EntranceMoldova wine cellars. Wine cellars of moldova
Finally got around to write about Moldova. What did I expect from Moldova? That there must be wine and grapes, and perhaps something else to squeeze out of this country to fill three days off. The country turned out to be very interesting, beautiful and unusually tasty. Here I will tell you about a place that especially impressed us and which, in my opinion, is a must-see. wine cellars Milestii Mici are listed in the Guinness Book of Records for two reasons: the length of underground passages, which is about 200 km, and the amount of wine stored here - about 1.5 million bottles.
The origin of underground passages had nothing to do with winemaking. Initially, building material was mined here in large quantities, and only at the end of the 60s, the winery "Milestii Mici" began to use the resulting underground city as a wine storage. The catacombs are located at a depth of 40-85 meters, and out of 200 km of underground galleries, about 50 km are used for wine storage. Constant temperature +12..+14 degrees C and humidity 85-95% are ideal conditions to store wine. You can drive into the cellars by car and, accompanied by a guide, drive through the main galleries accessible to tourists. Entrance to the underground wine city.
First of all, we get to the galleries where the wine is aged in oak barrels. There are 3,500 such barrels here, with a total capacity of 6.5 million decaliters of wine (deck - multiply by 10). You can stop, get out of the car and take pictures wherever you want.
Wine can be stored in barrels for no more than 3 years, otherwise it will be bitter. From barrels best wine poured for further storage in bottles.
Underground galleries have their own names, like streets, depending on the type of wine that is stored in each of them: Aligote, Cabernet, etc. (only about 30 streets).
One of the streets is named after the International Organization of Wine and Winemaking. This is the only case in history when any object was named after this organization.
On each of the barrels there is a serial number and volume of wine in liters.
Barrels are usually oval in shape. This is to make them easier to wash. After each wine aging cycle, the barrels are washed by hand, no other method has yet been invented. A fragile Moldovan girl climbs into an empty barrel, wearing a protective mask so as not to be poisoned by wine vapors, and scrubs the barrel with handles and a brush.
On the territory of the cellars there is a natural source of water, which is used for washing barrels and for other industrial purposes.
For history, primitive tools have been preserved, with the help of which building stone was mined here.
Since Milestii Mici is a state enterprise, they are supposed to keep the brand and therefore here is a beautiful illumination in the form of the Moldovan flag.
The best wine from barrels goes to the "Golden Collection", under which separate galleries are reserved, where wine is stored in bottles, the total number of which is 1.5 million bottles.
There are wines from collections dating back to 1972. The most expensive bottle of wine costs about 2,000 euros. A bottle of wine from my year of birth is also not very cheap - about 1 thousand euros. This is explained by the fact that 1982 was not a fruitful year, but, for example, wine from the 1986 collection is not at all expensive - about 20-30 dollars. Therefore, the sister decided to buy a bottle of wine - her age.
Wine is stored in special niches and only in a supine position, the only way it can keep the right taste. It’s true that it’s not entirely clear to me whether the liquid does not care what position it is stored in! I don't know anything about winemaking :)
Above each cell is indicated: the type of wine, the harvest of what year and the number of bottles. Accounting is very strict. I asked how it is that such an expensive wine is so simply in the general availability in front of tourists. I was told not to worry, security cameras have never failed.
You can wander endlessly along these corridors and everywhere the same bottles with completely different wines. Surprisingly, tourists from all over the world come here. The Milestii Mici brand is especially recognizable in China and Japan, since the main export goes there, but is practically not known in the CIS. The guide said that the Japanese are amazing tourists. They come with huge cameras and take pictures of almost every bottle. There was a case when a Japanese fell behind the group and got lost. A couple of days later he was found safe and sound, only slightly tipsy. I also turned on the Japanese from time to time and took pictures of everything, these wine galleries look very unusual.
This is the entrance to the secret room, here during the dry law it was possible to hide and save more than 50 thousand bottles of the best collection wine. The entrance was walled up and gave the impression that it was the end of a corridor.
The neck of the bottles is often covered with mold, and some customers insist that the mold should not be removed when the wine is delivered, it looks more authentic this way :) on yeast. By the way, this is a dangerous place. Such bottles sometimes explode :)
This is generally a disgusting picture, I don’t want to drink such champagne :)
Cells under lock and key are private collections. They are mainly rented by collectors from China and Japan, the rental price is 50 euros per month. There is even such a service as the delivery of wine to an overseas owner.
