Finally got around to writing about Moldova. What did I expect from Moldova? That there should be wine and grapes there, and perhaps it would be possible to squeeze something else out of this country to fill the three-day weekend. The country turned out to be very interesting, beautiful and incredibly tasty. Here I’ll tell you about a place that especially impressed us and which, in my opinion, is a must-see. The wine cellars of Milestii Mici are included in the Guinness Book of Records for two reasons: the length of the underground passages, which is about 200 km, and the amount of wine stored here - approximately 1.5 million bottles.

The origin of the underground passages had nothing to do with winemaking. Initially, building material was mined here in large quantities, and only in the late 60s the winery Milestii Mici began to use the resulting underground city as a wine storage facility. The catacombs are located at a depth of 40-85 meters, and of the 200 km of underground galleries, about 50 km are used for wine storage. A constant temperature of +12..+14 degrees C and a humidity of 85-95% are ideal conditions for storing wine. You can enter the cellars by car and, accompanied by a guide, tour 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 deciliters of wine (deck - multiply by 10). You can stop, get out of the car and take photos wherever you want.

Wine can be stored in barrels for no more than 3 years, otherwise it will become bitter. From the barrels, the best wine is poured into bottles for further storage.

The underground galleries have their own names, like streets, depending on the type of wine that is stored in each of them: Aligote, Cabernet, etc. (about 30 streets in total).
One of the streets is named after the International Organization of Wine and Winemaking. This is the only time in history that any object was named after this organization.

Each barrel has 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 Moldavian girl climbs into an empty barrel, wearing a protective mask so as not to be poisoned by wine fumes, and scrubs the barrel with her hands 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 production purposes.

Primitive tools have been preserved for history, 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 backlight in the form of the Moldovan flag.

The best wine from barrels goes to the “Golden Collection”, which has separate galleries where the wine is stored in bottles, the total number of which is 1.5 million.

There are wines from collections dating back to 1972. The most expensive bottle of wine costs about 2 thousand euros. A bottle of wine from the year I was born is also not very cheap - about 1 thousand euros. This is explained by the fact that 1982 was not a productive year, but, for example, wine from the 1986 collection is not at all expensive - about 20-30 dollars. Therefore, my sister decided to buy a bottle of wine - her own age.

Wine is stored in special niches and only in a lying position, this is the only way it can retain the correct taste. However, it’s not entirely clear to me whether it makes any difference to the liquid in what position it is stored! I obviously know nothing about winemaking :)

Above each cell is indicated: the type of wine, what year's harvest and the number of bottles. Accounting is kept very strictly. I asked how it was that such expensive wine was so easily accessible to tourists. I was told not to worry, surveillance cameras had never failed.

You can wander through these corridors endlessly and everywhere there are identical bottles with completely different wines. Surprisingly, tourists come here from all over the world. The Milestii Mici brand is especially recognizable in China and Japan, since the main exports go there, but is practically unknown 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. At times I also turned on the Japanese and took pictures of everything, these wine galleries look very unusual.

This is the entrance to a secret room; here, during Prohibition, more than 50 thousand bottles of the best collection wine were hidden and preserved. The entrance was walled up and gave the impression that this was the end of the corridor.

The necks of bottles are often covered with mold, and some customers insist that the mold not be removed when the wine is delivered, so it looks more authentic :) This is a row with champagne wines, here the bottles are sealed not with cork, but with plastic stoppers with a holder, and mold grows on them like by leaps and bounds. By the way, this is a dangerous place. These 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 cost is 50 euros per month. There is even such a service as 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 are 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 doesn’t make much sense. For the money it costs, you can buy 2 bottles of wine at a local company store.

We approach these 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, better turn on the faucet, now wine will flow out of there.

The wine never flowed. Their joke is that it turned out to be just a door! They never poured us any wine, 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 reasonable. From Moldova you can take out 2 bottles per person, but we had much more. Since we were leaving back through Transnistria, no one even looked into our trunk, they didn’t care at all.

There are also two awesome wine fountains on the street, white and red. Of course, this is tinted water, but it looks very impressive.

Yes, and getting to the basements is not very easy. It’s sad with the signs in Moldova, the ZhPS doesn’t know a single road, although it finds populated areas, but there are no roads around them. This place is located about 20 km from Chisinau, the village of Ialovene can serve as a reference point; there is a sign pointing to it from the main highway. Perhaps there will be people who want to visit this place. We were very pleased!

