Day 12 - Chisinau Milestii Mici
Trip Start
Apr 28, 2008
1
16
36
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Chisinau,
Chisinau,
Moldova
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Moldova has been ready to amaze our GSE Team and Milestii Mici Winery is one such place. Ion, drive us in the morning to this winery:
Milestii Mici is first of all a village in the Republic of Moldova of over 9000 inhabitants, situated at 18 km from Chisinau. Since ages, the locals extracted white stone from underneath the village, several hundreds of kilometers of the underground extraction site exist at the moment, a part of which are used as cellars for stocking the Milestii Mici wines.
Same modesty: Ion's house was not really "small", Milestii Mici is not just a "winery": we soon discover an underground wine city/
There are two major reasons that amazed us here
Milestii Mici
. 1- It is the largest underground wine city
and also
2- a place with the biggest collection of wine in the world.
Milestii Mici Winery was established in 1969. The reason behind making such a huge wine city was to store and season high quality wines. The place is also wonderfully decorated and has a scenic beauty of its own. There are wine cellars in the galleries which are made of lime stone inside this Milestii Mici Winery. These galleries are forty meters to eighty-five meters deep.
The total length of the galleries is an astonishing two hundred kilometers and a little more than fifty kilometers of the gallery is built specially to store high quality wines. There is a constant temperature inside this wine city which is carefully maintained by the authorities. It is +12°C to + 14°C and the humidity level is maintained between 85% to 95%.
Milestii Mici in August, 2005, was registered in the Guinness World Records for being the biggest Wine Collection in the world
Milestii Mici
. The collection comprises 1.5 million bottles.See Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0unBLfmjdGQ
The most valuable items of this collection, worth €480 a bottle, were produced in 1973-74; they are now exported only to Japan.
The wines stored here are made from crops of various years, beginning with 1969: "Pinot", "Traminer", "Muscat", "Riesling", "Feteasca", "Dnestrovscoie", "Milestscoie", "Codru", "Negru de Purcari", "Trandafirul Moldovei", "Auriu", "Cahor-Ciumai", and others. All these wines are made according to the old Moldavian traditions; you can feel the sunshine and the power of the earth in every drop of it.
The tour included an unique lunch with live music and wine tasting session with a sample five different wines. As a present Ian even gave us a couple of bottles to take home.
It's not just about quantity, either
Milestii Mici
. The winery is also proud of its quality.As we sipped several vintages of whites, reds and sparkling wine, Lily, our tour guide, told us of the numerous international medals Milestii Mici has won in various competitions. The winery's reputation is so good, she said, England's Queen Elizabeth and the royal family consume its red wine.
Winemaking is not only a cornerstone of the Moldovan economy, but an integral part of its culture. Many Moldovans make their own wine at home and in some rural villages, a person's reputation is tied to the quality of their wine.
Our day followed with a visit The Capriana Monastery
The Capriana Monastery is situated at the margin of a big forest between the villages Strasheni and Capriana on the river Ishnovatz not far from Chisinau. It was founded in the XVth century during the rule of Alexandru cel Bun and reconstructed by Stefan the Great in 1470.
After reconstruction in 1820 by Metropolit G. Banulescu-Bodoni it kept unchanged only the decorative apses with arcature and the walls down to the socle level
A wine street
. During the post-war period The Assumption Monastery was neglected and the restoration was started in the 90's of our century. The Metropolitan of Moldova G. Banulescu-Bodoni was buried here.
It has been a long Day, but the flexible program turned into a neverending series of pleasant surprises:
A middle afternoon BBQ with all our hosts has been organized a Ian's house.
Pictures will describe it better than words.
Marco
Comments
Ian Fraser.
An underground wine city....now you're talking.
Poor Mike having to participate in the 'compulsory' wine tasting. Next time you are going back there, I'm coming with you.
Best, Ian.