Each such private cell is signed.
There are still empty shelves here, but we were told that they were being prepared for the collection of some Russian oligarch.
Here, by the way, is the Guinness certificate confirming the records.
The logical conclusion of the tour is the tasting room. The tasting must be booked in advance, as well as the tour itself by phone or on the website. As for me, this tasting does not make much sense. For the money it costs, you can buy 2 bottles of wine in a local company store.
We approach such barrels, the guide hands one of us a glass and says that it is not customary for them to let guests go without treating them to wine.
He says, turn the faucet better, now the wine will flow from there.
The wine never spilled. They have such a joke, it turned out that it was just a door! They didn’t pour wine for us, because we didn’t order a tasting :)
The tasting room looks like this.
Map of the underground city, we only saw a small area in the lower right corner.
On the street, not far from the entrance to the cellars, there is a company store where you can buy everything. The prices are very humane. You can take out 2 bottles per person from Moldova, but we had much more. Since we were driving back through Transnistria, no one even looked into our trunk, they absolutely do not care.
The street also has two awesome wine fountains, white and red. Of course, this is tinted water, but it looks very impressive.
Yes, and getting to the cellars is not very easy. With signs in Moldova, sadness, ZHPS does not know a single road, although it finds settlements, but there are no roads around them. This place is located about 20 km from Chisinau, the village of Ialovene (Ialovene) can serve as a reference point, there is a pointer to it from the main road. Perhaps there are those who want to visit this place. We were very satisfied!
One of the main attractions of Moldova is wine. If you want to not only taste good Moldovan wine, but also see with your own eyes the places where it is prepared and matured, then be sure to visit the Moldovan wine cellars. There is a small wine cellar in almost every house in Moldova, and you will definitely be taken there by friends who you come to visit. And below, we offer you a list of several wine cellars that are unique and become world famous due to their size, collection or other features.
Cricova
Cricova cellars are the first thing many tour operators offer when mentioning wine tours. They say that the most impressive excursions are here - the so-called underground wine city has done its job. There are 6 excursion packages available here, which, in addition to visiting the underground vaults, include wine tasting, a snack menu and branded souvenirs.
Where: Cricova
Price: 250-1300 lei/person or 350-1450 lei/person, depending on the package and the inclusion of a souvenir in it. After 16:00 on weekdays, weekends and holidays, the price of any package increases by an average of 100 lei.
Duration: 1-3 hours, depending on the tour.
Contacts: 022 453 659
cricova.md
Milestii mici
Where: Ialoveni
Price: Depending on the excursion program, the price of the tour varies from 200 to 1500 lei / person. on weekdays from 9:00-17:00. On weekends or on weekdays after 17:00, the minimum price of the tour is 300 lei, the maximum is 1650.
Duration: 40 min - 2.5 hours, depending on the selected package.
Contacts: 022 382 333
milestii-mici.md
Purcari
Where: With. Purcari, rn. Stefan Voda
Price: 7-39 euros/person, depending on the program and the inclusion of a souvenir in the price.
Duration: 1.5-2 hours, depending on the program.
Contacts: 022 856 028
purcari.md
Chateau Vartely
Where: Orhei
Price: Depending on the number of people in the group and the tasting package, the price varies from 75 to 440 lei / person. A tour without tasting can cost the whole group from 100 to 350 lei, depending on its occupancy.
Duration: 1-2 hours
Contacts: 022 829 891
vartely.md
Cojusna
Where: With. Cojusna, Straseni district
Price: A tour without tasting will cost you 10-15 euros / person, depending on the number of people in the group. Excursion + tasting will cost from 20 to 30 euros per person on a weekday, and 35-45 euros on weekends.
Duration: 1-2 hours
Contacts: 022 596 101
Branesti
Where: c. Braneshty
Price: On weekdays, the tour will cost you 10-12 euros / person, the tour with tasting - 20-45 euros. On weekends, the same positions will cost 15-18 euros / person and 30-68 euros, respectively. Transport is paid separately - 25-100 euros, depending on the number of people in the group.