The largest collection of wines in the world, consisting of more than one and a half million bottles, was registered in the Guinness Book of Records in 2005 in the Republic of Moldova.

Called the "Golden Collection", it is stored at a depth of 80 meters, in Gothic wine cells, in the underground galleries of "Milestii Mici". The oldest wine in the collection is from the 1969 vintage. The collection is replenished every year with thousands of bottles of wine, white and red, dry and dessert. The ripening of wine is facilitated by the ideal microclimate of cellars with constant temperature and humidity.

The wines stored in the "Golden Collection" are exported to dozens of countries, such as Japan, China, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Malaysia, etc.

Having become the emblem of Moldovan winemaking, the underground wine-growing city of Cricova has galleries stretching for 70 km, with symbolic street names: Dionysus, Feteasca, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc. The cellars of Cricova are located eleven kilometers from the capital of Moldova, the city of Chisinau, carved out of the natural limestone, at a depth of 35-80 m. 30 million liters of wine are stored in the cellars at a constant temperature of 12-14˚C and humidity 97-98%.

Founded in 1952, the Cricova plant is the largest producer sparkling wines according to traditional Moldavian technology, the maturation of which takes place entirely in underground cellars. Cricova houses the State Vinoteca, a wonderful collection of legendary wines, both local and foreign. The wine collection originates from the collection of Goering wines, including the famous wines of Moselle, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Porto. The oldest wine in the collection and the only one of its kind in the world is the Easter Jerusalem wine, produced in 1902.

The Cricova cellars attract thousands of tourists and famous personalities, politicians, social leaders and famous people from all over the world. At one time, the Cricova cellars were visited by: Yuri Gagarin, Angela Merkel, John Kerry, and others.

The Cricova Cellars are legally declared a national cultural heritage.

Most wine companies have their own cellars built traditional way. Some of these cellars are legends of Moldavian Winemaking:

Purcari – has cellars built at the end of the 19th century, where temperature and humidity are maintained at the required level. The Purcari wine library stores the most successful wines, prices for which start at $100 per bottle. The oldest wine in the collection is from the 1951 vintage. The basements also store oak barrels, in which wine matures, and bottled wine before entering the market.

The cellars in Branesti are carved at a depth of 60 meters in the rocky ridges of the Old Orhei tourist complex. The length of the basements is approximately 58 km.

Chateau Cojusna - has underground galleries in medieval style, with small streets that are filled to the brim with vintage wines, mainly fortified wines, as well as wines in the ripening stage.

Chateau Vartely is a modern complex, which is equipped with a magnificent cellar, built in accordance with local traditions.

According to Moldavian tradition, every owner must build a cellar and store his own wines in it. Moldovans are a patriarchal people, and for them the house is of great value. There are two important elements in a traditional Moldavian house: the Casa Mare, the room where guests are received, and the cellar, where food and wine are stored.

Cellars for simple peasants are traditionally dug at a depth of 5-7 meters, under or next to the house, with 10-15 steps and walls whitewashed with lime.

The largest wine cellars in the world? Probably somewhere in France? In Italy? In Spain? But no, much closer - in Moldova...

Friends have long talked about gigantic wine storage facilities located in Moldova. I thought the guys were exaggerating under the impression of the tastings. But that was not the case! It turns out that in Moldova, near the village of Malye Milesti, there are the largest wine cellars in the world (this is a Guinness record). The length of the Milestii Mici galleries is 200 km, of which about 50 have been developed. 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 used for construction are cut directly from limestone rock. Since stone has been mined since time immemorial, there are many ancient mined adits in the country, including 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 has been discovered that its depths are also capable of serving winemakers. Thanks to limestone, which does not conduct heat, the galleries maintain the same temperature and humidity all year round, optimal for storing wine: +12 C (in summer up to +14 C), and 82-95% relative humidity. Such conditions allow wines to age beautifully. As it turns out, what's good for wines is... not so good for photographers. At first it was almost impossible to shoot - the lens fogged up and, until it got used to the underground humidity, ignored my desperate attempts to correct the situation.

