Basic HTML Version
ine has
been produced in Russia
since the time of the ancient
Greeks, as it was with most
of its Baltic neighbors such
as Georgia, Slovenia, and
Romania. Most of the northern
sections of the country are just too
dang cold and bleak to produce
wine, but farther south conditions are
much more favorable, near the Azov,
Black, and Caspian Seas. It was not until
the 1800s that Russia began to produce wine
commercially. The most famous venture was the
sparkling wine out of Crimea by Prince Lev Sergeyevich Golitsyn
at Novyi Svet winery, which won the gold medal at the 1889
Paris Expedition. With the success of “The People’s Cham-
pagne,” Golitsyn continued to study French viticulture methods
to plant vineyards with European varietals along the Black Sea
coast. Novyi Svet still exists as one of Russia’s most famous com-
mercial wineries.
In
present day, there
is over 80,000
hectares of wine
country. One
of the best wine
producing regions
in Russia is Kras-
nodar. Unlike Northern
Russia, they typically have
over 200 frost-free days a
year, which allows for ample
growth and ripening. Wine vacations
are always a great time. How about doing
something really unique and flying over to Russian
wine country? Every year Krasnodar hosts an exhibition where
more than 200 wineries show off their creations. In addition,
they will have a Southern Russian wine tasting competition
where you can evaluate the local wines.
However, Russian wines had many things against them into the
20th century: Phylloxera, the exodus of French winemakers dur-
ing the Revolution, and heavy government restrictions. Winemak-
ers who wished to avoid control over labeling and pricing
would send their half-
W