Duration: 40 min-2 hours
Contacts: 022 430 035
10 tours in Moldova out of 10 include visits to wine cellars, and in total, more than 50 wineries and tasting rooms are registered in our country. At the height of the tourist season, Locals compiled a guide to the main wine galleries, where you should take your foreign friends, and it would be nice to go yourself.
Cricova
Cricova cellars are the first thing many tour operators offer when mentioning wine tours. They say that the most impressive excursions are here - the so-called underground wine city has done its job. There are 6 excursion packages available here, which, in addition to visiting the underground vaults, include wine tasting, a snack menu and branded souvenirs.
Where: Cricova
Price: 250-1300 lei/person or 350-1450 lei/person, depending on the package and the inclusion of a souvenir in it. After 16:00 on weekdays, weekends and holidays, the price of any package increases by an average of 100 lei.
Duration: 1-3 hours, depending on the tour.
Milestii mici
The largest number of wine tours can be found at the Mileştii mici winery, which, by the way, is included in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest collection of wines in Europe - about 2 million. 16 tourist programs include a wine storage tour, tasting, snacks (including vegetarian ) and a souvenir bottle of wine. The tour is carried out on the client's transport (one place in the car is required for the guide), the height of the car should not exceed 2.7 m.
Where: Ialoveni
Price: Depending on the excursion program, the price of the tour varies from 200 to 1500 lei / person. on weekdays from 9:00-17:00. On weekends or on weekdays after 17:00, the minimum price of the tour is 300 lei, the maximum is 1650.
Duration: 40 min - 2.5 hours, depending on the selected package.
Purcari
Purcari cellars are considered the oldest wine galleries in Moldova - the winery was founded in 1827. Several excursion programs include visiting the industrial part of the plant (workshops, bottling line), the historical part (cellar), viewing the wine collection, tasting and a souvenir. Transfer Chisinau-Purcari is paid additionally, as well as the services of an interpreter, if the tour is not in Russian or Romanian.
Where: With. Purcari, rn. Stefan Voda
Price: 7-39 euros/person, depending on the program and the inclusion of a souvenir in the price.
Duration: 1.5-2 hours, depending on the program.
Chateau Vartely
The tour includes a visit to the entire complex, its industrial part and entertainment area. Wine tasting tours are held from Monday to Sunday according to the schedule: 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 19:00. By the way, along with a tasting of local wines, you can also order a tasting of wines from world manufacturers - so to speak, to compare.
Where: Orhei
Price: Depending on the number of people in the group and the tasting package, the price varies from 75 to 440 lei / person. A tour without tasting can cost the whole group from 100 to 350 lei, depending on its occupancy.
Duration: 1-2 hours
Cojusna
The tour is standard: bypassing the wine cellars and visiting two tasting rooms. The cellars themselves do not differ in a special scale, but it is worth a trip - only 15 km from Chisinau.
Where: With. Cojusna, Straseni district
Price: A tour without tasting will cost you 10-15 euros / person, depending on the number of people in the group. Excursion + tasting will cost from 20 to 30 euros per person on a weekday, and 35-45 euros on weekends.
Duration: 1-2 hours
Contacts: 022 596 101
Branesti
Branesti cellars are underground at a depth of 60 m, occupy an area of 75 hectares and have a total length of 58 km. Tours, in addition to visiting the wine cellar, include a visit to two tasting rooms, one of which is directly underground.
Where: c. Braneshty
Price: On weekdays, the tour will cost you 10-12 euros / person, the tour with tasting - 20-45 euros. On weekends, the same positions will cost 15-18 euros / person and 30-68 euros, respectively. Transport is paid separately - 25-100 euros, depending on the number of people in the group.
Duration: 40 min-2 hours
Contacts: 022 430 035
Undoubtedly, one of the most popular and most interesting excursions in Moldova is a trip to the wine cellars. There are many of them, and you probably won’t be able to visit them all, but the most famous ones, such as Cricova, Small Milesti, Purcari, Braneshti, Cojusna, Romanesti, must be visited! Each of the cellars is unique and deserves a separate story. I will talk about one of them today.