I found myself in a huge underground wine city in the middle of winter, and, frankly, I didn’t expect the excitement at this time of 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 experienced the meaning of the expression “From the spot to the quarry”! Experienced drivers know every meter here, so, not having time to say goodbye to the meager winter light, we rushed at full speed somewhere forward and obviously deeper. Within a few minutes, 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 twisted and led steeply downwards, revealing new signs every few kilometers: Cabernet Street, Aligote Street, Feteasca Street, Chardonnay Street. The street names correspond to the wines stored here. The pride of Milest is the street of the International Organization of Grapes and Wine (L"Organisation 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 depths. Nearby there are huge bottles of Crimean and Krasnodar oak with a volume of up to 2000 dal, each with a hole at the bottom. When a barrel is prepared for filling with wine, the most fragile workers climb inside to clean the vessel by hand. They work in masks and in pairs - the second one insures from the 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 quantity. A full caza holds one and a half thousand bottles.

The 1902 Jerusalem Easter wine (the oldest in the country) is stored in another wine tourism center - the Cricova cellars. They are also amazing in size, but, perhaps, “too mastered.” Behind the pompous halls, big names of guests and owners of the kazakhs, the feeling of a magical place where wine quietly matures, acquiring new qualities every year, is lost. But such a feeling of detachment from the world does not leave Milesti.

The oldest wine in this vault - 1969 - is not for sale. But there are also rarities here that can be purchased by choosing a bottle directly in the gallery. For example, the famous vermouth from 25 herbs “Bouquet of Moldova” from 1973 (costs almost 3 thousand dollars), or wine from a blend of white grape varieties and herbs “Morning Dew” from 1975, which is no longer produced (about 2.5 thousand dollars) . Among the simpler samples is the famous Moldavian wine Negru de Purcari, including the famous 1986 and 1987 vintages.

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 whether such a busy schedule of visiting cellars had a negative impact on the wine. I was assured that neither photo flashes nor conversations would interfere with shutter speed. But they are afraid of earthquakes 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 on the ceiling, with grooves from a stone-cutting machine, iron rods are visible - they support the underground city like a skeleton.

The galleries with lanterns, dusty dark glass bottles, a spirit of calm and nobility seem endless, and you can’t do it without a guide. Led by a girl guide who, although with an accent, speaks Russian fluently and clearly, we approach a blank stone wall. And then the most daring rides at Disneyland come to mind! The wall suddenly begins to rumble and slowly moves away, revealing a small room with kazas. This is a secret room where, during Prohibition, the most valuable samples of the vault were hidden - about 50 thousand bottles.

More than two decades after those difficult events for the wine-producing country, we find wines here 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 come to three wooden barrels in a suspiciously vertical position. Some of the tourists were offered, according to the rules of Moldovan hospitality, to turn the tap and pour wine into their mug. While the unlucky guest was struggling with the fake handle, the middle “barrel” swung open, revealing the entrance to the tasting room. A 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 (he is also placed on banknotes of all denominations of the Moldovan currency called “ lei").

The slightly dumbfounded guests quickly returned to normal and took their seats according to the purchased tickets, or more precisely, according to the purchased tasting program. A group of 15 people began to celebrate someone's birthday, listening to the guide's stories and trying to toast the birthday boy. The young couple was invited to a separate set table. They were served Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (“Codru”). Wines include meat and traditional baked vegetables. It turned out that the guys are readers of WhyWhyWine, and, having arrived from Moscow, they could not help but stop by the Moldovan cellars.

The time has come for relaxation from worries, communication over a glass of good wine. The French from Alsace sat comfortably near small barrels and trays of nuts. They spent their holidays in Romania and almost by chance went to Moldova for the weekend, and, according to them, were pleased. Especially Muscat and Chardonnay. At the next table, a flock of Chinese treated themselves to wine and admired the performance of musicians in national costumes. On the wall I noticed a bas-relief of an ancient story, where the hero for some reason had the face of the Moldovan actor Mihai Volontir, who played in the films “Gypsy” and “The Return of Budulai.”

Despite the numerous foreigners around, the feeling of something that belonged to me never left me. No longer Russia, but not yet Europe. This amazing underground area seems to exist under, or beyond, boundaries.

You remember 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 spirits) alcoholic drinks, if you go by train. Fortunately, restrictions do not apply to alcohol purchased at Duty Free at the Chisinau airport. How can you not bring 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 wine press from the century before last, under glass in the floor there are objects from the rural life of Moldova, and everywhere there is wine from the cellars in orderly rows, waiting for its owners. Sometimes they are not only tourists!

