobility of Tiflis Governorate from 1885 to 1891. He owned some 25,000 dessiatin of lands and took a big interest in winemaking. He employed French and Georgian specialists to construct, in 1876, a large winery in his familial estate of Mukhrani which exploited a French technology of bottling to produce Georgian sparkling wines. This brand, a winner of a Grand Prix at the 1882 St. Petersburg wine exhibition, is still produced by JSC "Bagrationi-1882", one of Georgia’s largest wine-producing enterprises. In Paris (1889) wine exhibition - "Exposition Universalle Internationale de 1889", Mukhranian sparkling wine got gold medal. In 2001, a business group founded the Chateau Mukhrani Company which intends to revive the estate to its former glory and re-establish production at Mukhrani, combining modern and traditional technologies, following in the footsteps of Prince Ivane Mukhranbatoni.