I remember distant Soviet times when in Chisinau - the capital of sunny Moldova, many different all-Union and international conferences were held, including those on physics. I had to participate in many of them, and organize some of them. By tradition, the last question of any conference was a visit to one of the wine cellars that Moldova was so famous for! There was also a tasting room in Chisinau, where girls in national costumes first told the story of making this or that wine, then they described the bouquet of which it consists, in what cases and for what diseases it is recommended to drink red or white wine, and in conclusion they brought a dozen glasses (for each) various wines, and the same number of small glasses of brandy. For an hour or more to the accompaniment of violin music, Moldovan dances and light snack there was a tasting. It was great, but visiting the cellars was still more interesting, and they were more popular. Now ordering an excursion to any basement in Moldova is not a problem, if there was money, but getting into the Cricova cellars under the Soviet regime was not easy. Even a letter from the President of the Academy of Sciences did not help, permission was required from the Central Committee of the Party. Alas ... then it was an unattainable dream. Much later, already during perestroika, while working at the Kishinev Polytechnic University, the gates of the Cricova cellars suddenly opened wide. The casket was opened simply: my students in the specialty "winemaking" had an internship there, and every time they invited me to visit the already world-famous Cricova cellars with them.
With students in practice in Cricova cellars
Now I will try to explain why cellars have become so famous. Firstly, Moldovan wine cellars, such as Cricova or Lesser Milesti, are the largest in the world, and they are listed in the Guinness Book. Secondly, these are entire underground wine cities with their own infrastructure, roads (more than 120 km of underground streets!), road signs, traffic lights, wine rivers flowing through wine pipelines, along the banks of which there are huge barrels instead of houses.
Scheme of an underground wine city with many kilometers of streets and avenues
After driving a few kilometers along the central Champagne Avenue, you can then turn onto Cabernet Street, cross Chardonnay Boulevard, Feteaschi Street (12 main underground streets named after wine varieties), and stop at the Wine and Cognac Museum.
Wine Museum in Cricova cellars.
The Cricova collection has more than a million bottles of old collection wines. Of course, these are mostly Cricova wines, but there are also wines from many countries of the world, including the famous Goering collection.
According to one of the legends, they began to collect wine here on the basis of the collection of the Minister of Aviation of Nazi Germany Hermann Goering. It is said that he had the most beautiful paintings of nude women, the best watches and the best collection of wine. At the end of World War II, the Soviet army was advancing and Goering was forced to leave his wine collection in Cricova. But this is only one of the legends, and it is not entirely true. Indeed, there is a Goering collection in Cricova, but it did not come from Goering. The Cricova wine cellars were built in 1952, after the Second World War, and wines from the Goering collection were brought here from Moscow as reparations for the war. Some of the wines ended up in Georgia, some in Ukraine, and most of them ended up in Moldova, since the storage conditions here turned out to be ideal.
The collection of wines is constantly updated. There are unique wines here, some of them over a hundred years old. For example, Moselle wines, Burgundy, Sicilian, Portuguese ports...
And this is part of the French wines
I had to visit this museum several times, and I listened to more than one tour, so I myself can earn extra money as a guide and answer many questions. Often asked about the cost of a bottle. I remember some examples. For example, a bottle of "Muscat", made from late-ripening grapes, when the wine is still pure, and the alcohol and sugar are natural, then the starting price of such a bottle is about 25 thousand dollars. Last year at Sotheby's, at the most expensive auction, a bottle of dry wine "Chateau Mouton Rothschild" was sold for 60 thousand dollars. Cricova has 5 bottles of the same wine from the 1936 vintage.
In general, the cost of collection wines depends on many parameters, and is not always determined only by their age, but is also determined by the number of such bottles in the world. The most expensive bottle of Cricova cellars is Jewish Passover wine from Jerusalem in 1902. This unique bottle is just one bottle made in 1902. They offered 150 thousand dollars for it, but even for that price they refused to sell it, and now it is a worthy decoration of the collection and the most expensive exhibit of the museum.