"Milestii Mici" - Moldovan Las Vegas. The only thing you can win here is pleasure, but with instant marriage registration the situation is much simpler! A secretary is called from a nearby village, who legally signs couples for only 100 lei ($10). True, for this you need to be citizens of Moldova. But to get to the underground wine city, you don’t even need a visa - visa-free entry has been established for Russians in the republic.

Cricova wine storage
In Cricova there are the largest wine cellars in the world, where tourists can drive around the streets of a real underground city of winemakers. The total length of underground streets is more than 100 km. One of the largest collections of vintage wines in the country (more than 3 million decalitres) and spacious tasting rooms are stored here. http://cricova.md/ Video films about the object 1 Video, 2 Video
The Cricova plant is rightfully the pearl of Moldovan winemaking. In the famous limestone adits of Cricova, under the careful care of winemakers, excellent Moldovan wines are stored and aged. White ones are thin, graceful and delicate, red ones are unobtrusively tart, aromatic, slightly assertive. And they are all very tasty and very original, which is confirmed by the rain of international prizes and various awards.
Year after year, skilled winemakers replenish the famous Cricova Wine Library, which stores ancient wines from all over the world. They are priceless. Therefore, visiting the Cricova tasting rooms is not only enjoying the unique aura of the Cricova dungeon, but also a real journey into the land of wines.
All Cricova wines can be tasted in the magnificent tasting rooms, which are true works of exquisite architecture. Over the almost half-century of existence of the Cricova Cellars, representatives from more than 100 countries have visited here.
Along the whitewashed walls lie barrels - large, very large and huge. It smells of wine and dampness: here, at a hundred-meter depth, there is always a constant temperature of 12° and constant humidity of 97%. There are signs on the walls with the names of the tunnels: “Cabernet Street”, “Riesling Street”, “Feteaschi Street”. Cars, buses (as in “The Dungeon” directed by Kusturica) and electric trains travel along these wide, illuminated streets. To neutralize exhaust gases, the streets are fumigated with sulfur every Friday. All communications are made of glass pipes - metals oxidize and affect air quality.
They are especially proud of wines from Goering’s trophy collection. These at auctions cost 20-30 thousand dollars per bottle, and even 100 thousand were offered for a particularly rare Jewish Passover wine, but the Cricova custodians did not sell it - prestige is more expensive.
In the Cricova Wine Library you can rent a kazoo - a storage unit for a private collection. This is exactly what LUKOIL shareholders did. Vagit Alikperov has the largest kaza - one thousand bottles. The rest are more modest - only five hundred. Of course, it would be interesting to know what kind of wines they drink at LUKOIL (Brunello di Montalcino Ugolaia 1997? Toscana Solengo 2001?), but there is a thick layer of dust on the bottles, and you can’t touch them with your hands: the dust protects the wine from light, and if it erase, the taste of the wine may change. The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin and the Metropolitan of All Rus' also have their own collections here. And in general, people pay a lot of money to store the wines selected for the collection in Cricova cellars - this gives the wines value and status!
Cricova is the pearl of the republic, a source of national pride and the heart of Moldovan winemaking. The plant was founded in the mid-twentieth century on the outskirts of Chisinau in the Cricova waste adits for the extraction of shell rock. It is located at a depth of about 100 meters and extends over more than 60 km. To protect this priceless treasure, parliamentarians initiated a draft law to give the plant the status of a national treasure. Now Cricova has essentially been taken under the caring wing of the state and will not be given to anyone.
Part of the Cricova treasury, the wine library contains - no more, no less - 465 types of cognacs, wines and liqueurs. The republican collection of wines is stored in the cellars. It consists of 700 thousand bottles of unique drinks. For example, there is the only bottle of Jerusalem wine in the world from 1902. ***The most famous and oldest exhibit of the Cricova collection, kept under a glass bell, is a bottle of red dessert Jerusalem Passover wine, produced in Palestine in 1902, in a small Jewish community. It's not hard to imagine a Jewish family saving this bottle for a special occasion that never came. They tried to buy the famous bottle from Krikov. At one time, the famous American corn magnate Garst gave $100 thousand for it. The bottle is still in Cricova.
***There is another rarity there - the oldest Czech liqueur “Yan Bekher Liqueur” from the same 1902.
***The collection also contains five bottles of Chateau Mouton Rothschild from the 1936 vintage.
In this area, under your feet, there is a gold reserve of Moldova - somewhere here, at a depth of 80-100 meters, there is a storage facility for liquid gold. This is not oil, this is 40 million liters of selected grape wine from the Cricova region. All this is stored at a depth of 80-100 meters in waste stone adits. And if all this stuff is sold, then the money received is approximately one state budget of Moldova.
This steam that comes out of the ground is not volcanoes, which do not exist in Moldova, it is evidence that life is boiling there in the depths. There are 400 kilometers of adits from which sandstone stone was and is still being mined. The whole of Chisinau is built from it. The wine cellars of Cricova occupy 60 kilometers and are not walked on, only driven by cars. They especially love to carry all sorts of important guests who utter exclamations of admiration.
300-liter barrels hold the best wine. There are also much larger barrels. The standard, the European standard, so to speak, is 300-liter oak barrels. Now they are empty, which means that their recent contents have already been bottled and even sent to stores, and now in mid-December the barrels are waiting for a new portion of the potion, a new portion of wine materials. And this wine will be aged in them - sometimes for 3 years, sometimes for 5, sometimes even more.
The barrels here are special - made from the best French oak. They are used for vintage wines and very selected ones, the so-called collection ones. They are also very large - the size of a car tank - they make champagne well. Usually it is done using classical technology, but there is also an accelerated process, invented back in Soviet times. Metal tanks are designed for this type of sparkling wine. They are covered with enamel inside. The temperature in the Cricova cellars is 10-14 degrees all year round, ideal for aging wines. Wine material is stored in barrels for at least a year, this is for ordinary table wines. Vintage v is bigger. Reds, “Dionysus” or “Cabernet” for example, take 3 years and then mature in bottles. But collectible Cabernet is aged in bottles for an additional 3 to 30 years.