If you continue driving further along the Cricova wine cellars, then at a depth of about 80 meters underground there is a Champagne wine factory operating according to French technology. In our country, semi-sweet champagne is traditionally preferred. This is also produced here, but Cricova is proud of its brut. It is aged in bottles for 3 years, and all this time they work on champagne. If in France this is done by men, then in Moldova it is entrusted to women. They regularly rotate each bottle by 45 degrees so that the sediment is distributed more evenly. One worker turns up to 40,000 bottles a day. When the champagne is finally ripe, the neck is frozen and the temporary cork is removed, the sediment is removed, the permanent cork is put in and the label is glued. As Andrey Holostenko, the keeper of the Cricova wine, said: "Champagne should not clap loudly when opened, the sound should be like the sigh of a satisfied woman!" Well said!
When my friends from France come to visit me, I always try to organize a tour of this plant for them. After small French cellars, to see many kilometers of adits with music stands of bottles - this is a state close to shock! They had never seen such a thing in France, and did not even imagine that it was possible. The quality of the wine is excellent, and many even liked it more than their native champagne. After the tasting, the French bought dozens of bottles and took them to their homes in Paris or the Champagne province to treat their relatives and friends with Moldovan champagne!
Kilometer-long galleries with music stands of bottles
During such trips, I often had to drive myself, so I could not accompany my friends in tasting. But often I stopped the car at the filters, where they could scoop wine with a mug from the red, pink or white river, and compare taste qualities. But in order to appreciate the quality of wine, you must definitely visit one of the tasting rooms. There are a lot of such halls on different wine streets, and it is desirable to know them. Among them there are such "thematic" decors as: "Seabed", "Casa Mare", "Hunting (or Fireplace) Hall", "Conference Hall" and others. It is the venue for a variety of events: national and international tastings, official and less official meetings, high-level meetings, etc.
Part of the interior of the Cricova cellars for high-ranking persons
Not everyone is allowed into all the halls, but the books of Honored Visitors keep many interesting names and stories. N.S. liked to visit Cricova. Khrushchev and L.I. Brezhnev. Not a single president who visited the Moldavian lands (including such personalities as Mao Tse Tung, Kim Il Sung, Jacques Chirac) did not pass a visit to the wine cellars. Almost all high-ranking persons tasted wine from the Cricova collection. Everything…, except for the main alcoholic of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, whose wife was categorically against the excursion.
Several times these cellars were visited by V.V. Putin. By the way, he celebrated his fiftieth birthday in the Cricova cellars! Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin presented his Russian colleague with a crystal crocodile, explaining that "the crocodile is the only animal that does not back down." Not so long ago, on his way from Germany, Putin and his family visited Chisinau one more time. The president's wife (although by now the former one) Lyudmila Putina enjoyed tasting Moldovan cognacs, and the president's daughters drank wine. Archival books even indicate that the elder saw "Noire Dionysus" - Burgundy wine, and Putin's youngest daughter preferred Cahors.
Many of the prominent world figures of our time, including Vladimir Putin, buy racks of wine for themselves, regarding it as a good investment - after all, the price of a good harvest wine is growing from year to year and is more stable than any world currency.
V.V. Putin's rack in the Cricova cellars.
These racks are still waiting for their customers
There is also a special tasting room in Cricova - Gagarinsky!
The hall was so named in honor of the famous guest - cosmonaut N1 Yuri Gagarin, who even managed to get lost in the Cricova labyrinths while visiting the cellars. Yuri Gagarin was noted not only for a short visit, but lingered in the labyrinths of the wine cellar for the whole day. In the book of honorable visitors of underground wine cellars, his words are quoted: "Entered on the eighth, left on the ninth." And he also said: "It is more difficult to part with the Cricova cellars than with the Earth." He must have been right!
IN last years at the beginning of October, National Wine Day is held in Moldova, and on this occasion, foreign citizens who wish to take part in this holiday will even be able to receive free entry visas for 30 days - such a decision was made several years ago!
Tasting Invitation!
Prices for Moldovan wines per glass and per liter. To get the price in dollars, divide by 13, and if you want in Russian rubles, then multiply by 2.5.
I would like to wish all readers on occasion to visit here at least once and see everything with their own eyes. Cricova cellars is a place that will certainly leave a unique mark on the memory of every visitor!
01.05.2014
At different times, the author was lucky to visit not only these, but also other equally famous basements of Moldova. About the wine festival in Chisinau, about tasting, how to choose and how to book an excursion to one or another cellar, and essays about all wine cellars with a lot of photos and interesting information can be found in the book below:
WINE ROADS OF MOLDOVA
This book may well serve as a guide to the wine cellars of Moldova! Not everyone knows that in Moldova there are huge underground wine cities with a length of roads over 200 km, the names of wine streets flashing in the white light of car headlights, as well as boulevards located almost under a 100-meter layer of rock, underground waterfalls and the world's largest collection of wines , one of which was included in the Guinness Book of Records.
By visiting, you will get acquainted with his other works!
♦ Heading: .Tags: > >
The world's largest wine cellars? Probably somewhere in France? In Italy? In Spain? But no, much closer - in Moldova ...
Friends have long been talking about gigantic wine storage facilities located in Moldova. I thought the guys were exaggerating under the impression of tastings. But it was not there! It turns out that in Moldova, near the village of Malie Milesti, there are the largest wine cellars in the world (this is a Guinness record). The length of the galleries "Milestii Mici" is 200 km, of which about 50 have been mastered. However, the uniqueness of the place lies not only in this.
Modern Moldova lies on the territory of the ancient Sarmatian Sea, so a significant part of the rocks here are limestones. Parallelepipeds for construction are cut directly from limestone. Since the stone has been mined since time immemorial, there are many old mined adits in the country, among which are the Malomilesti, located in the suburbs of Chisinau.
The terroir of Moldova favors the cultivation of grapes, and under the influence of active human activity, it was discovered that its subsoil is also capable of serving winemakers. Thanks to limestone, which does not conduct heat, galleries all year round the same temperature and humidity are maintained, optimal for storing wine: +12 C (up to +14 C in summer), and 82-95% relative humidity. Such conditions allow the wines to age beautifully. As it turned out, wines are good - for photographers ... not so much. It was almost impossible to shoot at first - the lens fogged up and, until it got used to the underground humidity, ignored my desperate attempts to correct the situation.
I ended up in a huge underground wine city in the middle of winter, and, to be honest, I did not expect a rush at this time of the year. On the surface - a quiet frosty morning. Passenger cars with tourists languishing in anticipation lined up in front of the entrance to the adits. Soon the gates opened, and we fully felt the meaning of the expression "Right to the quarry"! Experienced drivers know every meter here, therefore, without having time to say goodbye to the meager winter light, we rushed at full speed somewhere forward and obviously deeper. Within a few minutes, the headlights began to snatch out of the darkness huge barrels standing in rows along the walls.
After passing a few more turns, we realized that the name "wine city" is not so figurative. The road meandered and led steeply downhill, revealing new signs every few kilometers: Cabernet Street, Aligote, Feteasca, Chardonnay. Street names correspond to the wines stored here. The pride of Milest is the street of the International Organization of Vine and Wine (L "Organization Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin).
The first stop is at the fountain in the Pinot street area, where a cascade of spring water descends directly from the porous bowels. Nearby are huge butts of Crimean and Krasnodar oak up to 2000 dal in volume, each with a hole at the bottom. When the barrel is being prepared for pouring wine, the most fragile workers climb inside through it to clean the vessel by hand. They work in masks and in pairs - the second insures outside to avoid accidents.
Finally, we find ourselves in the galleries. Their walls are a series of niches in the form of arches, called kazy (“casa” is translated from Moldavian as “house”). Each kaza is numbered, it has a “passport”, where the name of the wine is written (there are more than 20 in total), the year of harvest, the year the bottle was laid, and their number. A full casa holds one and a half thousand bottles.
The Easter Jerusalem wine of 1902 (the oldest in the country) is stored in another center of wine tourism - the Cricova cellars. They are also amazing in size, but, perhaps, "too mastered." Behind the pompous halls, the big names of the guests and owners of the kaz, one loses the feeling of a magical place where wine quietly matures, acquiring new qualities every year. But such a feeling of detachment from the world does not leave Milesti.
The oldest wine of this vault - 1969 - is not for sale. But there are also rarities here that can be purchased by choosing a bottle right in the gallery. For example, the famous vermouth from 25 herbs "Bouquet of Moldova" in 1973 (it costs almost 3 thousand dollars), or wine from a blend of white grapes and herbs "Morning Dew" in 1975, which is no longer produced (about 2.5 thousand dollars) . Of the simpler samples - the famous Moldovan wine Negru de Purcari, including the famous 1986 and 1987 harvest.