In the past year, 84 percent of all wine from Cricova was sent to Russia, including a sea of ​​champagne. This is generally a special conversation - champagne. In our country, semi-sweet is traditionally preferred. They also produce this here, but they are more proud of their brut. It is aged in bottles for 3 years, and all this time they work on the champagne. If in France this is done by men, then in Moldova it is entrusted to women. They regularly rotate each bottle 45 degrees so that the sediment is distributed more evenly. One worker turns 40 thousand bottles a day. The workload is very high, and they don’t just hire people from the street for this job—training is necessary first. They train on a bucket of sand. When the champagne is finally ripe, the neck is frozen and the temporary cork is removed, the sediment is removed, a permanent cork is installed and a label is glued. Can be sold. Or give.
People in Cricova know how and love to give. Neither astronauts nor politicians avoided these places. The program of visits of heads of state to Moldova traditionally includes visits to wine cellars. First, everyone is led along the corridors with barrels and bottles, told about the peculiarities of local winemaking, and then, when they can no longer stand it, salivation is vigorously released, the most interesting thing comes. In fact, it’s not even the guests themselves who are waiting for this interesting thing, but their retinue. Tasting. Therefore, everyone tries to get into the retinue. According to local workers, they counted 68 cars in the Russian Prime Minister's motorcade. Guests are offered a modest appetizer; especially important persons are given delicacies from the presidential kitchen in advance. But the most important thing is a bottle of branded champagne, the main gift. It holds 6 liters and is certainly equipped with a label with a photo. The guests are very happy.
Now it’s clear what kind of champagne will be on festive table Russian and foreign politicians. Here behind bars there are reserves of liquid gold in a form convenient for consumption, v 0.75 each. There are things that are completely unique. With such liquidity reserves, the country is not afraid of financial crises. A year's stay here increases the cost of one bottle of wine by 30 percent. In total, the collection includes 1.2 million wines from 160 brands. It contains both simply old European wines from famous French, Italian, and Spanish wineries, and completely unique rarities with an extraordinary history of origin. The management of the plant proudly declares that it is not difficult to obtain almost any loan from the IMF or any other reputable financial organization for the wines stored with them, because this liquid wealth can be a collateral no worse than gold.
One of the three underground wine storage facilities in the world protected by UNESCO, as well as the only producer in Moldova of sparkling wines prepared using the classic “Champenoise” method, “Cricova” is a unique enterprise with unprecedented capabilities.
It is known that every second bottle of wine produced in the former Soviet Union was produced in Moldova, or according to Moldovan recipes and traditions. In addition, before the First World War, Moldova was the most powerful wine producer of the Russian Empire. About a century ago, materials for the preparation of sparkling wines were imported from Moldova to many countries, including France.
“Cricova” specialists, keeping in mind the history and traditions of Moldovan winemaking, create only those wines that are worthy of your attention. Here you can also buy “Cricova” wines as a souvenir.
The tasting package “On the Road” includes: an excursion, tasting of white and red wine from the “PRESTIGE” series, an appetizer to accompany the wine. The trip through the cellars is carried out by electric train (capacity 20 seats).
The enterprise was initially conceived for the production of sparkling and vintage wines, but later the plant began to produce a much wider range - in addition to sparkling wines, it produces ordinary and vintage wines. grape wines.
Today, the Cricova plant produces many types of high-quality red and white wines produced using original technologies, including 15 brands of champagne and sparkling wines. The Cricova Factory is the only enterprise in the Republic that produces champagne using the French classic method of bottle fermentation with aging for up to three years.
"Goering Collection"
The basis of the “European collection” of the famous wine library was the so-called “Goering collection”. The diaries of the chief architect and intendant of the Reich, Albert Speer, contain memories of a summer evening he spent at Goering's house, where they tasted the best harvests of Chateau Lafite. Goering was a fan of Bordeaux, but in addition to them, elite Mosel, Rhine, Burgundy, Portuguese ports and other wines dating from the first half of the 20th century, a total of 10 thousand bottles, were found in his cellar. Goering's wine collection was exported to the USSR after the war and ended up in Cricova..
Celebrity guests
During the Soviet era, the wine library was shown only to big bosses and selected celebrities; mere mortals were not allowed to enter here. Politicians, party bosses, pop stars and leaders of international organizations were received here. Zian ZeMin, Chirac, Kwasniewski, Iliescu, Brezhnev, Gorbachev - all visited here. In Soviet times, they liked to shoot documentaries here about the presentation of some imperial or magnum to the next leader of a country friendly to the Union. About Yuri Gagarin's visit in 1966:
Visit the second largest, after Small Milesti, storage facility - Cricova - we continue the series of notes about the most significant wine collections in the world. – Just don’t get lost in its labyrinths! As it happened with Yuri Gagarin, who was rescued from underground galleries back in 1966 only a day later. “It was easier for me to tear myself away from the Earth than to leave the Cricova dungeon,” said, according to the curators of the famous wine library, the first cosmonaut of the planet.
Vladimir Putin celebrated his 50th birthday here in 2002. (Leaders of states generally like to visit such places. And in such places they like to receive leaders of states - after the GDP visited Chateau Cheval Blanc in 2005, prices for farm products went through the roof. The media has not yet reported on the rise in prices for Cricov’s products, but the fact that this wine is popular among the people is a fact. And besides, it is successfully supplied to almost all countries of the world.)