The next turn of the labyrinth leads to the hall, where sparkling wine (from Chardonnay and Aligote) is in the process of secondary fermentation. I asked the Milestii Mici technologist if such a busy schedule of cellar visits had a negative impact on the wine. I was assured that neither flashes nor conversations interfere with shutter speed. But earthquakes are feared here. This is not uncommon for Moldova, so all construction is carried out taking into account the seismic activity of the region. Basements are no exception. Every few meters, iron bars are visible on the ceiling with furrows from the stone car - they support the underground city like a skeleton.
Galleries with lanterns, dusty bottles of dark glass, the spirit of calm and nobility, seem endless, and one cannot do without an escort. Led by a guide girl, who, although with an accent, speaks Russian fluently and understandably, we approach a blank stone wall. And here the most desperate attractions of Disneyland come to mind! The wall suddenly starts to rumble, and slowly moves away, exposing a small room with kazas. This is a secret room where the most valuable samples of the vault were hidden during Prohibition - about 50,000 bottles.
More than two decades after those difficult events for the wine-producing country, we find here wines that have not been produced in Moldova for a long time: local marsala, Cahor Ciumay from the south of the country, Nectar wine with the addition of herbs and Tenderness from the Rkatsiteli variety.
The surprises don't end there. A few turns and we're out by three wooden barrels in a suspicious upright position. According to the rules of Moldovan hospitality, some of the tourists were offered to turn on the tap and pour themselves a glass of wine. While the unlucky guest struggled with the prop pen, the middle barrel opened up and the entrance to the tasting room opened behind it. The traditional violin and accordion began to play, and we found ourselves in a spacious room: a long table, portraits and a bust of the local ruler, that is, the ruler, Stefan the Great, who reigned in the 16th century and contributed to the flourishing of the state (it is also placed on banknotes of all the denominations of the Moldovan currency called " lei").
Slightly dumbfounded guests quickly bounced back and took their places according to the purchased tickets, more precisely, according to the purchased tasting program. A company of 15 people began to celebrate someone's birthday, listening to the guide's stories and trying to insert a toast to the birthday boy. The young couple was invited to a separate set table. They were served chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, assemblage merlot and cabernet sauvignon ("Codru"). To wines - meat, traditional baked vegetables. It turned out that the guys are WhyWhyWine readers, and, having arrived from Moscow, they could not help but visit the Moldovan cellars.
The time has come for rest from worries, communication over a glass of good wine. The French from Alsace were comfortably seated near small barrels and trays of nuts. They spent their holidays in Romania and, almost by accident, went to Moldavia for the weekend, and, according to them, were satisfied. Especially Muscat and Chardonnay. At the next table, a flock of Chinese treated themselves to wine and admired the playing of musicians in national costumes. On the wall I noticed a bas-relief on an antique plot, where for some reason the hero had the face of the Moldavian actor Mihai Volontir, who played in the films "Gypsy" and "The Return of Budulay".
Despite the numerous foreigners around, the feeling of something of one's own did not leave. No longer Russia, but not yet Europe. This amazing underground nook seems to exist under the borders, or beyond them.
You recall the presence of the latter only in connection with the restriction on the export of alcohol (no more than 1.5 liters of wine and 1 liter of strong alcoholic beverages if you travel by train. Fortunately, alcohol purchased at the Duty Free Chisinau airport is not subject to restrictions. And how not to carry anything if, having emerged from the dungeon, everyone is invited to the store-museum. On the walls there are vinification formulas, in the corner there is a winepress from the century before last, under glass in the floor there are objects of Moldovan rural life, and everywhere wine from the cellars stands in orderly rows, waiting for their owners. Sometimes they are not only tourists!
"Milestii Mici" - Moldovan Las Vegas. You can win here, perhaps, only pleasure, but with the instant registration of marriage, the situation is much simpler! A secretary is called from a nearby village, who legally paints couples for as little as 100 lei ($10). True, for this it is necessary to be citizens of Moldova. But to get into the underground wine city, you don’t even need a visa - visa-free entry is established for Russians in the republic.