10 out of 10 tours around Moldova 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 has compiled a guide to the main wine galleries that are worth taking your foreign friends to, and where it would be nice to go yourself.

Cricova

Cricova Cellars is the first thing many tour operators suggest when they mention 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 a wine tasting, a snack menu and signature souvenirs.

Where: Cricova

Price: 250-1300 lei/person. or 350-1450 lei/person, depending on the package and the inclusion of a souvenir. 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.

Mileştii mici

The largest number of enotours can be found at the Mileştii mici plant, 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 tour of the wine storage, tasting, snacks (including vegetarian ) and a souvenir bottle of wine. The tour is carried out on the client's transport (one seat for the guide is required in the car), 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 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 a visit to the industrial part of the plant (workshops, bottling line), the historical part (cellar), inspection of the wine collection, tasting and souvenir. Transfer Chisinau-Purcari is paid additionally, as are translation services if the excursion is not in Russian or Romanian.

Where: With. Purcari, district Stefan Voda

Price: 7-39 euros/person, depending on the program and 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 the entertainment area. Excursions with wine tasting 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 tasting local wines, you can also order a tasting of wines from world producers - to compare, so to speak.

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. An excursion without tasting can cost the whole group from 100 to 350 lei, depending on its occupancy.

Duration: 1-2 hours

Cojuşna

The excursion is standard: a tour of wine cellars and a visit to two tasting rooms. The cellars themselves are not particularly large, but it’s 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

The Branesti cellars are located underground at a depth of 60 m, cover an area of ​​75 hectares and have a total length of 58 km. In addition to visiting the wine cellar, the tours include a visit to two tasting rooms, one of which is located directly underground.

Where: c. Branesti

Price: On weekdays, an excursion will cost you 10-12 euros/person, an excursion 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